Bow Valley Crag & Canyon
By: Amanda Symynuk
Cyclists will celebrate the shortest day of the year with a cool ride and cheery lights. Tonight (Wednesday), the Canmore Community Cruisers are hosting an evening for cyclists to get in gear with winter bike safety by decorating their bicycles with festive lights.
“To celebrate creativity and have a bit of fun, we’re going to have a workshop where people can light their own bikes with lights and tinsel and really fun stuff,” said Jen Tweddell, volunteer with the CCC.
There will be a variety of multi-coloured LED light strings, reflectors and tinsel available at the Light My Ride workshop for cyclists to make their bike visible while riding in the shorter days of winter.
Winter Solstice, the shortest day of the year, has the least amount of sunlight, however, cyclists need to be visible year-round. According to the Alberta Traffic Safety Act, cyclists are required to have a white light on the front of their bike and a red light on the rear when travelling in the dark. The visibility makes the road more safe for both cyclists and motorists.
The CCC began to spread the word about cyclist visibility after conducting research about the barriers to active travel for students at Lawrence Grassi Middle School. Their data showed that 25 per cent of the students who travelled by bike used lights and no one wore any type of reflective gear. Additionally, CCC also observed a lack of cyclists using lights after dark.
Throughout December, CCC hosted seminars and handed out free bike lights around town to promote safety.
“What we’re trying to do is share a love of winter biking with everybody and get people thinking about biking in the winter as well as in the summer,” said Tweddell.
CCC want cyclists to share stories about biking in the winter as well as tips, tricks and pictures on Facebook and Twitter using #bikeallwinter,” said Tweddell.
The Light My Ride workshop is tonight (Wednesday) at artsPlace at 6:30 p.m. This event is free for CCC members.