O Canada (Comments: 1)
Author: Julie
Date: 17 November, 2009
Category: Commuting, Julie White
I’ve written before about visiting Canada, in the previous case, Toronto. Recently I took a trip to Montreal and was very inspired by all the bike commuters. People, if they can bike commute in Montreal and Toronto, we can certainly do it! Well, at least in terms of the weather. What those cities have, however, that we do not, is infrastructure.
For one thing, they have BIXI’s!. I love these. I love how they look, and I hopped on one and loved how it rode as well. Just one speed, very sturdy, and with a cute little front basket. And fenders.
You can buy a year’s subscription for $78 (although the season ends November 30…okay, I guess the weather gets to them, too). Or, you can use a credit card to rent on a less frequent basis. And, the first half hour is free. There are many stations everywhere (they’re the red dots on the map), so I can imagine that you could bike from station to station, picking up and returning at each station, and not pay anything, and get all around the city.
They also have bike lanes, which are separated from the roadway by a narrow median. One morning I went out running and all you could see down the road on the bike lanes was cyclist after cyclist going to work. Unfortunately, I didn’t have my camera with me, but it was really an inspiring sight.
And so, I came home inspired! I have been bike commuting more than ever, including this route, with a stop at the University of Rochester both to and from.
The only minor challenge was dealing with clothing issues. I have to be dressed professionally at work, and I work up a sweat quickly. My solution was to wear black pants that look professional but are comfortable to ride in, then I just had to pop into a bathroom to change shirts and shoes. If we had more of a bike commuting culture, I can imagine it would be more acceptable to come to work a bit more casually, but I don’t think we’re there yet!
Ah, well, I could always move to Canada. (Hey, I’d get free health care too!)
1 comment to “O Canada”