Interested in breaking out your bike for the summer, but don’t know where to start? Why not join a community bike ride with Wheely Fun Alberni?
Wheely Fun Alberni is an initiative of the Wood School Bike Education program, which started with bicycling education in the classroom.
“Now that it’s the summertime, school’s out,” said organizer Emma Lavery. “So we’re doing bike rides around town.”
Some of the rides so far have included trips to the Sunset Market at Victoria Quay, a bike ride to the Our Town country fair at Blair Park and a bike ride to Alberni Pride Fest.
“We’re going to community events around town,” said Lavery. “We’ll have lots of games and events for kids to do there. Our main goal here is getting people out and about.”
The rides are open to bike riders of all ages and ability. “Anybody who wants to come for a group ride and learn about safe routes,” said Lavery.
Part of the education is about the city’s new cycling infrastructure, such as bike lanes and sharrows. “It’s really great to have the new infrastructure in place and be able to use it,” said Lavery. “We’re trying to get the word out there about safety in cycling.”
The rides will use different routes each time, so riders can have a different experience. Some will have more hills, while others will follow the city’s sharrows more strictly.
Wheely Fun will be partnering up with Sunset Market on Wednesday, August 2 for CycleMania, where local cycle groups will be set up with cycling demos, bicycles for sale, cycling information, crafts and music. You can ride to CycleMania from Echo Centre at 6 p.m. Everyone is welcome to come to the market for an evening of cycling and fun.
Right now, the group’s main goal is gathering an audience. “We’re hoping to build that up over the summer,” said Lavery.
A full schedule of bike rides is available at avtransitiontown.org/cycle-alberni/bike-education-project/.