Free passes to Symphony Under the Sky 2021

From August 26 to September 6, 2021, Bike Edmonton is providing supervised bike parking at Symphony Under the Sky in Hawrelak Park so staff, musicians, and festival attendees can bike and park securely. We need volunteers to help monitor the bike parking.

No prior experience or knowledge needed. On-site training is provided. This role involves sitting at the bike parking compound, greeting people and answering questions relating to the bike parking and Bike Edmonton, and ensuring that bikes aren't stolen. Bring a snack, a book or volunteer with a friend, and enjoy. You can often hear the music from the compound.

Each volunteer will receive a pair of complimentary tickets to another day of Symphony Under the Sky. Two volunteers are required for each shift. Priority is given to existing volunteers and volunteers who have helped at other events, especially those who have previously volunteered for roles without ticket or cash incentives like this year’s Heritage Festival or Casino events.

For more information, including schedule, and to sign up for the bike monitor role, please visit the volunteer sign-up form.

Community Garden Bike Tour, August 15, 2021: ride marshals needed

Do you love gardens and cycling?

Help out with the Community Garden Tour on Sunday, August 15! This easy paced on-street bike tour is organized by Sustainable Food Edmonton (SFE). Bike Edmonton is an enthusiastic partner in this unique urban adventure, which is also an opportunity to connect with people who have little or no urban cycling experience. It's a beautiful way to find out about communities, gardens, and how to get places by bike! By volunteering, you'll help participants get to each community garden safely and you get to share the joy of easy cycling to fun destinations.

Be a ride marshal! Five volunteers are needed. The route is not physically challenging for someone who rides their bike fairly regularly. Bike Edmonton staff will lead the tour and you'll help ensure that the group stays together as much as possible. If you haven't done this role before, all the training you need will be provided in an email sent to you before the ride, and at the volunteer check-in just before the ride.

Date: Sunday, August 15, 2021
Location: Millwoods area

For more information about the Community Garden ride marshal role and to sign up, please visit the volunteer sign-up form.

Free tickets to UP+DT Music Festival: Purple City, volunteers needed

This year the Up+Downtown (UP+DT) Festival is moving outside with the one-day Purple City festival in Hawrelak Park on Saturday, August 7! Since 2013, the festival has transformed Downtown Edmonton into the grounds of a massive music festival, featuring bands, DJs, and comedians. This year they are moving outdoors to the amphitheatre in the park for one glorious day of local independent entertainment outdoors!

Bike Edmonton is providing supervised bike parking so festival attendees can bike and park securely. Volunteers will receive a free ticket to the festival!

No prior experience or knowledge needed. We provide training on-site. This role involves sitting at the bike parking compound, greeting people and answering questions relating to the bike parking and Bike Edmonton, and ensuring that bikes aren't stolen. Volunteer with a friend and enjoy!

For more details and to sign up, please visit the volunteer sign-up form.

Pedego Palooza e-bike rentals and group ride and Bike Edmonton fundraiser

Bike Edmonton will be joining Pedego Electric Bikes Edmonton for a day of e-bike rentals and guided e-bike tours this Thursday, July 29, 2021 just outside Café Bicyclette (8627 91 St). Pedego is generously donating all proceeds from this event to Bike Edmonton.

One or two volunteers are needed to stay at the Bike Edmonton table and answer questions about Bike Edmonton and cycling in Edmonton. Volunteers will receive a gift card to buy food and drinks from Café Bicyclette, and enjoy live music. You don't have to be an expert to fill this role. We provide tips for answering the most common questions.

For more information and to sign up to volunteer for this event, please visit the volunteer sign-up form.

If you want to rent an e-bike and participant, please visit the Eventbrite page.

Heritage Festival volunteers needed, no experience necessary

Volunteers are needed to help monitor bikes at the Heritage Festival supervised bike parking compounds this Saturday, July 31 to Monday, August 2, 2021 in Hawrelak Park.

No experience is needed: as a bike monitor, you’ll be welcoming people to lock their bikes up and answering questions.

We also need a few volunteer mechanics. Mechanics will be be safety checking bikes and performing minor adjustments. We also need help transporting portable bike racks to and from the site.

The Heritage Festival has been one of our most effective outreach and fundraising events in the past. Many people who arrive on bicycles over the course of the weekend are fairly new to cycling. By volunteering, you get to enjoy seeing many new riders who are learning that cycling in the city is fun and rewarding!

For full details, please visit the volunteer sign-up form.

Bike Repair 101 course, Saturday July 17, 9am - 12pm, 2021

In our hands-on Bike Repair 101 workshop, our most popular class, you will gain confidence and save money by doing simple repairs yourself as well as preventing expensive parts from wearing out. Bring your bicycle so you can learn techniques specific to your components, or you can work on one of Bike Edmonton's bikes. This is a great place to start if you have little or no experience working on bikes, and will cover:

• drivetrain cleaning and lubrication,

• flat tire repair,

• basic brake and gearing adjustments, and

• how to spot small problems before they become big problems.

Registration is required. These classes tend to fill up, so register early to reserve your spot. For more information and to register, please visit https://apps.bikeedmonton.ca 

Bike Edmonton members receive a $10 discount. Masks are required during our courses. #yegbike

Full 2021 schedule for Ever Active Schools children's' cycling clinics

Are you looking for cycling education for your children, grades 4 to 12? We’re partnering with Ever Active Schools to make cycling a fun and an effective, safe transportation option for students.

BRINGING CITY CYCLING STRATEGIES TO LIFE FOR EDMONTON STUDENTS

PROJECT OBJECTIVE:

To support active transportation and acknowledge Edmonton's emerging cycling infrastructure,

Ever Active Schools is recruiting students to participate in our Bringing City Cycling Strategies to

Life for Edmonton Students project. This initiative aims to make cycling fun and an effective, safe

WHAT PARTICIPANTS CAN EXPECT:

Free one day cycling clinic that will cover: helmet and bike knowledge, bicycle handling, signals and safe, secure locking methods, navigating intersections, signage, and routes, cycling etiquette, basic bicycle maintenance, on-road guided riding

Program perks: bicycle checks by a certified bicycle mechanic, connecting young cyclists with knowledgeable, experienced, enthusiastic members of Edmonton’s cycling community, small session sizes, with a lead and sweep, 2.5 hour guided on-road riding to practise skills, visits to interesting and informative bike stops, certificate of course completion, free snacks and lunch!

PLEASE NOTE: This is not a learn to bike program. This program is intended to teach students

about the cycling infrastructure in Edmonton and we will be doing a 10km on road ride.

CLINIC DATES, LOCATIONS, AND REGISTRATION LINKS

July 11, 10am - 4pm, John A. McDougall School: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/161039382127

July 18, 10am - 4pm, Parkdale Cromdale Community League: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/161039783327

July 25, 10am - 4pm, Parkdale Cromdale Community League: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/161040112311

August 22, 10am - 4pm, John A. McDougall School: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/161040359049

Funded by: Edmonton Community Foundation

Free Cycling Clinics for Grades 4-12 Students in Edmonton

Ever Active Schools, in partnership with Bike Edmonton, is running free City Cycling Strategies Clinics for Grades 4-12 Students in Edmonton communities!

This initiative aims to increase the cycling knowledge, community awareness, safety, and confidence.

To register or find out more about the upcoming clinics, please visit the registration links for various dates:

Clinic Registration

• June 15 and 17

• June 22 and 24

• June 29

Free Online Presentation, Cycling In the City, Getting Around Comfortably

Ritchie Community League is hosting Bike Edmonton’s free live presentation, Cycling In the City, Getting Around Comfortably this Saturday, June 12, 2021, 10am - 11pm. We'll cover the ABCs of basic bike mechanics, and what to do to safely venture beyond our neighbourhoods and multi-use paths. The presentation is 45-minutes, leaving 15 minutes to answer your questions. While the presentation is geared to people relatively new to cycling, it is an excellent refresher for experienced cyclists who who are asked for advice by family and friends. To register, visit the Ritchie Community event webpage https://ritchie-league.com/special-events/2021/6/4/cycling-secrets-a-bike-edmonton-online-presentation….

Online presentation this Thursday, May 27 at noon. Change Mobility for Climate: Try Cycling!

Bike Edmonton will be presenting at the City of Edmonton’s Lunchbox Series, Change Mobility for Climate: Try Cycling! Join us this Thursday, May 27, at 12 noon. We’ll be talking about the basics for starting to cycle in the city: safety, locking your bike, finding a pleasant route, and how to ride in traffic. Transportation accounts for 30% of our GHG emissions and 42% of our energy use. At this free #ClimateLunchboxSeries webinar, learn the many ways to get around town, and get an intro to cycling in Edmonton. http://changeforclimate.ca/lunchboxseries

Pedal Poll — Join the National Bike Count

Vélo Canada Bikes, the national voice for everyday cycling, is looking for volunteers to help between June 1-6 in the first national count of cycling! Volunteers will observe cyclists for a 2-hour shift using a simple phone app.

Sign-up here.

Volunteers stationed across the country will observe cyclists pass by and note key information for 2-hour shifts, on June 1st and 6th, or another fair weather day that week.

Vélo Canada Bikes, and university researchers will use the data to make cycling a part of the solution to climate change and managing COVID-19.

Join us and invite others to participate in Canada’s first-ever national count! Vélo Canada Bikes will provide instructions for communities to collect data in the same way so that it can be compared regionally, nationally, and internationally.

Capilano Park trail closures

Capilano Park is closed until August 2021.

Access to Gold Bar or to the Capilano neighbourhood and Forest Heights is extremely limited and inaccessible.

If you are approaching from across the 50 St bridge, you will have to traverse steep singletrack or hills to access the lower granular off-leash trail.

Users approaching from Gold Bar are directed onto the Moonraker singletrack trail, which is an intermediate mountain biking trail.

Neither option is very accessible if you have any disabilities, strollers, trailers, or even a heavily loaded bicycle. Detour signage is poor.

We have placed inquiries with the City for more details about the closure, better signage, and more accessible detour options, and encourage you to call 311, file an online report, or report through the 311 app to increase the attention on the lack of appropriate information and accessible detours.

Ribbon of Green and River Valley Planning Modernization Project

The City is asking the question: "How will we ensure that the River Valley, the backbone of our open space network, remains vibrant and ecologically resilient as the city grows?"

The project involves two parts:

Completing the Ribbon of Green Plan: The Ribbon of Green provides the strategic direction: the overall vision for the future of the River Valley, the high-level plans for the connected open spaces within it, and the policy that guides our decisions about what happens in that space. In the upcoming work, the City will build on what was created through the Ribbon of Green SW+NE to complete the planning for the remainder of the River Valley and Ravines System.

Modernizing the North Saskatchewan River Valley Area Redevelopment Plan (Bylaw 7188, also known as the River Valley Bylaw): The River Valley ARP provides the regulatory framework: the standards and rules that guide the evaluation of individual projects and development that is proposed for the River Valley. In the upcoming work, the City will update the ARP so that it aligns with the City’s strategic direction, reflects Edmonton’s current planning and development context, and strengthens the City’s ability to protect and preserve environmentally sensitive areas.

This work will be completed through four phases in 2021 and 2022. The current steps are the beginning of Phase 1.

Provide your feedback in the interactive portal and register for stakeholder or public workshops.

Northeast trails and Edmonton-Strathcona Footbridge

Why are people excited about the new Edmonton-Strathcona County Footbridge, which recently held engagement for the concept design?

The footbridge will connect two already-complete trails, the East End Trails near Edmonton’s northeast Horse Hill neighbourhood, and the Riverside Nature Trail and Trans Canada Trail in Strathcona County.

Both trails are complete, including shared path connections completely separated from traffic (you can bike all the way from Rundle Park to Riverside Nature Trail without biking on the road), but you won’t find them on Google Maps! If you haven’t been to the northeast in recent years since these trails were completed, it’s worth a visit.

Check out our map for a full river valley route (with detour around LRT construction) that can be biked. The route pictured includes some unpaved sections in Hermitage Park, but you can stick to the adjacent paved trail if you prefer.

You can also find the Edmonton-side trails in the Discover YEG Living Map.

Draft concepts of 142 Street Bridge over Whitemud Drive

The City is accepting feedback on draft concepts for the 142 St Bridge over Whitemud Drive until May 30.

The City is seeking input on:

• The Bridge Concept Design Options

• The Open Space Enhancements

• The Active Transportation Options

This is an exciting project which will complete an important missing link, as well as complete active transportation connections within Brookside, and connect to the coming shared path that will be constructed alongside Terwillegar Drive.

Construction of the bridge is planned for 2025. The pedestrian bridge is part of the Terwillegar Drive Expansion project, a three-phase project to turn Terwillegar Drive into an expressway, widening Rainbow Valley Bridge, constructing additional lanes onto Terwillegar Drive and 170 St, and upgrading both interchanges at Whitemud Drive and at the Anthony Henday. The initial two phases are expected to cost at least $223 million.

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132 Avenue Renewal

132 Avenue between Fort Road and 127 Street is undergoing a renewal process, with construction anticipated to start in 2023. This corridor is a critical missing link identified in the Bike Plan,

Three options for cycling infrastructure are proposed in the 132 Ave biking information package, and you can provide your feedback on the options until Thursday, May 20.

Join the biking discussion on Engaged Edmonton to leave your comments and ideas.

You can also complete the online survey and leave comments about driving, traffic calming, walking, parking, and gathering spaces on the full engagement page.

Our preference is the protected roadway-level bike lane, similar to the downtown network. A shared pathway may have potential as well: a preferred option between the two will be dependent on specific design considerations and tradeoffs, details which haven’t been planned at this phase. If you are familiar with specific locations along 132 Ave where one option would be the clear choice, please provide that feedback to the City, and let us know as well.

The raised bike path option is not preferred as maintenance and design issues mean raised bike paths often fail to function well year-round.

As part of collector renewal process, the new design of 132 Ave will emphasize the following principles:

• Create spaces along 132 Avenue that offer safe transportation pathways for all users

• Enhance the community by creating beautiful spaces along 132 Avenue

• Invest in infrastructure improvements that will create a more positive experience for all users of 132 Avenue and foster the maintenance and development of great local destinations, both businesses and recreational opportunities

• Prioritize the safety of children at the many schools along 132 Avenue and those living in the communities along 132 Avenue

Full details, and registration for the upcoming online engagement sessions are available on the project website.