Safer Cycling Calgary News Blog

Following the introduction of the Cycling Strategy, which included 50 distinct action items, the City got to work planning, designing and building more pathways, designated bike routes, painted bike lanes and cycletracks. Additional work to encourage businesses to install secure bike parking, change rooms/showers and implement policies to encourage cycling have also been done. The City of Calgary Bicycle Program has been working hard, but they can't build cycling infrastructure everywhere. 

In January 2022, a group of researchers released the Canadian Bikeway Comfort and Safety (Can-BICS) metric, analyzing the built environment for cycling across Canada. This analysis sought to provide a method to visualize areas for improvement while also providing a tool for comparison. It can not account for perceived or real challenges such as distance to destination, facilities at destination or bike security but is a tool showing physical infrastructure for cycling. 

Despite having more than a decade of work under the Cycling Strategy, Calgary is lagging behind in some areas. The truth is that for the 100 plus years prior to the development of the Cycling Strategy, Calgary expanded out instead of up and bikes were an afterthought if they were considered at all. A bike as a form of transportation? Pffff, bikes are just toys, right? 

Wrong. 

A bicycle is a vehicle. By function and by law. Written right into the Alberta Traffic Safety Act as well as Calgary Municipal Bylaws: a bicycle is defined as a vehicle and the operator of a cycle (includes vehicles with more than 2 wheels, as long as human-powered) has all the same rights and same responsibilities as the operator of an automobile - with a few changes. 

Cycling infrastructure - bike lanes, cycletracks, pathways - is and always will be an addition to roads for autos. That's ok: if firetrucks and ambulances couldn't get to every home or business, things would be pretty scary. But it also means that bike-specific infrastructure will never go from everyone's home to every possible destination. If infrastructre isn't the answer, how can these concerns be addressed?

None of these concerns regarding cycling are ignored. We have something to teach you about these issues, as well as others, reducing or completely eliminating your worries. 

Before you can use your bike for anything besides a clothes hanger, dust collector or decoration, you need to know how to ride it. You are far from alone if you don't know how to ride: only 67% of Canadians do! 
 

Learning to ride a bike is the first step in conquering concerns about biking and we have a course for that. The First Time course has introduced biking to over 800 people with an overall success rate (within the course time) of 70.7%. Put another way, Safer Cycling Calgary has taught more than 570 people how to ride a bike. 
 

You are not alone in not knowing how to ride but our course has been designed to ease your fears and gently guide you to the mastery of a bicycle. 

Trust me, I completely understand. It doesn't sound like a good idea to put your body on top of a skinny bike and ride where the automobiles are. Thousands of pounds of fast-moving automobile versus a human body on top of a bike? We know who loses. However, cyclists are more of a danger to themselves: the vast majority of cyclist crashes involve no automobile, no animal, no other human. Anything you do to improve your cycling skills will reduce the risk of you being your own biggest problem. 

 

We won't force you to ride near automobiles. Calgary has over 1000km of off-street pathway, including a 150km loop around the city: yes, I've ridden the whole loop! Our Beginner course (for those age 14 or more) will ease you into riding a bike: teaching you how to confidently ride on pathways, including the most effective use of your bike, dealing with small pedestrians to open up a large, automobile-free option to using your bike more. 

Pathways are great, but not too many homes or businesses are served by direct pathway connections: eventually you will have to get on the road. For most cyclists, riding on residential roads - either to get to pathways or to their destination - will be necessary. The Intermediate course covers exactly this, including any cycling-specific on-road infrastructure we find in residential areas.

For those who work, live or travel through an area with higher density of autos including busy commercial areas or downtown, we can give you the skills and knowledge to confidently ride your bike anywhere. In the Advanced course, you will learn how to ride on one-way roads, deal with traffic circles and heavy automobile traffic. This course literally changed my life and I have no doubt that you will learn that you don't need to be afraid to ride your bike in Calgary.

It still sounds scary to mix bikes and automobiles, but we can teach you how to mitigate the risks and convince you of the fact that bikes are vehicles with a right to the road and that bikes are traffic. After taking a course, you will be reminded that behind the wheel of every automobile is a human being, most of whom would probably rather be riding their bike with you! 

Bike theft is no joke: many people who have had their bike stolen either can't or simply don't replace it, making it unlikely that they'll continue cycling. Few stolen bikes are recovered and returned to their rightful owner. 

Prevention is the best course of action: if your bike isn't stolen in the first place, you don't have to worry about the hassle of replacing it or the worry of never getting it back. 

Every Safer Cycling Calgary couse includes detailed information on proper locking practices including how and where to lock up your bike. Every bike owned by a participant in a course will also be registered with Project 529 and receive the added protection of a Project 529 Shield. 

We take bike security seriously: we know that you can't ride a bike if you don't have one! 

Studies of urban movement patterns indicate that the majority of daily trips - by all modes of transportation - are less than 5km, a distance easily achievable by even young cyclists. Almost 30% of trips are less than 1.5km from point to point. 

While designated cycling routes, including pathways and signed bike routes, may be more indirect at times, once you know how to safely ride on the road you may not need to detour to designated cycling routes. Sometimes you may have to take a longer route on your bike, either to avoid busy roads that you're not ready for, to go around a large hill or to cross a river but with proper planning and a willingness to embrace the journey of the added distance for these rides, these are rarely reasons not to ride. 

Route planning is an important part of all on-road courses we offer and you may be surprised at how many of your cycling routes wind up being the same length or even shorter than your usual motoring route. In many Commuter Challenges pitting a cyclist vs a motorist vs public transporttion, the cyclist often arrives first. The idea of having to go off your usual motoring route in order to ride your bike to your destinaion may seem daunting, but it often isn't something to worry about. Certainly not something that should prevent you from making some of your trips by bike. 

This is a genuine, and very big concern for many people who may be willing to ride their bike somewhere. Add in the worry about helmet hair and all of a sudden there's a large barrier against cycling. These are not insurmountable barriers, though. 
 

The most obvious solution, if you're riding your bike to work, is to request a shower at your workplace. However, this can be difficult, expensive or fully impossible at some workplaces. If yours is one of these, or your destination isn't your workplace, you still have options. 

Weather can be a deterrant as well: rain, snow or cold conditions can make cycling more dangerous as well as more messy. There's no shame in being a fair-weather cyclist! However, with some additional planning, perhaps some additional equipment or apparel, even weather-related messes can be overcome if you want to. 
 

Safer Cycling Calgary courses also include learning how to do a bike check, to identify any small issues that you can rectiy before you experience a breakdown which could result in stress sweat, needing to get messy to fix something or a crash that could ruin your appearance. As well, we have a number of videos available if you want to do your own bike maintenance, or a list of professionals if you don't, to keep your bike running smoothly. Intermediate and Advanced courses also include flat tire repair instruction, including some tips for reducing how dirty you'll get if you need to deal with a flat. 

Having a crash is a sure way to get dirty and damage your clothes. The fundamental goal of every course we offer is to teach you how to be a safer cyclist, regardless of your experience level. Taking a course, appropriate to your current abilities and cycling goals, is the best and most obvious way to reduce the risk of crashing. 

A large number of people want to ride a bike more frequently, but are concerned about a number of barriers. The most frequently mentioned concerns of traffic, long rides, getting messy and having a bike stolen are all concerns that we address in a number of ways through courses and resources that we offer. 

Why should you take a course with Safer Cycling Calgary? Simply put, because you don't know what you don't know about cycling but we can teach you what you need to know to ease your concerns. 

If you are unsure of what course is appropriate for you, take our Course Chooser quiz to see what we recommend.