{"id":2581,"date":"2007-12-17T15:40:06","date_gmt":"2007-12-17T19:40:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacingtoronto.ca\/?p=2581"},"modified":"2013-01-21T14:56:35","modified_gmt":"2013-01-21T19:56:35","slug":"winter-cyclist-profile-cris-the-bike-month-organizer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/12\/17\/winter-cyclist-profile-cris-the-bike-month-organizer\/","title":{"rendered":"Winter cyclist profile — Cris the Bike Month organizer"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cyclist profiles are part of an ongoing series here on Spacing<\/a>, and I Bike TO<\/a>. In celebration of the season — and the City’s Bike Winter<\/a> program — I will now focus on winter cyclists!<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Name \/ Occupation \/ Age <\/strong>
\nChristina Bouchard\/Bike Month Organizer \/ 24<\/p>\n

What do you use your bike for?<\/strong>
\nTransportation and Recreation.<\/p>\n

How often do you ride?<\/strong>
\nDaily.<\/p>\n

How long have you been commuting by bicycle, what made you decide to start and what would you say to someone who is considering trying it for the first time?
\n<\/strong>When I moved to Toronto for my first year of University, I left my car in Ottawa. I was so thrilled to be out of the burbs and living downtown. I would say: <\/em><\/p>\n

“Riding your bike is like chopping wood, it will warm you up as you go\u00e2\u20ac\u009d. <\/em><\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Think positive. It may be winter, but it’s still nice to be outside.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d
\n<\/em>
\nWhen did you start commuting in winter and why?<\/strong>
\nBy November of my first year, it became winter and I just kept going.<\/p>\n

What are the biggest challenges for winter bikers in Toronto?<\/strong>
\nBe careful of the streetcar tracks.<\/p>\n

What reaction do you get from co-workers?<\/strong>
\nMy co-workers all get it, but there are plenty of others who seem to think that my genetic make-up is somehow different from them.<\/p>\n

What’s the best thing about commuting by bicycle in winter?<\/strong>
\nThe air is generally much fresher than in the summer.<\/p>\n

Can you give a brief description of your route?<\/strong>
\nMy route to work generally goes along Queen st. E up Coxwell Ave to the East York Civic Center. If I’m working downtown I’ll often use Queen as it’s fairly sheltered and flat, but I’m comfortable riding just about everywhere.<\/p>\n

Where are your favorite places or streets to bike in Toronto? Least favorite? Why?<\/strong>
\nMy favorite place is the northeast corner of the City, around the Rouge Valley headed up to Stouffville.
\nLeast favorite are roads due\/overdue for resurfacing. Bathurst was very bad for awhile, it was worse than riding on cobblestones.<\/p>\n

What do you (generally) like about biking in Toronto in winter? And dislike?<\/strong>
\nIt’s really not that cold in Toronto. Relative to other Cities noted for their winter ridership, Ottawa, Montreal, Quebec City, we have it pretty easy here in the south.<\/p>\n

What could the City do to make winter biking better?<\/strong>
\nLess salt would be nice. Also I suspect it may be possible to coordinate ploughing with more of an emphasis on the needs of cyclists. I have heard that bike lanes ploughed as part of the roadway often have snow dumped back into them when sidewalk ploughing goes on. There is no ploughing for Multi-Use trails such as the Martin Goodman.<\/p>\n

What’s your favourite piece of winter cycling clothing?<\/strong>
\nVarious scarves. I’m not interested in having to windburn\/freeze my face.<\/p>\n

Any bike gadget\/gear winter cyclists should not go out without?<\/strong>
\nI recently got some BLT lights<\/a> for the nighttime. People keep telling me at night that my bike \u00e2\u20ac\u0153looks like a car\u00e2\u20ac\u009d because of how powerful they are.<\/p>\n

Have you done any Holiday shopping by bike?<\/strong>
\nOf course. For sure.<\/p>\n

Are you a member of any cycling organizations\/clubs? If so, which ones? <\/strong>
\nI work with the City in \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcTransportation Planning’ and promote cycling, so am in the lucky position of getting to know many cycling\/advocacy groups.
\nI did a full season or Cyclocross Racing this year which was a blast. I would recommend it to everyone.<\/p>\n

Anything else? <\/strong>
\nI’m driven bananas by people think that my ability to bike in the winter is as a result of magical powers they don’t possess. It’s just not the case. I’m a fairly small person and I’m female, and yet there’s literally hundreds of big strong strapping men out there who are feet taller than me and twice my weight, but for whatever reason, they won’t give riding their bikes a shot. In winter or summer. I don’t get it.
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Pile on some clothes and give it a try.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/em><\/p>\n

Crossposted to I Bike TO<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cyclist profiles are part of an ongoing series here on Spacing, and I Bike TO. In celebration of the season — and the City’s Bike Winter program — I will now focus on winter cyclists! Name \/ Occupation \/ Age Christina Bouchard\/Bike Month Organizer \/ 24 What do you use your bike for? Transportation andContinue reading “Winter cyclist profile — Cris the Bike Month organizer”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4021,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7,21758,4,21759,13],"tags":[28,7650,7649,965,7651,23,38,346,5499,316,7652,7648,2895,19],"class_list":["post-2581","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bikes","category-community","category-culture","category-features","category-green-space","tag-behaviour","tag-bike-month-organizer-cyclist","tag-christina-bouchard","tag-cyclist","tag-east-york-civic-center","tag-environment","tag-montreal","tag-ottawa","tag-quebec-city","tag-queen","tag-rouge-valley","tag-st-e","tag-stouffville","tag-toronto"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nWinter cyclist profile - Cris the Bike Month organizer - Spacing Toronto<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/12\/17\/winter-cyclist-profile-cris-the-bike-month-organizer\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Winter cyclist profile - Cris the Bike Month organizer - Spacing Toronto\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Cyclist profiles are part of an ongoing series here on Spacing, and I Bike TO. 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