Bike to Work Month Ottawa 2014

It’s Bike to Work Month in Ottawa! EnviroCentre and the City of Ottawa are teaming up to promote cycling as a great option for commuters.

You can sign up or find more information on the Bike to Work Month website.

When you register, you can commit to cycling as much or as little as you’d like during May. (Since I work mainly from a home office, I signed up to cycle to meetings and other work-related events.)

If you want to get your co-workers involved, you can download a workplace toolkit, or arrange for EnviroCentre staff to come to your workplace to do a workshop on commuter cycling or bike maintenance.

You can find links to other cycling resources on the Bike to Work website, too. If the joy of cycling alone isn’t enough incentive to sign up, you also have a chance to win prizes if you register. Go on, join the fun!

The month of May brings quite a few other bike-related happenings:

– Awesome bike share service RightBike has launched its 2014 season. You can buy a season membership, pick up one-day or three-day passes, or become a supporter. Check it out at http://rightbike.org/.

– Citizens for Safe Cycling is hosting “Tulips on Two Wheels” on May 10, 2014. Join the bike ride to the Tulip Festival, get a bike tune-up from Cycle Salvation and meet the CfSC board.

– MEC is hosting its annual Bikefest on May 11, 2014. There’ll be a group ride, bike clinics, a gear swap and lots of bike activities and information.

– The Ottawa Bicycle Lanes Project is inviting people to join them in visiting the Ottawa Farmers’ Market in Westboro on Saturdays, starting May 17. The idea is to bring people together through biking, support the market and create #StreetsAsPlaces (see the poster below).

– Added: The National Capital Commission’s Sunday Bikedays, in which sections of the Sir John A. Macdonald Parkway, Colonel By Drive and Rockcliffe Parkway are closed to motor vehicles and open to bikes and other self-propelled modes of transportation, start May 18.

– Capital Vélo Fest happens on May 31, 2014 at City Hall, with a bike rodeo, challenges (bike limbo! bike jousting!), bike retailers’ booths, workshops and more. The all-ages Tour La Nuit takes place that evening.