Saskatoon Cycles July 2024 Newsletter
The 2024 Bike Valet Update
With the conclusion of this year’s energetic Jazz Festival, we can report that the Bike Valet has parked over 2500 bicycles so far in 2024!!!
Just imagine: that’s 2500 individual trips made on the most energy efficient transportation device we know, operated by a human getting some fresh air and exercise while reducing traffic and parking congestion, and all at no cost to the user. No wonder people are calling it “nifty”!
This amazing service doesn’t just happen by magic, though. It exists because:
- we have incredible volunteers: over 290 hours of time donated so far!
- we have great event and concert partners who make the decision to host the valet and cover our expenses and fencing costs
- we have an active community that USES the valet
- we have a civic government that supports initiatives like the Bike Valet under its Environmental Grant program.
We hear SO many stories and anecdotes from people who absolutely love the Bike Valet, and we’re pretty sure that’s not just the concert buzz talking: they genuinely appreciate being able to roll down to the doorstep of their destination, check their bike, and know that it’s looked after. It feels good to hear their gratitude, every time.
These days we tell them, “pass this on to the event organizers too!” We know we provide a great service, but the folks who host us should hear from the happy cyclists who use the valet. If every venue in the city heard what we hear, there wouldn’t be a festive zone in Saskatoon that didn’t have a valet set up.
We also tell people, “come join the fun!”. If you haven’t volunteered for a shift yet, check it out. They’re a zippy two hours long, and if you haven’t already earned your volunteer shirt, you’ll get one for helping out.
Check out the upcoming events/venues below and find a spot that looks like fun. We’d love to see you out there!
- Urban Games – August 16 – 18, 2024
- Wego – August 25, 2024
- Fireworks Festival – August 30-31, 2024
- Broadway Street Fair – Sept. 7, 2024
Connecting Victoria Engagement Opportunity
From the City of Saskatoon’s website:
We are gathering feedback on the opportunities and challenges for walking and cycling on Victoria Avenue from Taylor Street to Ruth Street. Your feedback will be used to help develop design alternatives and inform the final design plan.
This is the first of two opportunities to provide feedback on the project. In the first round of engagement, we want to gather feedback from property owners, members of the public and community groups. Your feedback will be used to develop design alternatives and inform the recommended design.
The recommended design will be presented to the Standing Policy Committee on Transportation and City Council in 2025.
If you have an interest in connecting more areas of the city with safer infrastructure for pedestrians and cyclists and other vulnerable road users, these opportunities are your chance to be heard. From the specific (“I would like to see a pedestrian activated button here”) to the general (“I think my grand-daughter on her bike should be able to feel safe on the road here”), the city wants your feedback. Use the survey link below to get involved.
You can view the city’s informational boards by clicking here.
You can take the survey by clicking here.
Ride for Refuge 2024
Saskatoon Cycles has once again entered a fundraising team in the “Ride for Refuge“, a cross-Canada, family-friendly, in-person fundraising ride/walk held in support of charities that help people seeking hope, safety, and freedom.
In Saskatoon, the charity this year is Global Gathering Place, and our city’s ride is on on Saturday, September 28, 2024.
Want to support the Saskatoon Cycles’ fundraising “dream team”? You might get some warm fuzzies and have fun!!!
Click here to DONATE or JOIN or BOTH!!!
LiveableYXE 2024
The best advocacy gets done with officials who are responsive to the vision of the community, and that’s why citizen engagement in the electoral process is so important: if a candidate understands you before the election, it’s more likely they’ll hear you after they’re elected.
LiveableYXE is a non-partisan, community-driven initiative to bring awareness to the importance of urban quality through local democracy.
During the 2016 and 2020 civic elections cycles, the project engaged candidates in a conversation about what makes for a liveable Saskatoon, and asked what their positions were on a number of key contributing elements.
LiveableYXE will be back again for Saskatoon’s 2024 municipal election, and Saskatoon Cycles is excited to be one of the many organizations working together to offer all civic candidates a chance to speak to issues that matter to voters.
Stay tuned for more information. If you’d like to get involved with LiveableYXE, please email them here.
Keep Rolling Program
A quick note of acknowledgement to our friends at the Saskatchewan Intercultural Association for inviting us to work with them on a cycling safety and skills session on July 30, 2024.
Over 30 youths of various ages were able to learn some safety basics from the Saskatoon Police Service and our Keep Rolling volunteers, and then practice some skills with bikes and helmets supplied by the Saskatchewan Intercultural Association.
Keep Rolling provided brand new helmets to the group thanks to a community grant from SGI and some generous pricing from Bike Doctor, as well as our instruction from our part time coordinator Jory, funded through our Saskatchewan Lotteries Community Grant.
Movement for a Bicycle Friendly Canada
If you missed the presentation from Samuel Benoit of Velo Canada Bikes back in June, we’ve gotten a link to the video. The audio isn’t ideal, but you’ll definitely be able to see what the national cycling advocates are working on, and why it’s so important to support the local organizations working on improved safety and access (us!).
Join, donate, and participate in our work and beyond!
Collecting Data
We haven’t mentioned it for a couple of months now, but we’d like to remind members of just how vital it is for city planners and advocates to have robust data to help inform the discussion around cycling infrastructure and patterns around Saskatoon.
Some of the best data is information that indicates how much cycling is happening and where our bikes are taking us. You can pitch in by sharing your biking routes and experiences through a couple of apps that aggregates this data and keeps it anonymous.
1. Install Strava on your phone and track every ride or walk you take. You only need a free account. And if you already use a tracking app, check to see if it has a Strava integration. There are more than 100 apps that Strava connects with.
Strava anonymizes the data from all users in an area and creates the Strava heatmap. Images from these heatmaps can be a powerful visual to show that there are cyclists and walkers using the streets all over Saskatoon (like this presentation on Circle Drive on Ave C). But we need as many cyclists as possible to be using this system!
2. Bookmark Bikemaps.org and report every time you have a cycling crash, a near-miss, see a cycling hazard, or have your bike stolen. This is NOT instead of calling an ambulance or the police. Absolutely do that first if it’s needed!!
Bikemaps.org is a system that aims to catch as many as possible of the almost 70% of all cycling incidents or near misses that don’t get reported officially.
Get Strava
Find out more about the Strava app at strava.com
Donations
Your donations give us the resources to press toward a Saskatoon where cycling is a viable, year-round mode of transportation that is safe, convenient, and comfortable for all ages.
We want families to be able to simply hop on their bikes to go grab an ice cream and enjoy the beauty of Saskatoon. For you or your partner to pick up groceries or a library book. And we really want you to be able to commute to work and back safely and conveniently.
Your donation helps us work on these three ‘pillars’ of cycling development for Saskatoon:
- Infrastructure – A safe, convenient, comfortable, and well-maintained cycling network throughout the city that allows cyclists to go from every neighbourhood to key destinations.
- Ridership – Educate, encourage, and promote cycling so more people choose bicycles as a convenient and safe transportation option year round.
- Culture – Educate, encourage, and promote diversity in ridership with respectful inclusion of all modes of transportation.