bike culture

Hang 20" Reverse

Show opens tonight and looks stellar. Check it out! Even more fun after the bike show over beers and music.

Queen & Ossington
Photo by Adrienne Lloyd. Ossington & Queen earlier this week.

March 7 - 9 at the Gladstone Hotel. Art, film and bike culture fun.
Featuring artwork by Janet Attard and many others.Hang 20"

For the film buffs, there are two separate bike movie nights happening this week here in Toronto. Both events are free! Bring a date!

Thursday November 29th (Tonight!):
At 6:30pm Bike Chain at the University of Toronto is presenting:

• Ayamye (Documentary about sending bicycles to Ghana)
• The Winking Circle (Eccentric self-expression. Art Bikes. Mutant Bikes. Tall Bikes. Art Cars. Visionary Environments. Sasquatch Sanctuary.)

(NOTE: They were unable to get "Still We Ride" in time for tonight's showing, so it was replaced with "The Winking Circle". Thanks to Alex for the update in the comments).

Bike Chain is located at: Cumberland Room, International Student Centre, 33 St. George (just north of College).
More details here.

Friday November 30th (Tomorrow!):
The Community Bicycle Network is providing free hot chocolate courtesy of Chocosol and bike films after Critical Mass. The event starts at 8:00pm, and they will be presenting:

• Premiere of Critical Mass in Toronto documentary
• Short Bike Films, by Martin Reis
• You Never Bike Alone (Vancouver Critical Mass documentary)

CBN is located at 761 Queen Street W (just west of Bathurst). More details here.

We will soon issue our first ever, annual, iBikeTO award.

The lucky winner will be a person or organization from (or near) Toronto who has made a positive contribution of some kind to cycling in (or near) Toronto.

The awarded person/group will get the Award and their name on a plaque. Both the winner and an honorable mention will get some cool swag from MEC.

This year we want you to participate by bringing to our attention all those people and organizations who have worked hard to make the 2007 cycling year the best yet. If you feel it's worthwhile, you should also mention that special person within an organization who goes "that extra mile" for cyclists.

We're leaving the criteria pretty open this first time, but it will be us bloggers of I Bike TO who will be picking the winners (as well as making some of our own nominations), so please be sure to include a good reason why your pick would be the best.

Nominations close midnight Wednesday September 26 so you don't have much time to nominate your favorite!

The lucky winner will be announced at the start of September's Critical Mass, Bloor and Spadina, September 28th. 6:15pm

Keep the rubber side down,
I Bike TO Bloggers

Perhaps it's a bit of egotism since I'm Dutch-Canadian, but I must say that the Dutch know where it's at. They have the highest bicycle use in Europe with 27% of all trips made by bicycle. And it is much, much higher than the averages in North America which are in the 1-2% range.

Aside from China, The Netherlands has the most experience with creating a bike-centric culture. And it continues in The Netherlands, whereas, in China, leaders are sadly trying to "modernize" their cities (by making room for cars and shoving cyclists off certain main routes).

The powers that be in The Netherlands have produced a quite comprehensive 'brochure' called, Cycling in The Netherlands (pdf), after repeated calls from foreigners asking how the Dutch miracle came about. It's a very good read.

Consider it the bible of how to create a sustainable bike culture. (Except somehow they left out cargo bikes as a major new Dutch phenomenon.) Oh, unless you've got hills or mountains. In that case, you might want to consult some other bike friendly place like Portland or Vancouver.