Bike Calgary

Would you like access to Calgary's complete transportation grid every day of the year? Do you want to be able to treat most every street in the city as a bike route, and not have to wait for the City to build dedicated bike infrastructure?

You don't have to be a lycra-clad roadie to ride your bike to work. In fact, you don't have to be an athlete at all. We believe anyone can quickly learn to bike competently and confidently on our roads, and we offer a fun and effective way to do so. Modeled after the rigorous CAN-BIKE courses, and taught by CAN-BIKE accredited instructors with decades of bike-commuting experience, our one-day urban cycling skills course will increase your comfort levels and confidence when navigating all sorts of streets—from quiet residential avenues to the busiest streets of downtown Calgary.

This course, plus some follow-up practice, will help you build the skills you need to safely and enjoyably ride with motor traffic anywhere in the world. Dedicated on-street bike facilities are the way of the future, but right here and right now in Calgary, we have a lot of existing shared infrastructure, which you can take advantage of.

Help us promote the course by putting up the poster!

The CAN-BIKE courses are two days each, making for a big time commitment. Through 'distance learning' and by focusing on just the essential skills and knowledge for commuters (if you need to learn how to repair your bike, take a course from the U of C's Outdoor Resource Centre), we reduced the course duration to just 8 hours-- taught in a one-day session. But to do this, we need you to do some pre-course homework.

Start by taking the BikeEd.org Traffic Skills 101 on-line test (say that you are from Calgary, Alabama). You'll be tested on this material during our course, so pay attention!

Lastly, view the League of American Bicyclists 3-part Cyclist's Eye View series demonstrating effective on-street cycling techniques (leave an evening for this, and watch them each a couple of times, noting of any questions you have for discussion at our course ):

• Part 1: Driving your Bicycle in Traffic
• Part 2: How to Negotiate Simple Intersections, Make Left Turns
• Part 3: Using Left-Turn-Only Lanes

Our one-day sessions run from 8:45 (we check your bike in the loading dock, then start the classroom session in the upstairs boardroom at 9:00) to 16:30 at Mountain Equipment Co-op, on 10 Ave at 8 St SW, rain or shine, so you will need to dress accordingly. You will need to bring a bag lunch, and rain gear - and your bike, of course!. If you are driving down with your bike on your car, park in the lot on 9th Ave across the tracks from MEC - we may use that lot for the initial training session anyway. Better yet, drive or ride your bike to the nearest LRT station, throw it on the train (using only the doors at the end of each car), and get off at the 8th St SW station.

Here are our 2011 course dates:

Saturday June 25th

Sunday July 17th

Saturday Aug 20th

Saturday Sept 17th

Saturday Oct 15th

Saturday Nov 12th

Goals

• To help students understand how to assert their rights, and practice their responsibilities, as operators of skinny vehicles in wide- and narrow-lane road environments
• To desensitize students in a progressive fashion to riding with traffic on roads
• To maximise on-bike time, eliminating discussion of maintenance, bike-sizing, or equipment discussion
• To educate adult rides primarily, so that some may in the future deliver Kids CAN-BIKE courses through other agencies

If you are interested, please register through our PayPal store. The course costs $10, net. We charge you a registration deposit of $50, and if you show up and successfully complete the course, you will receive a $40 rebate on your course fee. If you don't pass the course on the first try, you'll receive a credit for a future course - we want to provide you with another opportunity to advance your skills to a comfortable level. There will also be informal on-street rides from time to time where you can practice your skills.

This course is made possible by a generous donation from Mountain Equipment Co-op, selling a full range of bikes, accessories, and clothes. Note: MEC is not supplying bikes for use in this course. Bring your own, or stop by their store, or one of the other local bike shops in Calgary, and pick up a bike before the course.