There is no better place to have a meeting and no better way to see the impact of cycling on your community than from the seat of a bicycle.
Whether you are an MP, a candidate or simply a citizen keen to show your current and potential MPs what’s out there, Canada Bikes invites you to organize a Ride Your Riding event in advance of the 2019 Federal Election.
What? A community-oriented, family-friendly, educational bike ride between now and the October 2019 election.
Who? Local federal provincial and municipal elected officials are invited to join, and so is the whole community.
Why? Ride Your Riding is great for Canadians, MPs and politicians because it:
- Acts as an opportunity to show off the great active transportation projects and programs happening in your community.
- Encourages broader community interest and enable you to point out investment in cycling infrastructure
- Allows you to meet with the people that currently make active transportation decisions locally and understand the bigger picture
- Provides an opportunity to highlight your favourite bike experiences, as well as provide insight into what could be improved
- Lets you meet active and connected constituents face to face
- Its the best way to see, feel, hear and understand the area you represent
The rides are encouraged to be all-inclusive and should be routed with consideration of all ages and abilities for cycling.
Our role: Vélo Canada Bikes will be encouraging our members to start planning a date between now and the upcoming election when a ride might be appropriate within their schedules, and will track all the ridings that have had one. We can also help get you started. Just email [email protected] for details.
The impact: Selfies with the hashtag #RideYourRiding are highly encouraged and unavoidable. Have fun. We’ll certainly be sharing widely and local bike groups have a wide reach. Other tangible ideas, projects, intiatives, plans?? You never know what can come out of a meeting by bike. Vélo Canada Bikes will be tracking all the rides happening over the country and paying close attention. We’ll make a map and try to get as many of the ridings in Canada covered (with your help, of course).
Some examples of Ride Your Riding events already happening:
– Dr.Doug Eyolfson already has one planned with Winnipeg Trails in Winnipeg in July
– Gord Johns, MP for Port Alberni is planning to ride his entire riding all summer, endeavouring to see every part of it.
Other helpful info:
Why is bike infrastructure such a big deal? Research shows that bicycle-
friendly projects are great for everyone even if they never ride a bike
• Safer streets are safer for everyone
• When bikes have dedicated safe space sidewalks are safer for pedestrians
•Well-designed infrastructure can improve the experience for everyone. and leads to smoother trips improving the behaviour of all modes
• Leads to less congestion as people will be to make the healthy choice, the easy choice
• Complete streets lead to livable communities, the air is better and the amount of noise decreases
• Research is emerging that bike infrastructure routinely encourages economic vitality
• Costs for bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure are a fraction of large roads projects enabling nimble design, shovel-ready projects that put people to work right away
• Every taxpayer in Canada should be excited about the health benefits as diabetes, dementia, depression, colon cancer and cardiovascular disease are reduced by 40% from 30 minutes of riding
• Currently, transportation accounts for 30% of all greenhouse gases. Swapping a single 5km car trip with a bike trip would keep 2,000 lbs of carbon out of the environment per year.
Interested in putting your riding on the map or learning more?
Email [email protected] for details
