Next Meeting:

Tuesday, November 22
Atlantis Coffee at Vic and Hamilton (Back room)
Starting at 7 pm

Bring your cycling ideas and a friend!

Not everyone is thrilled by the idea of biking in Regina once Winter arrives. I don’t do it myself, but I know several people who do. If you’re considering giving it a try, there are some equipment considerations to know before you give it a whirl. Here are a few suggestions.

There’s a little known section of Regina’s bylaws which outline how much bicycle parking must be included in certain building situations. It’s especially important to have good bike parking at grocery stores, since people who use bicycles as their primary vehicle tend to also carry groceries using their bikes. When I was cycling regularly to work, I certainly went to the grocery store on my way home from work a couple times a week.

Martin at Regina Urban Ecology has discussed more on this topic, so please head over to the RUE blog for more details. Maybe you can point out to a business you frequent if you’re happy or not with their bicycle parking situation.

Like Rachel, I also recently visited Montreal and tested out the BIXI system. I have to agree with her -it’s definitely a safe and fun way to travel around downtown! I noticed a few things that make BIXI a success: the safe cycling network, connections with public transit, safety features and lots of docking stations (with lots of bikes!).

First, like Rachel mentioned, the cycling network includes two-way separated bike lanes on many of the downtown roads. Bike lanes are physically separated from car lanes with the raised median along them. With minimal contact with cars, cycling becomes a lot safer. The routes also lead to popular destinations which encourages cycling as a form of transportation to school, work, errands, and other activities.

Another great feature is that the system encourages connections with public transit. This makes it easy for cyclists to bike to a metro station (subway), take the metro and bike from that station to the final destination. Cyclists who live far from a metro station and has a BIXI station nearby would benefit most from this. Which leads to the benefit of having many stations. In Montreal, there are over 5000 BIXI bikes dispersed across over 400 BIXI stations. Picking up and dropping off bikes become very convenient for cyclists.

Plus, once you pick up a bike, you have a built in flashing front and back lights, bell, semi-basket for bags/purse, and a skirt protector on the back wheel perfect for summer dresses. Very cool. The only thing is – no helmets. Like Saskatchewan, helmets are not required for adults in Quebec. However, if you stick to the segregated bike lanes, it’s a lot safer than cycling right beside car traffic.

As a pedestrian and cyclists in Montreal, I noticed that cars will always look first at the bike lanes before turning, which is wonderful. BIXI is doing a great job raising the awarenss of bicycle commuters in the city. If Regina can make changes to encourage for cyclists on the streets to reach a critical mass, drivers would have no choice but to learn to safely share the road with cyclists!

For those of you interested in BIXI, Toronto and Ottawa also launched their version of BIXI this year. Montreal launched their public bike system in 2009. Here is a link to a review of BIXI Toronto and BIXI Ottawa.

Sorry for the hiatus from the blog.  I blame it on vacation brain…

I recently spent some time in Montreal and was blown away by how vibrant of a biking culture they have there.

First of all, the Bixi system is incredible.  For those of you who have neverhaven’t heard of Bixi bikes, it is a public bike system. Basically, everywhere throughout Montreal you can find Bixi stations of high quality bikes.  For the low rate of $5 per day (or around $75 for the year) you can rent the bike to ride around the city.  The only catch is that you must “check in” the Bixi bike at a station every hour, otherwise you will be charged a small $1 or $2 fee.  Bixi bikes are widely used amongst Montrealers.  And although the Bixi bike corp has come under some heat lately about having a deficit, it still remains a great asset to city and certainly encourages the biking culture.

Another thing that encourages a biking culture – separate bike lines.  That’s right, you heard me.  SEPARATE BIKE LANES!  On some of Montreal’s main streets throughout the city, they have separate bike lines for bikers to be able to bike worry-free of the traffic. It’s quite amazing. 

All-in-all, I think the city got it right because bikers were everywhere!  It felt great to be in an environment where there were more two-wheelers than four-wheelers in the streets.

Next task, figure out a way to get Regina to build a few separate bike lanes