Well, here we go again, next week is Bike to Work Week so I thought I would give you a little insight into what it’s all about, a bit of the history of the event and some interesting statistics.
Bike to Work Week (BTWW) began in Greater Victoria in 1995 with a core group of commuter cyclists committed to raising the profile of commuter cycling. The event counted approximately 500 participants. In 2012, seventeen years later, more than 25 communities participated with the following statistics:
- 19,439 Participants (up from 15,203 in 2011)
- 3,583 First-time commuter cyclists (up from 2,877 in 2011)
- 3,111 Workplace teams participated (up from 2,401 in 2011)
- 903,216 Kilometres were cycled (up from 727,753 in 2011)
- 209,610 Kilograms of CO2 were saved from entering the atmosphere (up from 168,839 in 2011).
So what’s it all about?
The whole idea is to get people out of their cars and into an activity which is good for your health, fun, rewarding and good for the environment.
During the week participants are invited to various gatherings around town put on by sponsors of the event, here’s the info:
The dates this year are May 27 (Monday) – June 2 (Sunday)
Campbell River has four Celebration stations:
- Monday – Rehab in Motion in Willow Point host a Breakfast from 6:30 – 8:30 am. Drop in for breakfast!
- Wednesday – A Salmon BBQ at Spirit Square hosted by the Campbell River Head Injury Society and Marine Harvest. 4:00 – 6:00pm. Stop in for dinner!
- Thursday – Breakfast is served at the Christian School on Dogwood Street. Breakfast Burritos from 6:30 – 8:30 am.
- Friday – Outdoor Addictions & On the Rocks host their Breakfast Station – Dan’s homemade muffins from 6:30 – 8:30 a.m.
Each celebration station supplies free food to cyclists and they also get the chance to enter for great draw prizes at each station.
As of Wednesday, May 22 in Campbell River, 53 teams have signed up – the website has current stats (www.biketowork.ca/node/15639/results).
So why not form a team? Team leaders receive a unique technical T-shirt plus a goodie bag with samples from Healthyway Natural Foods and Koala springs.
Team leaders simply need to register their team and record the kilometers cycled during BTWW on the website.
There is still time to register and pick up a package. Register on line at www.biketowork.ca and pick up packages at the Sportsplex.
Campbell River has done an amazing job in the six years since we started and in 2012, the city placed fourth in the province among the 25 communities that competed, we beat out Greater Vancouver and Victoria, based on a per Capita formula. In Campbell River last year there were 627 cyclists, 111 teams, 19,547 kilometers cycled and 4,382 Kilograms of CO2 did not go into the atmosphere!
So get into it! Get a team gathered together today, get registered and have some fun with it!
Till next time, ride safe and Share the Road!
Steve can be found at Outdooraddictions.ca