After another successful Cycle Recycle at Earth Day, where our local HUB Cycling committee found new homes for 20 used bikes, we have been collecting more donated bikes – this time for immigrants and refugees. HUB member Dave Rush has been tirelessly tuning them up. The first batch of nine bikes was delivered last weekend to two happy families through the Immigrant Services Society of BC.
Big thank you to the donors!
More bikes are to follow. We’d like to reach out to disadvantaged local youth as well. If people wish to donate used bikes (or their bike mechanic skills) for this purpose, please contact Barry at nobell@telus.net.
The bikes need to be in good shape: “dusty but not rusty”, as this is a no-budget initiative.
This Sunday, on Mother’s Day, HUB is once again partnering with the Art Studio Tour organizers for our third annual tour by bike. We have two routes to choose from, a flat one and a hillier one.
Participants can either ride in a small group, led by our volunteers, or we can provide a map so they can complete the tour at their own pace with a group of family or friends. For more information about the rides, check out our blog at rmcyclist.info.
To register, or to request a map, please e-mail Jackie at jchow23708@yahoo.ca.
Bike to Work Week this Spring will be May 30 to June 5. The local HUB committees in Surrey, Langley and Maple Ridge/Pitt Meadows will jointly be running a Bike to Work Week station at the south end of the Golden Ears Bridge, where cyclist commuters can drop by for refreshments and a chat.
You can find more information and register at bikehub.ca/bike-events/bike-to-work-week. Closer to Bike to Work Week, the site will show the date and time we’ll be at the Golden Ears Bridge. Check out the awesome prizes, and register.
I’m happy to hear that the city is looking at better ways to use the severely under-used gravel fields at Albion fairgrounds.
Keeping it the way it is just so that for a few weekends a year hundreds of cars can find a free resting place for a few hours each day is a terrible waste.
Surely we can make better use of city-owned land.
Can’t we make more of an effort to get people to events like the Ridge Meadows Home Show by something other than private automobiles, some of which can take up as much space as 20 bikes when parked? I mean, 1,100 car parking spots, courtesy of the City of Maple Ridge, and there’s not even one bike rack in sight!
There’s no mention on the event’s website that there’s a bus stop at Planet Ice or a link to Translink’s Trip Planner.
Perhaps shuttle buses with stops at strategic locations throughout the city could be used to ferry people to and fro, for a small fee.
A car parking fee of a few dollars won’t break the bank for anyone. It might encourage people to share a ride, or consider alternatives. Reduce the entrance fee a little so that on average people will still pay the same if they drive, and less if they don’t.
Of course, land is not free.
We just pretend it is as long as it’s used by cars.
We might as well wait until there are bike lanes, so people can safely hop on their bikes to get there.