Tag Archives: cycling

Pedal Etiquette – Drivers are too nice!

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Most weekdays see me ride my bike home from work. And the lovely and talented Michelle Burtnyk-Horn rides to and from work every day. Recently, we had a chat about similar problems that we were having with drivers at four-way-stops.Long story short, many of you drivers – most, I would argue – are being too nice and needlessly accommodating to cyclists. You stop, wait and wave us through intersections when it is not our turn to proceed.

This over-accommodating behaviour is dangerous.

Through the power of MS Paint I have constructed four graphic renditions of common cyclist-motorist issues that arise at four-way stops.

Scenario 1 – The Setting

This is a standard 4 Way Stop, much like the ones that dot the 10th Avenue bike-friendly street in Vancouver.

Problem: motorists do not go through a 4 Way Stop instersection when they’re supposed to, which is dangerous.

Solution: obey traffic laws, especially if cyclists do not!

Scenario 2 – Fake Go, then Stop!

Problem: The motorist arrives at the intersection first. Out of the corner of their eye – or because of sweet safe-driving-skills – they notice an approaching cyclist. The motorist moves forward and then stops. And then lurches. And then stops. Nobody knows what to do.

Solution: When it’s your turn to move through the intersection, please move through. Trust that cyclists will stop at stop signs. Because we will. Those are the rules.

Scenario 3 – Left Turn FAIL!

Problem: a cyclist signals a left-hand turn through a four-way stop – or a two-way stop; similarly to when a car begins moving forward after the vehicle opposite of it begins moving through the intersection, the cyclist above pedals forward with left arm perpendicular to body, signalling a turn. The thing is that the motorist opposite of the cyclist stops, which probably isn’t what they would do for a car signalling a left turn.

Solution: when it’s your turn you proceed through the intersection, good sir/madam.

Scenario 4 – Total Stop-Start Disaster!

Problem: a cyclist approaches an intersection where three cars are waiting; they all take notice of the cyclist – who is, incidentally, nowhere near the intersection – and all lurch, stop, lurch, hesitate, move, stop, and stop some more because, for some reason, the motorists think that the cyclist is just going to power through the intersection.

Solution: business as usual; whoever gets to the intersection first goes first. If there’s a tie, then the honour goes to the motorist on the right, etc.

Conclusion

Here’s the deal. Riding a bike has a lot to do with momentum. It’s way harder for a bicycle to get going than it is for a car. You know, on account of all the delicious oil cars use to go faster. For this reason, cyclists will slow down when approaching 4 Way Stop intersections while maintaining forward movement in order to time their passage in a way that syncs with the regular order of how things move through the intersection – you know, the way cars always do it. Motorists, do not be scared or apprehensive of such two-wheel, rolling timeliness. And remember that bicycles are vehicles, too. For when you stop and start and wave cyclists through when it’s not their turn to go through a 4 Way Stop – well – this makes things more dangerous for everyone.

As with toddlers, cyclists love boundaries. Please, drivers, be sure to give your road-sharing neighbours appropriate ones.

Awesome Our Community Bikes

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I’m writing this on a sunny Saturday afternoon and I just returned from Our Community Bikes (OCB), which is located on Main Street in the Mount Pleasant neighbourhood of Vancouver. As part of the PEDAL Collective, OCB provides an inclusive space for people who use non-gas-powered transportation to get places. Here’s PEDAL’s mission:

The purpose of the PEDAL collective is to develop and promote the use of pedal powered technology, as an ecologically sustainable and self-sufficient energy and transportation source for the community as a whole. We accomplish this through educational programs, hands-on learning facilities and redistribution of recycled/refurbished bikes.

In about 15 minutes I removed my back wheel, carved out some space next to a very nice Aussie gent/bloke/dude, pulled off my tire (the bloke let me borrow the stuff he was using and then worked on something else while I plugged away at my tire), put the new one back on, tightened my brakes, said “thanks” to the bloke, paid a very reasonable price, re-attached my wheel, and was off for a nice ride around the Mount Pleasant ‘hood.

The customer service couldn’t have been better (or a more wonderful fusion of hipster-ironism-meets-open-source-hippie-love) and you need only read the description below to realize how fun and educational your next bicycle repair will be if you visit OCB:

Our Community Bikes (OCB) is the best known project of PEDAL.  It is a full service repair shop, bicycle recycling depot and an educational workspace for people who wish to repair their own bikes or learn how to do so.  We encourage people to come in to work with us on everything from fixing a flat time to bleeding hydraulic disc brakes.  We have nearly all of the tools, parts and accessories you might need to tweak or complete your dream bike.  Our shelves and bins are stocked with new and used parts, and our mechanics do their best to help you figure out with that weird sound is, or why your 10 speed has been acting like a single speed.

This experience combined some of my most favourite things: learning, talking to strangers, getting dirty, and doing things for oneself. And I’ll give a shout-out to the Bike Kitchen at UBC, too, because the good folks at this DIY repair shop subscribe to many of the same principles as Our Community Bikes.

Courtesy of the reviewers at Yelp.ca

Speaking of principles, when you visit OCB – and you totally should – be sure to check out their Ten Commandments. The reflect many tenets of any high-functioning and inclusive community. Even the most unsavvy cyclist should not be intimidated by visiting this DIY-style shop; the community is there to help you.

And now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to ride my bike!

Community on a European Vacation

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As it turns out, the recipe for Community is very simple; Singing in public, beer, and a little dash of wild animal. Surprisingly, I am not talking about drunken nights of karaoke (exclusively). I recently spent 6 weeks studying in Copenhagen, Denmark and followed that up with a two week northern European Vacation. Below is a selection of the top five community building places and activities I encountered in my travels. These are the things that made me think, “Man oh man, I wish I could do this at home!”

 

1. Mauerpark Market and Bearpit Karaoke (Berlin)

Late on a Sunday morning we headed over to Mauerpark for the Berlin’s local favourite flea market. After several hours of exploring the winding stalls of the outdoor market, with several stops to rest in mini-manufactured-beach beer gardens, we had had our fill of bargain hunting and novel snacks. So, made our way over to Bearpit Karaoke just outside the market gates. We were lucky enough to arrive just in time to hear a rousing rendition of Frank Sinatra’s My Way performed by a bearded, German, older gentleman. I was not entirely surprised to find out that this was not his first time in the Bearpit. The only performer who gave him a run for his money was this little girl who made the crowd fall silent before we all joined in to clap along with her song. It was a gorgeous day and the hill over the stage was stacked with people of all ages and walks cheering on the performers. The organizers turned an umbrella, a wagon, a laptop, and some speakers into one of the best boundary breaking, community-building events I have been to.

 

2. Louisiana Museum of Modern Art (Denmark)

This was my favorite museum and is a great example of how to make art an accessible and fun experience for a wide range of people. Before I made the trip myself I had heard from many people who couldn’t speak highly enough of the museum and one who said he took his kids there as often as possible. After spending several hours exploring the facility, all that I felt was missing was that feeling of backache that usually accompanies long walks on hard museum grounds. These grounds were not the usual museum grounds though and moved the visitor almost seamlessly between in and outdoor exhibits. There was even one point when we got to use a slide for transportation! (A transportation method that should be adopted on a much wider scale.)  Exploring the outdoors was a refreshing way to discover Louisiana’s impressive collection of sculptural works against a backdrop of the beautiful Øresund beach front and manicured hills that are perfect for a picnic on one side of the property and a beautiful lake nestled into a wooded area on the opposite side.

 

3. Midsummer’s Eve Celebrations (June 23, Copenhagen)

People go out en masse, not just to one spot but basically to any park, beach, or barge in town. They eat hogs, drink beer, and laugh and chat until someone lights a huge bonfire with a scarecrow/witch on top. That’s when they start singing in unison. Amazing.

 

4. A la Mort Subite (Brussels)

Founded in 1928, this was a stunningly beautiful Belgian bar whose name translates to  “At the Sudden Death”. Well if sudden death were to strike, there are plenty worse places you could be. Picture soaring ceilings, golden yellow walls and pillars, and locals enjoying a selection of Belgian beers so flavorful that it is probably impossible for anyone to claim they don’t like the taste of beer after trying these variations. This place had an incredible community atmosphere. We sat down at one of the long communal tables next to an older couple from Brussels who were only too happy to share with us the secret of the Brussels classic brew called Gueuze (it has to do with a reaction between the yeast and a bacteria that is only found in the air in Brussels) and their life long dream to travel to Canada. A perfect Belgian experience.

 

5. Elephants in the Park (Frederiksberg, Denmark)

Anyone who remembers when the Vancouver Zoo had a place in Stanley Park is not likely to have forgotten how awesome it was to go and watch the polar bears from the zoo’s outer confines. The Copenhagen Zoo has elephants that you can get within about 40 meters of from the surrounding park without paying the zoo’s hefty entrance fee. They play and throw dirt and swim and splash and break sticks and lift logs and sit on each other. Watching gigantic, beautiful, social creatures makes for easy conversation with the other observers and was a perfect place to chat with the very friendly Danes who always seem to out for a leisurely afternoon. The elephants were a mere five-minute walk from my apartment so I made a practice of visiting regularly.

If we can’t travel to Europe or have elephants in our backyards at least we can get together to drink some great craft brews and sing about it. Anyone got a karaoke machine?

 

 

 

 

Bike Share in Melbourne Lacks Traction

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About 12 months ago, the City of Melbourne introduced a new bike share program for the Melbourne community. Based on similar highly successful programs in places like London, Montreal and San Francisco, the program provides easy access to 100 bikes at 10 stations across the city.

But one year on, rider numbers have fallen well short of expectations and debate is currently raging in Melbourne about the long-term viability of the program. It seems 25,000 Melbournians will happily turn out for a city parade to congratulate Australia’s first Tour de France winner Cadel Evans, but only about 250 per day actually want to get on a bike themselves.

Don’t get me wrong, I think bike share programs are an awesome idea. I spent an amazing week in Montreal cruising around on a Bixi bike, and there are numerous successful examples of bike share programs across the world that are both utilised and adored by local communities.

So why is Melbourne different? Firstly, it’s got to do with helmets. Helmets are compulsory in Australia and the fine for not wearing one while cycling is hefty. So you’d think that helmets would be available to rent with the bikes right? Wrong. Australian law also mandates that if a helmet is rented, an inspection and sterilization must be completed after each rental, which is clearly not going to happen.

As a result, share-cyclists either need to rent a helmet from a bike rental store, or buy one from vending machines located near the bike stations. The other option of course is to carry a helmet with you on the off-chance that you might want to cycle, along with a spare pair of trainers in case you need to go running, and a clean pair of underpants in case you get hit by a bus.

Critics of the program have also suggested that the city might have put the cart before the horse in creating the program, and that the money should have first gone into providing safe cycling infrastructure in the city before we start providing the bikes.

Melbourne isn’t an easy place to cycle – bike lanes are few and far between, and where they do exist they are narrow, un-segregated and prone to random disappearance when the roads get too narrow.  Throw in trams, hook turns and generally inconsiderate drivers, and riding in Melbourne can seem like a bit of a suicide mission.

But regardless of the issues, I prefer to live in a city that supports bike-sharing than one that doesn’t, and hopefully the program is at least educating the Melbourne community about the ease and efficiency of using bikes for short trips. Now if we could just get Le Tour guys using these bikes, maybe their popularity would increase…

Riding with headphones – illegal, immoral or irrelevant?

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I’ve had three incidents in the past month that have got me thinking about my bike riding etiquette. Twice in the past couple months friends have stopped me as I took headphones out of my ears to tut-tut me on riding while listening to music. This afternoon, on my way home from a doctors appointment, a self-identified off-duty RCMP officer instructed me (to her credit, in a kindly way) that riding with headphone on was illegal and she had pulled over dozens of people for impaired riding.

The bike shop guys I asked later in the day confirmed it was a contravention of the BC Motor Vehicle Act. Unfortunately, my legal prowess is limited and after a quick search of the Act, I wasn’t able to discover any evidence to confirm this is the case. Though I’ve yet to find the precise legal wording one thing I have found is that in all my time riding, I’ve never run into troubles with a police officer for riding with headphones (despite being pulled over several times for other infractions). What’s most striking is that if it is actually a law, it’s one of the most ignored ones in history. Sitting at the Union St Cafe at the corner of Union and Hawkes, it’s hard to find a cyclist (particularly during the morning commute) who isn’t listening to tunes on a small portable i-phone or music player.  For me it begs the question of the relevance of such a rule. Is this another road rule that everyone (including the cops ignores) or is it something we all really should be paying attention to?

Fun tech friend or public enemy #1?

On the one hand, I understand how listening to music at a moderate volume can a) distract you from your environment and b) take away from your peripheral hearing. But is that really so different from the car radio (particularly at a high volume)? If you’re hands free and you are alert and listening to a music at a low volume, is this really so bad? And if this is the case, what about joggers? Should they not be held to the same standard?

What is most frustrating about this issue is that this prohibition isn’t really clear to cyclists (or anyone for that matter). It’s hard to find evidence one way or another on the ICBC website and there certainly seems to be a gap in public education around all matters of proper riding ediquette (apparently it’s also illegal to ride without a bell – really!?). In any event, if the rule isn’t being enforced, is it really a good rule to have? Practice seems to be very different from principle on this issue.

Beer. Funny outfits. Conquering Cancer.

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My good friend and Daily Gumboot collaborator, Natasha Moore, is doing a very good thing. She’s participating in the Enbridge* Ride to Conquer Cancer, which goes from June 18-19 and involves a fairly epic route from Vancouver to Seattle. All proceeds go to the BC Cancer Foundation

Here’s what the organizers of the event have to say about it:

It is a unique fundraising event benefiting the BC Cancer Foundation, a B.C.-based charity that raises funds for the BC Cancer Agency – a province-wide, population-based cancer control organization. The funds you raise stay in B.C. and benefit cancer patients across all of British Columbia.

Funds from The Enbridge Ride to Conquer Cancer support groundbreaking cancer research at the BC Cancer Agency, focused on advancing new understanding of cancer with the goal of developing new therapies to extend and save more lives.

And here’s what Natasha has to say about it:

I’m riding for our lovely Book Club-ett, Michelle in memory of her Mum and for my friend and tri pal Sarah who also lost her Mum to cancer last year.
My team, Powered By Noie is geared up to raise $25,000 and it would be just awesome if you could help me reach my fundraising goal by sharing the link to my personal page on Facebook, Twitter and any other social media you happen to be on.

Michelle and I are grateful and appreciative of Natasha’s efforts, particularly because her recent fundraising event on Saturday night at the Greedy Pig involved a seven-hour pedal, funny outfits and delicious beer. The pictures in this post do much to tell the story.

Thanks, Natasha, for taking on this cause in honour of Michelle’s mom. If you’d like to donate to Natasha’s ride, just follow this link: Natasha’s Pledge Page.

Theo Lamb shows some support of Natasha and her funny outfits!

*Enbridge sponsoring the event makes things a bit awkward, which was recently best emphasized by a good friend of mine who grew up in Sarnia, Ontario, a town with way, way, way above-average cancer rates that are linked directly to the oil and petro-chemical refineries that make up the bulk of the city’s economy; so, I guess you need to ask yourself, first, how you feel about irony and, second, if you believe that good things can come the world of big oil before donating like I did.

Back To School / Back on the Bus

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There are a few stories you can set your calendar by.

First day of spring / summer / fall, you’ll get a look back on how amazing, terrible, or just a little warmer the last season was compared to historical averages.

Tuesday after Labour Day, traffic.

Regardless of where you live, if you read the paper or your local outlet’s website, you read that roads or transit lines across the city were “crowded Tuesday morning as students head back to school.”

True-dat. I saw people waiting for buses on my way to work, it looked sucky.

Also true, is that there’s no better time to ditch the hassles of driving and transiteering by either quitting your job to go climbing, or if like me you’ve got this whole pesky family-you-love-and-want-to-support, biking to work or school.

There are but a few stumbling blocks to joining the super-awesome community of cycling, and I’m here to help you overcome.

Not having a bike

This is a bit of a roadblock, but thankfully just as students are headed back to school they tend to flog their summer bikes on craigslist. There are deals to be had right now more than ever as returning college students realize they won’t be sponsored by textbook publishers, no matter how snazzy their matching rims and grip tape are. Look for older steel frames, single speeds, or internal-hub geared bikes if you want to go cheap, or start scouring the bike shops for deals as summer stock is being cleared out like mad right now.

Not having the right clothes

Until it gets cold out you can commute, even in the rain, for a good 10km in shorts and a decently waterproof jacket. Keep a dry set of clothes in a plastic bag in your backpack and change as soon as you get to work. In two months it’ll be October, and you’ll have saved enough on transit fare or fuel to get a proper set of rain pants and jacket. Avoid the fancy Tour de France tights. You’ll feel way better when you pass someone in full race regalia if you’re just cruising in raingear and layers, and you won’t feel bad when you get passed.

Plus, awesome-commuter-oldguy seems to do fine year-round in gumboots and a plastic-bag poncho. I’m sure your regular rainwear will hold up until it gets really heinous out there.

Not knowing how to ride

If you’re in or around Vancouver, Victoria, Nanaimo, or the Okanagan there are courses for adults available from CAN-BIKE.

Toronto, Ottawa, Edmonton, Calgary, Winnipeg, Montreal, Halifax, and pretty much every other major Canadian city has an adult cycling program. However, if you do live in any of those places it might just be worth it to move to Vancouver for beautiful scenery.

No, not the mountains and ocean. Once you’re riding you’ll find our cyclists are the best looking in the world.

See you on the street.

Ride for Heart

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CC Photo by Jeff Denberg

The worst moment came less than 10 km in.  The rain had been streaming down since we started, but it was at that point that my shoes became full of water.  My feet, like the rest of me, had been wet for quite a while.  But now the rain was falling so hard that my shoes weren’t draining anymore.  It felt like I was ankle deep in water as I pedaled.  But Jim and I persisted and, despite toying with the idea of cutting out early, the weather gradually cleared and we finished the 50 km that we signed up to do.

Like our west-coast Gumboot colleagues, Jim and I took part in charity event this past weekend that mixed fundraising with getting outside and exercising .  The Ride for Heart is an annual fundraiser for the Heart and Stroke Foundation.  For the past 23 years it has shut down two major highways in downtown Toronto and allowed cyclists to take over.  This was the first year that it has sold out, with 13,000 participants.  And while the rain kept some of those who signed up away, there were also quite a few like Jim and I who rode despite what Mother Nature was throwing at us.  For me, there were a few reasons why this ride was one that I wasn’t willing to miss.

1. The cause.

The last year in particular hasn’t been an easy one for all of the hearts belonging to my loved ones, including my dad’s (he underwent lifesaving heart surgery and has thankfully made a full recovery).  And while I think some of the Heart and Stroke Foundation’s campaigns aren’t perfect (see this report by Marketplace on CBC) I believe that they are doing really useful work that benefits a lot of Canadians by focusing on both medical research and prevention.

The community-based work that they are doing is also important to me.  Over the past few months I’ve been fortunate to been working with a couple of ladies from the Heart and Stroke Foundation as part of a working group putting together a local food guide for the Chinese and South Asian communities in York Region.  Through this experience I’ve had a glimpse into the activities, events and advocacy that they are involved in and I’m impressed with the reach that this organization has at the community level.

2. The experience.

There is something amazing about being on a bicycle in a space that is solely occupied by cars the other 364.5 days a year.  And to be there with up to 13,000 cyclists, ranging from the committed pros that go by so fast they make me feel like I’m standing still to the recreational riders who dust off their bikes once a year to take part in this event.  This diversity adds a sense of community to the experience.  There is a lot going on in Toronto’s cycling community right now, including most of the mayoral candidates threatening cutbacks to cycling infrastructure and divided opinions on charges against Michael Bryant being dropped after last year’s death of Darcy Tucker.  This was a chance to set all of those politics aside and just ride in a car-free, traffic-light free environment for a few hours.

3. The view of the city.

The Gardiner Expressway is a notoriously unpopular highway in Toronto, dividing the city from Lake Ontario.  For the most part it is an elevated highway on concrete pillars.  And as you might imagine, it isn’t very nice to look at.  But it does offer a unique view of the city when you are on it.  Even with the heavy rain, the view of the lake, the CN tower, the Skydome (or Rogers Centre), and the new condo towers offers a view that the only other time to get to take it in slowly is when you are stuck in rush hour traffic.  The Don Valley Parkway offers a completely different view of the city.  It parallels the Don River, a long abused river that is now undergoing renaturalization and shares the valley with one of the major recreational corridors in the city (and one that Jim and I use often).

I’m looking forward to hearing the highlights of ChildRun 2010 and I hope you all had better weather!

Cycling Clubs

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Cycling is more fun in a group.  Not only do groups make road biking less work, as cyclists take turns breaking the wind, they also make riding feel safer, as car drivers easily see a pack of cyclists.  For this reason, cyclists tend to form clubs and participate in organized group rides.  Here in Toronto there are lots of options, from the informal and very fast Doughnut Ride on weekend mornings, to the dozens of weekly rides for all skill levels, organized by the Toronto Bicycling Network (TBN) who claim to be Toronto’s friendliest bike club.  This does not include the numerous competitive cycling teams and group rides organized by bike shops around the city.

Last year I began riding with the TBN and was amazed by the large number of riders that came together every Sunday for their long rides up into the hills of the Oak Ridges Moraine north of Toronto.  Each ride I did with them in April and May last year pushed me beyond my limits, ending with a grueling Century.  Sadly, I hurt myself running and then broke a rib, before traveling to Europe for six weeks of research and conferences, so my connection with this cycling community fell apart before the height of the cycling season.  This year I’ve convinced Katie to join the network and I hope to ride with them weekly until the fall.

On Sunday we ventured out on the Sunday ride to Bolton and we really enjoyed a great Spring day of riding. If nothing else it’s great to be one of many spandex clad people swarming into the Bolton Tim Hortons for lunch. The TBN leads countless activities throughout the year and they are a great example of community building in a big city.

TBN is only one of many exciting things going on in Toronto’s cycling community.  Here is a quick overview of a few of the others I’ve come across.

  • BikingToronto is one of the best sources of information on what is going on.  One feature is a round up of weekly events, including everything from rides to workshops to public meetings where decisions will be made about bike lanes.
  • The Toronto Cyclists Union aims to bring a strong, unified voice to Toronto cyclists.  It is a grassroots advocate aiming to make cycling a legitimate, safe and accessible form of transportation in Toronto.
  • Dandyhorse Magazine is a great publication that can be picked up for free from local bike shops.  It has a refreshing urban focus compared to many of the mainstream cycling magazines. 
  • The Toronto Cycling Map which the City of Toronto puts out each year, is a map of the entire city with bike lanes and bike routes highlighted.   It is great to have on hand to find fast and safe routes where out for a ride.
  • Ride the City is a website where you can find cycling directions between destinations (kind of like Google Maps) with 3 route options based on directness versus safety of the route.

What about your city?  Are there any great clubs, unions, blogs, magazines or resources that are helping to build the cycling community?  If so, please share the links.

The lonely community of winter runners

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Winter Runners - Wayne MacPhail Photo

During the summer months the sidewalks and pathways of Toronto are chock-full of runners, bikers, dog walkers and strollers. During a long summer run I can pass hundreds of people with out a single interaction. Come January, this changes dramatically, as most people avoid the outside world and the city’s pathways empty of people. Instead of seeing dozens of fellow runners on a long weekend training run, I now pass four or five.   Those of us who keep running outdoors through the winter months are branded as crazy by many of our fellow Torontonians.  I know this, as until last year I was among these naysayers.  I grew up in White Rock, BC, and the thought of running in the painfully cold winter here in Toronto never appealed to me  until I started training for an early spring half-marathon in Waterloo last year.

Having started running last winter, I soon found the ostracization, combined with a collective sense of superiority, creates an interesting bond amongst winter runners.  All of a sudden, after the first major snow fall or cold snap of the year, we start exchanging waves as we pass each other on the street.  It seems like a fairly universal instinct, as I rarely pass a runner, even if they are some distance away on the other side of a street without receiving a wave. Come spring this yearly ritual will melt away with the snow and I’ll go back to my normal big city ways of avoiding contact with the multitude of strangers I pass on the street. Clearly this is not a deep sense of community as the interactions are brief, but it is still fairly significant.  In my experence of small town Canada, people wave to friends and strangers as they pass by on the street, while in big cities we often avoid even this very basic form of interaction – so it’s nice to bring it back, even in this limited seasonal fashion.

All with this small town community feeling provided by winter running there are a lot of other benefits.  A winter running outfit costs a lot less than gym fees or treadmills.  Running creates enough heat which allows you to spend a lot more time outdoors during the winter than you otherwise might.  I find this helps alleviate cabin fever and mild cases of seasonal depression disorder.  Plus there are a slew of great long distance races in the Spring to help motivate you out the door during the darkest evenings of winter.  North America’s oldest road race, the Around the Bay 30KM, stared three years before the Boston Marathon, way back in 1894 and now runs in late March to avoid conflicts with cargo ships entering the harbour.  For those on the West Cost the Vancouver Marathon and Half-Marathon takes place on in early May. Either of these races promises amazing views (of heavy industry or English Bay and lovely mountains).

Ben Lawson Photo

Around the Bay - Ben Lawson Photo

Do you know of other ways that cold or wet winter weather creates bonds between strangers or fosters a sense of community in the cities or towns that you live in?  Anyone reading this brave enough to cycle through the winter or run in significantly colder regions of Canada? I deeply admire the cyclist that continue to commute to work all winter long, but I’m fairly certain my ride to York University Finch Ave is dangerous enough in the summer, so I’ve not yet joined their ranks.  I can only imagine the intense feelings of superiority among winter runners in Edmonton or White Horse, but maybe the community dwindles down so low that you never pass fellow runners on the streets.  Do winter runner in Vancouver have a bond, or do your mild winters prevent it from developing?