PURR! Planning an Urban Recreational Ride

May 2 - Purr is the sound a contented cat makes. It is also my acronym for the most important component of my urban commuting and cycling strategy. PLANNING an URBAN RECREATIONAL RIDE... PURR.... I don't ride fast, but I do ride CONTENTED!

My BLOG postings are probably a little too long. So are my commuting trips into Downtown Winnipeg and out to our Fort Whyte Alive Ecological Interpretive Centre... My longer trips are. however, safe and healthy and always interesting.

So I plan a route that is scenic, not necessarily short. I leave 10 or 20 or 30 minutes earlier than I would have to if I was going to be an "alpha cyclist", merging with the automobile traffic and confronting every car that I can... a life and death race ... to where?

See, that's where my attitude towards active transportation differs from some of the more maniacal cyclists and the carbon dioxide spouting car drivers.

I follow the bends in the rivers, and watch the wildlife, when I get the opportunity, rather than taking the shortest straight line distance between 2 points on a busy and congested and dangerous street. It costs me a couple of minutes, but they are minutes that add value to my life! I take quiet side streets that are safer and more interesting than if I followed the same route day after day... So what if it costs me a few more minutes...

And in the winter, I will leave 30 minutes early, and ride for 20 minutes in 20 below (celsius) weather,before a nice 20 minute breakfast stop, half way to my favourite environmental education centre at Fort Whyte. Warmed up and well fed on one of Winnipeg's notoriously inexpensive breakfast specials, I ride for another 20 minutes, and then stop for a Tim Horton's coffee... the sign of a true Canadian. Then I ride my last 10 minutes, circling around several frozen lakes, and I arrive before I can even frost up my eyelashes and balaclava. (I have a special humidifier mouthpiece to warm up the air when if is between -20 and -40 below). So I plan warm-up stops on the coldest days of a Winnipeg Winter, and I ALWAYS enjoy my bike rides to Fort Whyte Centre. (I usually stop for a beer on the way home, and it serves to quench my thirst AND warm up my feet)

So for me, it is all about planning to take a little extra time and to travel a little slower, and a little safer, and with a lot less gas consumption and CO2 emissions than some of my fellow urban commuters. I am very proud of the fact that EVERYONE that rides a bike to Fort Whyte can save $6 to $8 on a free admission... and this is not a short term gimic but is an integral long term philosophy and policy of the Fort Whyte Alive Centre to promote lowering our carbon footprints. Wouldn't it be neat if there was free admission to some of our sports events, our symphony and some of our museums and heritage tourism destinations... for those who cycle to these events! (Maybe free admission could apply on certain special days... like all summer, for example?)

During Fort whyte Alive's 42 km Eco Adventure race this year on Earth Day, I rode my bike downtown at 6 am, and dropped it off WITHOUT using a car or truck or SUV, like many of the racers did. I hitched a ride with 2 fellow racers in a fule efficient small car, and dropped off my roller blades and extra runners on route. I had hitched a small trailer to my recumbent bike, so after paddling, (portaging), running, and roller blading all the way to Downtown Winnipeg, I just picked up my roller blades and extra equipment as I cycled back. (That was the plan, but some nice volunteer race marshals carried my heavy roller blades back to the start/finish for me!) So, I was the 5th fastest MASTERS EcoAdventure racer this year, or the 3rd slowest.. But I was among those who used the least extra energy, thanks to those who shared transportation with me, and thanks to a little bit of careful planning ahead of time. One of the amazing human resources staff at Fort Whyte Alive has already suggested that they might try getting a couple of volunteer van drivers to offer rides to 10 cyclists next year, who are willing to ride their bikes downtown to the bike transfer zone. Great idea! So I didn't win with the fastest time, but I may have won a small ecological victory of sorts...

So there it is... Plan your trips, and you can save energy, be ecologically friendly, appreciate the scenery and nature, and you might even have time to stop for breakfast, coffee and a beer... all without gaining any net calories!

It works for me!

As I peddle (pedal?) my EcoTaxi service this summer around the Heart of our City, I will probably NOT take the shortest and fastest routes. I will be slower, and more interesting and healthier and more ecologically friendly than the city dwellers and tourists who get where they are going a few seconds faster than me ... Most of the destinations around our downtown area are within 8 minutes cycling from the central FORKS area... So how much time could we gain, anyway? It's about the journey people... not just who gets to the destination first......

Hmmm.. Is the first one to get to the end of their life the winner? Or sometimes, can a slower and more interesting route carry its own advantages?

Len (Ecorider)