I was given a 1974 Raleigh 20" folding bike and brought it back from the dead. Today I rode it to work for the first time. It was fun! I may even do it again some time.

Here's one of the big benefits of a folding bike:

Yep, when you go to the washroom you can relax, not having to worry whether your bike is being stolen while you pee. With a folder, you can just bring it in with you and keep it always within eyesight!

Folding bikes have a confidence-inspiring feel because their frames are low - you can usually put both your feet flat on the ground while sitting on the seat. And the upright riding style means you have good visibility of what's around you. The short wheelbase and small wheels give them quite rapid response, yielding a lively feel. By the same token, the small wheels can give you a somewhat rougher ride, though this is easily offset by a seat suspension system. Cheap models can also be quite heavy, but if decide you like them you can always upgrade to a light, expensive aluminum version.

The City says it will spend $12 million on pathway improvements, notably on filling in missing links in the pathway system.

The Land & Asset Strategy Committee met on Tuesday and made this recommendation, approving in total $112 million in community infrastructure projects over the next 10 years. The plan needs final approval from Council next month.

More details will be posted once I can figure out how to find the minutes on the vast and byzantine City website. Try to use their search engine to find anything and you'll soon be as frustrated as I was.

While this $12 million is a welcome investment in the pathway system, it is of only limited use to bicycle commuters since 2/3 of pathway users are not cyclists. Cyclists needs bicycle-specific infrastructure investments. It's also unclear over what period the $12 million will be spent. If it's over the same 10-year as the other projects included in the $112 million figure, then we won't see much visible progress in the next year.

A nice loop out past bighill springs and back via bearspaw.

This route illustrates a good way out of town from NW Calgary (except that the Sarcee bus trap is now gated, but you can still get past on the sidewalk).

Here's a fun loop Ryan and I did once this summer.

Country Hills Blvd is pretty much the only good way to get out of the
city towards Bearspaw, at least westbound from Nose Hill and then
up 85th street (past the jail).

85th street has no shoulders, but judging from the abuse it's taking
from the industrial traffic recently, it will be repaved soon. Talk to
your Alderman and suggest that adding shoulders would be a Great Idea.

Also, the stuff being redeveloped at the top of Stoney Trail would
greatly benefit from shoulders, but since the rest of Country Hills
doesn't have shoulders, I'm not personally holding my breath.

Judging from recent Transportation committee minutes on the calgary.ca website, Shaganappi is going to be redeveloped/widened up to country hills boulevard. As part of this, it would be a good idea to make the shoulders on the bit between John Laurie and the top of the hill exist.

Bicycling magazine says that Portland, Oregon, is the best bicycling city in 2005. Way back in 1988, Calgary won that award. But Portland hasn't stood still, and has created a host of innovative programs, such as (to name just two) special areas at traffic lights for bikes, and bike-activated traffic lights. They've also tripled (!!) the number of cyclists in the past ten years. You can read the full story on the bikeportland.org website.

By way of comparison, Portland has about 600,000 inhabitants versus Calgary's 950,000.

No BUGs in Calgary? Sure there are! What about all the mosquitos? Well, yes, but we mean a different kind of BUG - bicycle user group. We think we need more of the latter.

Recently, a small group of concerned commuter cyclists got together to see what could be done to improve on-street cycling in Calgary. In looking at our current cycling situation, it quickly became apparent that there is still a lot of work to make Calgary's streets "bike-friendly".

The City is making a commitment to start improving on-street bike-route infrastructure this year (2006). This is a great start, but we will still need an organised front from all of the city's cyclists (hence this website, bikecalgary.org) if we are to get all of the needed improvements done; we'll also need motorist/cyclist education, training, overall communication and promotion of bike use as an effective, sustainable means of transportation.

There used to be a bus trap linking Silver Springs to the road which
feeds onto 52nd street. It has since been closed, which involved
filling in the bus trap itself and putting giant cement barricades
(or a locked gate; I've seen both) in the middle of the road. The
barricades would be great if a bike-sized space was left between them,
but unfortunately this didn't happen. I included this in a suggestion I sent to the City, but they basically ignore this issue.

The cycle path which side-steps the bus trap is usually pretty gravel-

The bus trap which used to exist under Sarcee Trail north of Crowchild was a very useful way for NW riders to get east into Dalhousie from Ranchlands, or west out of the city via Nose Hill, Country Hills, etcetera areas.

It is now a radio-controlled gate. I emailed the City about this, and they told me it is "impossible" and dangerous for people to use the bus traps in the way I described and that it is now safer, since you have to hop the only sidewalk there (which is pretty busy during rush hour).

I have the details of the email exchange here.