Bike to Work Week
I didn't know it was Bike to Work Week until today, on my morning commute, there was a Vancouver Area Cycling Coalition (VACC) welcome station set up at 10th and Ontario. They greeted me as I was about to pass them by at about 9 am this morning. I stopped and chatted a bit. They wanted to provide me with a coffee or tea and some snacks. I declined since I don't drink coffee and I had a leftover banana waiting for me at the office. They also gave me a gift, an emergency patch kit (I doubt if I will ever figure out how to use it).
On Monday, during my lunch break, I walked over to Mountain Equipment Co-op (MEC) and bought some winter cycling clothes. I figured that if I was going to do the winter cycle thing, then I needed proper warm clothes. I picked up a pair of winterized cycling shoes (leather, water-proof with a neoprene ankle wrap), gloves (reflective white patterns all over) and tights (a little warmer than my current ones). My toes and fingers were getting quite numb and cold on some of the chillier mornings. Now they are nice and toasty!
Getting back to today, during my lunch break I looked up the VACC website and read up on the Bike to Work Week stuff. I discovered that there is a cool interactive map that allows you to set up individual routes that one cycles through the city. I created route items for my profile and then entered them in for this week. I discovered that there was a team already set up for where I work,and that there was about 5 cyclists entered.
Some stats:
My average daily cycle travel distance is 15 km (home to work, work to gym, gym to home). During my work week, this week, I travelled 75 km. If I cycle to the gym on Sat and Sun, that would put me at about 100 km cycled for the week.
On my way to the gym this evening, I nearly had a serious accident. I was entering into the intersection (4th and Fir) with the green light, and cars coming from the opposite direction were turning left. I had to come to a near stop to allow a car to cut me off and make his left turn. Then the car behind that one, accelerated, didn't see me and then came to a completed skidding stop in the dark wet early evening. I too came to a complete stop, but that wouldn't have saved me if he didn't stop, since I was already in his direct path. There are too many Vancouver drivers that are not very good about sharing the roads with the bicycles. I have had many close calls in the last 4 months(sometimes daily) but this was the worst so far! I have a flashing headlight mounted on my bicycle, but I think I will pick up an additional light for my helmet, maybe that will help make me more visible in the night.