Column: Traffic laws need to catch up

My latest column:

Not only are our roads designed for cars, our traffic laws are written for cars, and bikes are more like a fleeting afterthought.

Cyclists have the same rights and responsibilities as drivers, but this principle ignores some big differences that are not reflected in traditional road design, nor in the B.C. Motor Vehicle Act.

Read more...

Photos Art Studio Bike Tour

The one and only person that had registered for today's Art Studio Bike Tour had canceled yesterday, so I had no idea how many people to expect when we rode to our starting point, the Bandstand in Memorial Peace Park, this morning. But what a wonderful day it turned out to be! I got some help with promoting the ride from Colleen of the Let's Go Biking blog, and we had two people show up from Vancouver and two from White Rock for our ride. In total we had 13 people...a nice group!

Do check out Colleen's blog. You'll find lots of great ideas and tips for rides in the Metro Vancouver area and beyond.

Here are some photos of today's Art Studio Bike Tour:

Just the right size group for our bike tour!

Win Seaton's studio was hidden in a garage in a back alley

Kerry McLaren's studio is any artist's dream. She shares it with  Donnae Bell.
Both create beautiful clay art.

At Creations by Sisters we saw beautiful pottery by Diane Wooldridge
and gorgeous jewelry by Barb  Barringer

We were not the only people arriving at Osprey Village by bike.
Stomping Grounds is the perfect spot for a gourmet coffee.

Artist in Residence Rebecca Fisher showed us her age-old techniques for dying fabrics.
Every piece she creates is truly unique.

Kristin Krimmel is an amazingly versatile artist
with many years of experience and lots of art work to show for it.

Kat Wahamaa is another Artist in Residence, with many amazing talents.
Kat's Finnish and played her guitar for us and sang us a lovely finnish song.
This is Kat beside one of her favorite paintings. It was inspired by a tree. 

Last but not least we visited Alexandra Lanzarotta's studio.
She makes the most amazing jewelry, and I also liked husband Ron's wrist bands made of kangaroo leather.

You can find maps and lists of the artists with links to their websites  in an earlier blog post.

Youth Vision Film Festival: cycling part of the solution to a better world!

The theme for yesterday's Youth Vision Film Festival, organized by Cinema Politica Ridge Meadows, was "Working Together - A Better World is Possible". Out of four excellent entries, one participant, Elina Blomley, had chosen "cycling" as the way to a better world.

I loved all four entries. Two had chosen to tackle homelessness, which was very timely, as this issue has been front and center in the news lately. First prize winner Eva Cowley's documentary featured some great interviews explaining the homelessness issue. The fourth one was about acts of kindness. I don't have links to all four entries, but I do have the one for Elina's documentary, and it's well worth a watch.

Our HUB committee and HUB Headquarters hope to work with Elina to produce more cycling clips in the future!

Update May 13: Here's the link to the winning documentary by Eva.

Bike to Work Week May 25 - 31

Bike to Work Week in Metro Vancouver is only a few weeks away. Do you want to be part of it? This is how it works.

Make sure you register and log your trips. Every day you'll have a chance to win a brand new bike!