Vueweekly.com: Local Cyclists Gear up for Bicycle Month - Edmonton’s festival of ‘velo-love’ will set you free on the streets

All around the world, cyclists unite in June. In Edmonton, it’s no different—except we tend to keep our clothes on. Across Europe and South America, in Australia, Japan, Mexico, the US and some Canadian cities—including Vancouver, Montréal and Toronto—cyclists celebrate the warm weather and their love of cycling by participating in World Naked Bike Ride (worldnakedbikeride.org).

The nude cycling movement originated with spontaneous instances of cyclists streaking at parades and Critical Mass events (more on Critical Mass later), but soon took root as an organized, worldwide demonstration promoting the bicycle as a healthier, non-polluting form of transportation. Although Edmonton doesn’t yet have its own WNBR event, we do have Bike Month and the Bikeology festival, a whole month of events with a similar intent—to promote the bicycle. So, despite our reluctance to go buck, Karly Coleman of the Edmonton Bicycle Commuters says there’s plenty of “velo-love” in our city.

Edmonton’s biking community is a diaspora of green-minded utilitarian commuters, aggressive freeriders, road racers and the bike courier subculture. Occasionally there’s some crossover between these groups, but it’s always been a network of loose affiliations.

“There’s never really been an umbrella organization to bring cyclists together,” says Coleman. “That’s what Bike Month is trying to do. We’re saying: ‘we all use bikes, whether for racing, touring, commuting or work, so let’s celebrate that.’”This year marks the sixth annual Bikeology and the third annual Bike Month, and “each year it continues to get bigger and better,” says Coleman. Last year, total attendance over the month was estimated at 1400 to 1600 people.

Coleman, who sits on the EBC board, is coordinating this year’s festival. Throughout the month, she and a team of over 70 volunteers will be hosting bike-to-work breakfasts, “bike salon” seminars, a commuter race, a 24-hour bike-repair-athon, a ride-in movie and picnic mini-fest, and more. (For details on all the events, go to bikeology.ca.) It has even been rumoured there might be a midnight ride following the ride-in movie.

“I’ve heard those rumours,” Coleman demurs, then adds, “I’ve heard rumours of a spontaneous game of bike polo, too. We’ll see what happens.” The important thing, she stresses, is just to encourage bike use. “Cycling has become more important in people’s lives, and you can see it with the number of people who are cycling, whether it’s because of the cost of gas, their health or financial reasons.”

Inspiring Edmontonians to get on their bikes has been a labour of love for Claire Stock, a transportation engineer with the City’s Sustainable Transportation Branch. For the past six years, she’s also been the familiar voice who delivers the bike traffic report on CJSR’s Wednesday morning radio program Clockwork Orange Juice.

Originally from Australia, Stock arrived in Canada with her bicycle in tow after cycle-touring Europe and Asia. She first landed in Montréal in 1999, working there as a bike courier before heading West. When she got here, the City of Edmonton was hiring transportation engineers to develop strategies for “active transportation.” She applied, got her “dream” job and has lived here ever since, “much to my mother’s chagrin,” she laughs.

And while she now has six bikes, she still uses the one that she brought here from Australia, via Europe and Asia. “It’s pretty beat-up but I like it because I’ve put stickers on it from everywhere I’ve travelled and when I look at it, it reminds me that it’s come a long way.”

So has Edmonton’s bike policy, Stock says, which, along with the River Valley trails, is one of the reasons she likes biking here. “In the national scheme, Edmonton is quite progressive. The city has had bike policy formally since the 1990s, but really going back to the ’70s,” Stock says.

Stock and her colleague Claire Ellick are the ones responsible for refining municipal bike policy and keeping it current. They are presently conducting an update to the city’s Bike Transportation Plan, with an open house for the public planned on Jun 19, to coincide with Bike Month events. (For more on the BTP update, see sidebar.)

Two of the most vocal advocates for biking in Edmonton, EBC and People’s Pedal, were among the participants in focus group sessions the municipal government conducted earlier this spring to get input for the BTP update. Between these two organizations, Edmontonians can find all the resources they need to get started on a bike or increase their biking activity.

In addition to coordinating Bikeology, EBC is Edmonton’s largest non-profit bicycle organization. Formed in 1980, the group promotes bike use in Edmonton as a healthy, ecologically sound mode of travel. EBC operates a bike repair shop, Bike Works, and provides general support to the biking community through advocacy and bike education courses.

For those who don’t own a bike, People’s Pedal offers a cheap alternative. For a $25 annual membership fee, the bike-share cooperative provides bikes at eight centrally located “hubs” at downtown LRT stations and along Whyte Avenue. The hubs are red bike racks with a People’s Pedal logo in the media banner. A couple bikes are locked at each hub. Members get a code to unlock the bikes, and can use them for up to four hours at a time. When they’re done, they simply return the bike to the nearest hub.

During bike month, People’s Pedal and Edmonton Transit are hosting a commuter challenge from June 4 - 8, where they will be providing bikes to commuters at bus and transit locations to help them get further without needing a car.

Next to Bikeology, Critical Mass is one of those few crossover events where cyclists of all backgrounds—as well as other types of self-propelled commuters—can gather and enjoy a leisurely ride through the city. Like the World Naked Bike Ride, Critical Mass is a worldwide phenomenon, but unlike WNBR this one does take place in Edmonton. On the last Friday of every month just after 5 pm, cyclists begin to congregate loosely in front of City Hall. Fixies, single speeds and flashy touring bikes mingle with stylish cruisers, squeaky old rattlers and chunky full-suspension frames.

Although the motives and the approaches vary from city to city—EBC board member Adam Millie describes it as “more of a disorganization than an organization”—one of the generally stated aims of the event is to promote cycling and non-polluting transportation. Depending on where it takes place, this usually involves participants taking over at least one lane of traffic and sometimes whole streets.

The momentum of a Mass sweeps riders along in its easy flow. Like Bikeology events, it’s geared to remind Edmontonians of a simpler, more organic way to travel. On Jun 29, the Mass will unofficially cap Bike Month events, but at the same time many riders will be hoisting mocktails on the High Level Bridge in a toast to the spoke and wheel. As Coleman emphasizes, it’s not about how you participate, but just getting out there that’s important.

“As our world evolves and we come to realize our reliance on oil and the automobile, and we consider what we need to do to change that, transportation is becoming a bigger and bigger issue,” says Coleman. “Anything that brings you closer to your place in the world is important—and a bicycle will do that.”