Bikes are for everyone... not just cyclists

A few times a year I have the opportunity to bike in Vancouver. Thanks to the many improvements in recent years that have made getting around on a bike safer and more fun, Vancouver is really on the forefront of the growing popularity in Metro Vancouver of the bicycle as a way to get around. But when I'm pedaling around downtown Vancouver, with one "cyclist" after the other passing me in a hurry on his way to or from work, I kind of feel like a different species sometimes, being on an upright bike and taking my time to enjoy my ride. Granted, when I bike in Vancouver I'm not on my way to work. But when I lived in the Netherlands and biked to work, I also had an upright bike and didn't go particularly fast. Not fast enough to break into a sweat, unless I was late for work. It was just unheard of in the Netherlands - at least in those days - to take a shower once you got to work. I suspect not much has changed in that respect.

In the Netherlands, I never felt like I was a "cyclist" - I just happened to use my bike to go wherever I needed to go. Here in Canada, I'm a cyclist. Don't ask me why.

Actually, here's a great article from the Post Carbon Institute's Energy Bulletin that explains quite well why you don't have to be a "cyclist" to ride a bike.

Montreal: about velorution, gardening and community

Bixi bikes and gardening are helping to create "community" in Montreal, according to this article in the Energy Bulletin of the Post Carbon Institute.

Culture, or community by design?

Here's a good article on the Energy Bulletin of the Post Carbon Institute about what creates community in the city of Montreal. The Bixi bikes and the cycling network are part of it!


Montreal: City of Bikes
by Sven Eberlein
Last year I visited Montreal to attend the Ecocity World Summit, a biannual gathering of visionaries from around the globe committed to creating cities where people live in mutually enriching relationship with each other and with the Earth. Looking at cities as living breathing organisms, with all their residents — human and non-human — forming an intricate web of interdependence, the very idea of an ecocity is rooted in a sharing principle, where citizens understand not only the physical value of making the most of our natural resources, but the cultural, spiritual, ecological, and ultimately, economic value inherent in building networks and communities.
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