| We're ramping up our advocacy efforts, we've got a number of events planned, and we're helping out at festivals around town! |
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Perhaps the Tour de France is not always your style, but you like riding your bike for very short distances. And then stopping to eat and drink. Celebrate the Alberta Heritage weekend by joining us for an International Grocery Tour on Sunday, August 5. We'll start at 10am and explore the best gems of Little Italy and Chinatown, stop for a Salvadorian lunch, and then make our way north for some South American and African groceries, before heading to the Middle East for fresh-baked za'atar manakish (the photo above is a factory we visited a few years ago) and sweet baklava. The ride is free, and you don't have to buy anything. For those still hungry at the end, we'll finish by cooking up some of our groceries and having a dinner! E-mail in...@edmontonbikes.ca to register. |
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If you want to start learning about working on your own bike but aren’t sure where to start, register today for our Get to Know Your Bicycle: An Introduction to Bike Maintenance course on July 30 by e-mailing cou...@edmontonbikes.ca. Learn how to fix a flat tire at home or on the street, keep your brakes working flawlessly and your shifting smooth. Bring your own bicycle so you can learn specific techniques that work on your components, or learn on one of the many EBC yard bikes. Read more » |
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Casino
Thanks to everyone that offered to volunteer for our casino event last week. We really appreciate your efforts, and it will make a huge difference to our funding. We'll let you know the final numbers when they're released, but you can trust that your time was well-spent.
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Volunteer Appreciation Events
As a small thanks to our many volunteers, we're organizing two events (a daytime and an evening event) to celebrate everyone's contributions. If you've been volunteering with us, please e-mail Justin ( jus...@edmontonbikes.ca) with your idea of a grand time (barbecue and bocce ball? soccer and smoothies? art gallery excursion and dance party?), and a weekend date in August that works for you. Meet your fellow volunteers and just relax while we do all the work! |
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Board of Directors Nominations
We're currently still formalizing the nomination process for our 2012 elections, but if you already have someone in mind (including yourself) that you feel would be a good leader for EBC, send an e-mail to a...@edmontonbikes.ca and we'll be sure to contact you about nomination procedures. |
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What's New
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Lessons from Velo-City 2012
Join us on Tuesday, August 14, at 7pm at BikeWorks North (9305 111 Ave) for a presentation about cycling infrastructure and advocacy, featuring the lessons learned from my recent trip to the Velo-City 2012 conference in Vancouver. There was a lot to see and hear at the world’s premier international cycling planning conference, led by the European Cyclists' Federation.
One of the big takeaways was this: in cities throughout Canada, the United States, Australia, and the world, at all stages of bike infrastructure (from almost nothing in American cities to European cities with established cycle paths), there has been a move away from painted bike lanes as ineffective, instead favouring separated cycle tracks (like in Ottawa, Montreal, New York City, and Vancouver), for arterials, and bike boulevards and neighbourhood greenways for lower-traffic roads.
It's what's needed to make the 60% of "interested, but concerned" potential cyclists feel safe enough to ride on the road. Would you be comfortable with a child or a grandmother riding down Edmonton's streets? If not, then are we only building bike lanes for people who will ride anyway?
You'll note that those first three cities I mentioned get significant amounts of snowfall, with Ottawa and Montreal both receiving nearly twice the amount of snow as Edmonton. Investing in active transportation in a city with snow is not only possible and worthwhile, it's essential for the vibrancy and livability of the city. |
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Annual General Meeting
Save the date! Our AGM will be on Sunday, September 30, 2012, from 1pm-4pm. Location and details will be released at a later date, but plan to come to hear highlights from our annual report, vote on bylaws and budget, and elect your next Board of Directors.
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Diversions
I saw one of the actors from the IFC show Portlandia attending the Velo-City 2012 conference (as a serious delegate: not this guy). I guess I shouldn't have been surprised.
Here's a cheeky song for you, featuring Kevin Johansen riding a bicycle, with a Canadian connection in his basket: Keven Johansen - Logo. |
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Advocacy
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Updates to Cycle Edmonton bike map
Which comes first: good infrastructure or the map of the infrastructure?
This is less of a dilemma than the chicken or the egg question. The answer is clear: we need better cycling infrastructure in Edmonton, and all the maps in the world won't help unless there's physical infrastructure to take you where you need to go. (And if done right, you'd hardly need a map.)
That said, you may have noticed that the most recent design of the printed Cycle Edmonton map makes it challenging to find a route using Edmonton's existing infrastructure, such as it is: there are almost no street labels (as if a cyclist never wants to go anywhere except to another bike path), markings showing cul de sac cut-throughs are removed (so if you're riding around in the later developments, you wouldn't know the cyclist and pedestrian-friendly shortcuts), and the lines have been cleaned up to the point where I can hardly see them.
You may have other thoughts on the design. Maybe you'd like to know about outdoor water fountains, or have colour-intensities that show traffic volumes, or other features.
The City of Edmonton is currently collecting feedback to improve the City’s online and printed cycling maps. Your feedback will be used to help improve the maps.
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Neighbourhood Greenways
A bike route is planned for 121 Ave, from Montrose to Abbottsfield, passing through Newton and Beacon Heights. The Newton Community League is advocating for a neighbourhood greenway.
What's a neighbourhood greenway? Vancouver has them. Seattle has them. Portland is turning its bike boulevards into greenways.
Neighborhood Greenways are residential streets, generally roughly parallel to main arterials, with low volumes of auto traffic and low speeds, where people who walk and ride bicycles are given priority. They're designed so that anyone from 8 to 80 years old (or, really, any age) can feel comfortable using their streets. Speed limits of 30 km/hr are the norm, and various traffic calming and diversion measures are utilized, while generally still allowing local access (including on-street parking).
This is not about bicycles: it's about humans. Human-scale, liveable communities, where health, community resiliency, safety and security are all improved to give a better quality of life.
The photo above of 121 Ave is an example of one potential feature of a neighbourhood greenway: traffic islands that calm traffic, without the use of stop signs. In Vancouver, these islands double as community garden plots.
If you're in one of the communities along 121 Ave, and you're interested in learning more about the potential for Edmonton's first neighbourhood greenway, you should attend one of the upcoming community meetings. There is a community traffic meeting on July 31, at 7pm at the Newton Community Hall (5520 121 Ave), and the Newton Revitalization Meeting is on August 21 at 7pm. EBC will be present at both to give a short presentation and answer any questions. You can also contact us any time at in...@edmontonbikes.ca. |
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LRT Bike Parking as Public Art
Good news to report. EBC Vice President Duncan Kinney has been championing the idea of bike racks as public art on the proposed Southeast to West LRT line. On July 24, he met with Transportation General Manager Bob Boutilier, the executive director of the Edmonton Arts Council and the Mayor's chief of staff. They are excited about the project and will push it forward. The timing is ideal (the project is in the design stage) and by the end of the meeting, they were tossing around ideas on how to get a test case at the NAIT stop on the northern LRT line. Additionally, the commissions will go to local artists.
Look out for exciting new racks, and congrats to our Advocacy Committee on moving this forward!
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Tooker Gomberg
Tooker Gomberg was a politician and environmental activist, and former Edmonton city councillor. Endorsed by Jane Jacobs, he came in second to Mel Lastman in Toronto's 2000 mayoral election. He was also an important leader of the Edmonton Bicycle Commuters' Society in its early years: Tooker helped start BikeWorks, now one of the oldest community bicycle workshops in North America (the oldest, to the best of our knowledge). Influential, controversial, and dedicated beyond question, Tooker took his own life 8 years ago.
CBC recently aired a documentary about Tooker and the depression he suffered from, speaking in length to his partner, Angela Bischoff, herself a valuable member of Edmonton's cycling community. You can listen to it online. |
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Services
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28-Hour Repair-a-thon
Supposing you're enjoying yourself at the 2012 Edmonton International Fringe Festival, but when your show finishes, you find that your tire is flat! No worries. From 4pm-7pm on Friday, August 17 and again on August 24, we'll be doing minor tune-ups by donation at the Fringe. And starting at 1pm on August 25 through till 5pm, August 26, we'll be hosting our 28-Hour Repair-a-thon at BikeWorks North (9305 111 Ave). You can come any time and find entertainment, snacks, and volunteer bike mechanics to help you fix your bike, or finish that project that you've been meaning to take care of for months.
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Volunteers needed for festivals
Summer's still swinging, and we need event volunteers! Please e-mail in...@edmontonbikes.ca if you can volunteer at any of these events, or if you'd like more details. For mechanic positions, we'll only be doing very minor tune-ups (flat repair, minor brake/shifting adjustment, and safety checks), so you only need a moderate skill level. For the bike lock-up, no mechanical skills are needed at all!
Lunch is provided.
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August 4, 11:30am - 3pm. Mechanic.
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August 4, 2:30pm - 4:15pm. Mechanic.
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August 5, 11:45am - 3pm. Mechanic.
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August 5, 2:30pm - 4:15pm. Mechanic.
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August 6, 11:45am - 3pm. Mechanic.
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August 6, 2:30pm - 4:30pm. Mechanic.
We're still pursuing perks for volunteers, but the Fringe is always fun regardless!
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August 17, 3:45pm - 7:15pm. Mechanic.
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August 24, 3:45pm - 7:15pm. Mechanic.
Volunteers get a free ticket to one of the other performances of your choice.
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August 31, 6pm - 9pm. Bike lock-up attendent.
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September 1, 1pm - 4pm. Bike lock-up attendent.
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September 1, 6pm - 9pm. Bike lock-up attendent.
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September 2, 1pm - 4pm. Bike lock-up attendent.
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September 2, 6pm - 9pm. Bike lock-up attendent.
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September 3, 1pm - 4pm. Bike lock-up attendent. Watch out for the cannons.
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Oh the weather outside
This summer has been the archetypical Edmonton summer: hot hot hot, followed by thunderous storms. I love it (now that I fixed the grading on my lot), but it can make staying dry tricky. A fantastic tool is Environment Canada's online weather radar. Updated every 10 minutes, you can check the progress of precipitation in real-time. If you press the "Play" button, you can even estimate the speed and size of the storm, helping you decide "should I leave work 10 minutes early, or wait 10 minutes longer for the worst of it to pass?" It's not perfect information, but it's pretty good! And Edmonton's storms tend to progress with surprising regularity. Thankfully, this means you don't need a background in meteorology to make good use of the radar.
You can view the real-time radar on Environment Canada's website. Note that Edmonton is 40km to the east of the centre of the map (the radar station is based in Carvel). |
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Events
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International Grocery Tour
Date: Sun, Aug 5
Time: 10am-3pm
Location: Various
E-mail in...@edmontonbikes.ca to register
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28-Hour Repair-a-thon
Date: Aug 25-26
Time: Sat 1pm-Sun 5pm
Location: BikeWorks North
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Annual General Meeting
Date: Sun, Sep 30
Time: 1pm-4pm
Location: Parkallen Hall (tentative)
More details to come.
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Copyright © 2012 Edmonton Bicycle Commuters' Society, All rights reserved.
You are receiving this email because you signed up on our website or in your membership application.
Our mailing address is:
Edmonton Bicycle Commuters' SocietyPO Box 1819 Edmonton, AB T5J 2P2 Canada
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