Do you know someone who would like to ride their bike to work, but is too nervous to ride in traffic?
Have you ever experienced the wonderfully safe feeling of a group ride through the city?
This is the idea behind BikeFriday: safety in numbers.
From the bikingtoronto blog:
Remember the kick-off to BikeWeek? The great “group commute” of thousands of bike commuters travelling west from Danforth and Woodbine, east from Bloor and High Park…as well as many other start-points around the city?
It was great to have bikes be so prevalent on the roads that day that it was safe for us. The sheer number of cyclists travelling together made car drivers a lot more careful.
Therefore, BikeFriday asks… why does this only happen one day a year?
The BikeFriday concept is simple: meet in groups and ride to work together on the last Friday of every month.
Grassroots Environmental Products at 372 Danforth is providing a free bikers breakfast (which has, apparently, helped to capture the attention of some bike-minded municipal politicians.)
Mayor David Miller has also expressed interest in BikeFriday. Although he is too busy to join this Friday’s ride, his office says he will participate in the future.
Hmm…maybe someone should let the Mayor know that BikeFriday still needs a contact person for the Bloor-High Park route?!
If you would like to be the contact person for a BikeFriday group ride in your neighbourhood, contact: bikefriday@bikingtoronto.com
I plan to start a Queen West commute for September’s BikeFriday ride. The route would loosely be; Queen (which I usually try to avoid when riding solo) from Sorauren, up to and through Trinity Bellwoods Park, then Dundas to Kensington Market, and finishing (for me) at College and St. George. I would guess that other riders might continue on Dundas to the city centre or head up St. George to Bloor and beyond.
Overall, BikeFriday‘s goal is to make the last Friday of every month a celebration of cycling in Toronto. Critical Mass already greatly contributes to this noble pursuit and so can you. Come on out and make the first BikeFriday a success!
2 comments
This is going to be so much fun!
Vancouver’s bike lanes totally kick ass, but I was still aprehensive about riding around; this will be awesome (anyone got a boombox they wanna stash in their basket? ;))
There is a story in the GTA section of today’s Star about BikeFriday! Way to go, Joe!