(media release written for Vancouver Area Cycling Coalition)

VANCOUVER (Jan. 22, 2010) - You don't have to go it alone if you want to get around on two wheels during the Olympic Games. These online resources are invaluable tools for new cycle commuters and give experienced urban cyclists an opportunity to share their favourite routes with colleagues, friends and neighbours. There's also links to information on transit, bike parking, and other essential 2010 travel information.

VACC Bike to Work Commute Tracker
Track your GHG reductions, kms, and calories burned on our interactive mapping and tracking tool. It lets you compete with yourself and against other teams once you have signed in. It also lets you share mapped routes to find co-workers that you can ride in with.


City of Vancouver Bike Route Network
The City of Vancouver has an updated map of bike routes including closures and temporary bike routes here:


Bike Parking
Maps for bike parking facilities in Vancouver, at the Richmond Olympic Oval, and UBC/Thunderbird Arena can be found here:




Cycling in Cities Route Planner
Cycling in Cities is a UBC research project seeking a better understanding of the impact of the built environment on urban cycling. As part of the project, the team created an interactive map allowing users to choose a destination and find the best route to suit their needs; whether they are seeking the shortest route, least amount of air pollution, fewest hills, or even the route with the most vegetation! The map also shows important information such as 2010 security road closures, bike parking locations, and Olympic lanes.


Project Blue Sky
The Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games have a climate goal. Project Blue Sky's goal is to 'race' the Vancouver 2010 Organizing Committee and its partners to that goal by collecting one billion kilometres worth of carbon-cutting contributions before March 2010. You can connect with your favourite athletes, challenge your friends, tell your story and track your carbon reductions by logging the kilometres you walk, cycle, or ride on public transit.


TravelSmart 2010
A one-stop website for those seeking to stay up-to-date on travel alerts, find out about Sea to Sky highway closures and transportation to Whistler venues, ride-sharing, airport, train, and ferries information.


In addition to these online resources, the VACC is continuing to offer its Getting Around the Games cycling workshops to organizations seeking to offer employees a safe, easy, and efficient commuting option during the 2010 Games. Full details can be found online at the VACC's website.

Labels: 2010 olympics, cycling, getting around during olympics, Vancouver, vancouver area cycling coalition

COPENHAGEN, Nov. 30 /PRNewswire/ -- Counting down to the UN Climate Change Conference (COP15) in December, the people of Copenhagen will be pedalling hard to light up the traditional Christmas tree on City Hall Square.

Tradition has it that the big Christmas tree on Copenhagen's City Hall Square is lit up with hundreds of lights. But this year it will be a different story - unless people pedal hard, that is.

During the Climate Summit, Copenhagen's City Hall Square will be transformed into a climate-friendly city called Hopenhagen Live. Until 18 December, Copenhageners and anyone else who is concerned about the environment can jump on the bikes and pedal to light up the tree - and burn a few calories while they're at it. This alternative way of lighting up the Christmas tree will save the environment a total of nine tonnes of CO2 compared to the traditional way of powering the lights.


photo: http://www.copenhagenmediacenter.com

Copenhagen is already known as the City of Cyclists, and the term Copenhagenize has become a catchword for a new concept - when cities work to encourage increased usage of this healthy and CO2-friendly means of transport. With more than 350 kilometres of cycle lanes and one third of all Copenhageners commuting by bike every day, Copenhagen truly is a bicycle city.

While the UN Climate Summit is taking place in Bella Center from 7 - 18 December, the whole city will be booming with international cultural events. At City Hall Square there will be music, exhibitions and happenings. Al Gore and Bishop Desmond Tutu will be in town, and more than 65 heads of state and government will take part in the official COP15 in Bella Center - not to mention the 100 mayors from all over the world invited to City Hall Square during the summit.

Follow the cyclists lighting up the tree at http://www.hopenhagenlive.dk/

Labels: Christmas lights, climate change, Copenhagen, cycling

Beat 2010 Traffic. Bike To Work!

Getting around the city? It may end up being the toughest event of the 2010 Winter Olympics. Metro Vancouver commuters are facing nearly two months of road closures and traffic challenges.  But, there's one way to avoid the chaos. Consider biking to work. It's easier than you think and way more fun than fuming in traffic! Join MEC and the Vancouver Area Cycling Coalition (VACC) Thursday, Dec. 3rd, 7pm at the Vancouver store (130 West Broadway) for great advice on:

Getting Your bike Ready
The Best Gear for Winter Riding
Safe routes in the City
Riding in Traffic
Realistic Expectations

The one hour presentation will be followed by a short question and answer session.

Are you going to be stuck in traffic, jammed onto overcrowded transit, or enjoying the peaceful, healthy experience of biking to work? Get the information you need to make the best choice for your daily commute.

Labels: 2010 olympics, cycling, mountain equipment co-op, sustainable transportation

My latest article is online at the Tyee. Find out who's behind the Big Apple's transportation system reboot.

Why New York Enticed Translink Chief
When Translink CEO Tom Prendergast starts running NYC's transit system, he'll have a visionary ally in Janette Sadik-Khan.
By Chris Keam

Translink's challenges are once again in the spotlight, with a damning ministry report preceded by last week's announcement that CEO Tom Prendergast is leaving Vancouver to become the president of New York City Transit. The reasons for Prendergast's decision, rumored and official, include Translink troubles and Big Apple opportunities. But one largely unmentioned reality that surely played a role in Prendergast's decision is the powerful compatriot he will have in Janette Sadik-Khan. (Read the full article)

Labels: commuting, cycling, new york city, sustainable transportation, translink, Vancouver

Paris has long been known as the City of Light. But increasingly, it's becoming the City of Bikes. The famous French city was at the forefront of the public bike movement with its successful and much-emulated velib program. Now, a subsidy for e-scooters has been extended to e-bikes as part of the city's strategy to promote cycling for transportation. Parisians can get up to € 400 from the Paris Council when they buy an e-bike. And, unlike some of the North American cash-for-clunkers programs which quickly blew through their budgets, this French initiative currently has no end date or limit on how much will be spent for the program.

Labels: cash-for-clunkers, cycling, cycling subsidies, e-bikes, Paris, velib

I wrote an editorial appearing in today's edition of the Vancouver Sun. Although it carries my byline, I must acknowledge the help of Mary Sherlock and Arno Schortinghuis for their help with the raw materials, and Richard Campbell and Rob Wynen for advice and direction with the tone and tack of the piece.

Here's the first paragraph:

One month after the opening of bike lanes on the Burrard Bridge, it's a little hard to remember what all the fuss was about. Drivers haven't suffered from the change. Communications efforts before the trial began, publicizing the upcoming change and suggesting alternate routes clearly paid off. Unsurprisingly, cyclists and pedestrians are lauding the new arrangement. The increased safety both user groups now enjoy has turned uneasy confrontations into peaceful coexistence. Hopefully, these outcomes will spur further initiatives to create the separated, protected facilities that make walking and biking in the city a safe option for people of all ages and abilities.

And a link to the full article

Labels: bike lane trial, Burrard Bridge, cycling, pedestrians, Vancouver

June 23, 2009 - City of Vancouver communications and neighbourhood transportation staff gave a special media briefing Tuesday, explaining some of the details and logistics surrounding the upcoming $1.4 million cycling lane reallocation trial on the Burrard Bridge.

Here are seven things about the upcoming trial cyclists and pedestrians should know. Feel free to post questions and I’ll do my best to answer them. If you’d like to know more, read the media briefing for more detail on the plans at this Vancouver Sun link, take a look at the city’s lane reallocation technical details web page, or keep it brief with this summary backgrounder. (All images below are from the City of Vancouver reports)

1. Monday, July 13 is the big day. Barriers, lane painting, and roadwork will be done the weekend previous. Expect the bridge to be ready for your morning commute unless bad weather the previous week delays roadwork. Banners reminding drivers of the change will go up on the bridge at the end of the month and a three week media blitz will commence.



2. A particularly nasty section of road where northbound cyclists currently leave the bridge and merge with eastbound traffic on the north side of the bridge should see some improvements -- with the addition of a bike lane and bike boxes on the stretch between Burrard and Hornby making it easier for cyclists to use the Hornby Street bike lanes as a route into the downtown core. A slip lane will allow bikers to cross over the eastbound car lane and continue north on Burrard, but extreme caution will be the order of the day as this problematic intersection may yet retain some of its inherent dangers.



3. All pedestrians will be using the west sidewalk. Apparently, city data suggests two-thirds of walkers already use this side, perhaps because of the ocean view. The best place to get over to the east side of Burrard before you get to the bridge itself is at First Ave.



4. Cyclists will have the benefit of barriers on both their protected lanes. With the lack of pedestrians to act as deterrents to excess speed, it will be instructive to see if any new safety issues related to cyclists passing each other arise.

5. Bike lanes on Pacific and Burrard on the northwest side of the bridge should give cyclists a clear route onto their new protected lane of southbound road space on the bridge deck.

6. There was no commitment to an end date, meaning that an unsuccessful trial can be abandoned early, despite assurances from the City that a report will be prepared after three months.

7. Buses heading south on the bridge will see their bus lane extended past Pacific Boulevard, so that buses will have some measure of priority when getting onto the bridge. If transit experiences severe and prolonged congestion problems, engineers may implement special transit phasing of traffic lights at the intersection to keep buses moving.

Labels: bikes, Burrard Bridge, cycling, lane reallocation, pedestrians, Vancouver

A two-wheeled tour of Vancouver

Labels: carbusters, cycling, Vancouver

Labels: bmx, cycling, mtb skills development, Vancouver, Vanier Park dirt jump park

“It will make the chicken debate look calm,” notes Vancouver Councillor Geoff Meggs during the March 18th meeting of the city’s Bicycle Advisory Committee. He’s referring to the expected protestations from drivers, regarding the hoped-for implementation of a two lane reallocation trial on the Burrard Bridge later this year… and referencing the uproar that ensued when council advanced the idea of allowing city residents to keep chickens. And while much laughter accompanies Meggs’ mention of urban poultry, everyone in the room knows the first few days of the lane reallocation may be the make or break moment for the proposal.

And if the trial doesn't work out, cyclists can all buy water-bikes and still get across False Creek via pedal power without sucking exhaust fumes or dodging pedestrians!

Meggs’ comments come at the end of a report on trial preparations by David Rawsthorne, the city engineer tasked with the unenviable job of balancing the needs of advocates and critics, overcoming traffic flow challenges, and making the reallocation trial a reality. Rawsthorne is here on his day off, fielding questions and concerns from the Bicycle Advisory Committee, and asking the B.A.C. to make a motion formally supporting the two-lane trial. It’s the urban design equivalent of grunt work, the meetings and discussions armchair experts don’t have to engage in when proclaiming their ‘obvious’ solutions to improving a traffic network that moves millions of people around Metro Vancouver every day. Rawsthorne faces a friendly crowd tonight however. Committee members are eager to see this initiative gain momentum.

Two issues dominate the discussion. Identifying the feeder routes that will funnel cyclists to the bridge and ensuring communications between the public, media, and city representatives relay factual information and helpful solutions during the transition.

Advisory Committee members want to make sure that nearby bike routes aren’t flooded with drivers seeking shortcuts, a situation that could actually dissuade cyclists from the most sensible paths to the bridge and likely to raise the ire of area residents. They want the City to identify the best ways to get cyclists to the new lanes and make sure they’re clearly marked. Luckily, monitoring traffic and putting up signage is pretty straightforward. Good data and a small budget are all that’s needed to bring the bikers to the bridge.

Sharing the good news however, may not be as cut and dried. Meggs says council is going to need to know exactly how the trial is going from the outset. The media will be eager for comment. Critics will be ready and willing to exploit any flaws be they real or perceived. Everyone recognizes the threat to the trial inherent in a basic tenet of the news business. “Two Lane Trial Goes Unnoticed” isn’t the kind of headline encouraging one to take a free copy of the papers proffered by orange and green smocked human newsstands seemingly stationed at every busy street corner and transit hub in the downtown core.

And there it sits. No date has yet been set to take the matter before council, but the day approaches. When it does, judging from City Council’s interest in the process, approval seems likely. At that point, it’s a matter of a couple months to put barriers and signage in place and get the trial underway. A big change to the bridge seems imminent. This summer, be it a Point Grey gathering with canapés and champagne, or a Mount Pleasant kegger featuring quinoa and cannabis, determining whether that change is for good or ill is bound to be one hot topic.

Labels: Burrard Bridge, city council, cycling, lane reallocation, Vancouver

I sent a letter to the Georgia Straight after Ted Laturnus got the physics of cycling way wrong–in a cruiser bike review he wrote in place of the usual auto-philia. But the editors left out all the good stuff. Below, the de-evolution of a perfectly good 'pwning'

Labels: cruiser bike, cycling, georgia straight, physics, ted laturnus, Vancouver

Is this a good time to be in the bike business? Economic doom and gloom seems pervasive. Household budgets are shrinking. For many consumers, spending on fun has been replaced by: saving for a rainy day at best… and at worst, struggling to stay solvent. How can the cycling industry weather this financial storm?

As a communications professional and long-time cyclist, I believe a big part of the answer lies in three effective, low-cost tactics anyone in the bike industry can employ:

- taking advantage of new shopping habits
- welcoming a new kind of customer
- leveraging increased media attention to cycling.

Below, I explain the ‘how’ and ‘why’ behind these three tactics. They are relatively simple and you can do them yourself. Or, if you lack the time and expertise, I invite you to contact me via phone or email – to discuss how I can implement them with your company. But, whether you choose to do it yourself or hire someone to take on the job, it’s important to know this is one race that will be won by those who make the early move and break away from the pack. Let’s get started!

The Search Engine Shopper
For many consumers, a preliminary Google search has become the norm when they are considering a purchase. Fortunately, most bike shops nowadays can boast a website and an Internet presence. But being found on the Internet is only the first step. As the local search capabilities of the Internet expand and mobile phone technology incorporates built-in GPS and web-browsing capabilities, consumers are increasingly relying on the World Wide Web to find what they want and where they have to go to buy it. Unfortunately, if you’re not near the top of the list, your store may as well be invisible.

Why is it important your business shows up near the top of the search results? Because a good ranking makes a difference in your bottom line! Numerous studies regarding the search habits of Internet users show they concentrate on the highest-ranking sites and rarely make it to the second or third page of results. Simply put, being among the top few results will increase the pool of potential customers for your store.

It’s also crucial for companies (especially retail outlets) to make sure their physical location can be found through geotagging or a Google Maps listing. Beyond just providing location details that tell the search engine where to display your listing, you can use this service to provide reasons to visit your store, even if customers don’t visit your website. Take advantage of the ability to add pictures, comments, and other content to your listing. Encourage your current customers to post a review of your store. All these tactics give your potential customers more information about your products and the ongoing stream of new content helps keep your listing near the top of the search engine rankings.

Of course, finding time to generate new content and optimize the company’s web presence to keep it near the top of the search rankings is a predicament that’s hard to overcome. Consider outsourcing your content creation. If you can’t find the time and it’s not getting done, it’s better to pay an experienced web writer or SEO specialist for a few hours of work each month rather than fail to keep your online presence high in the rankings.

Welcoming the New Rider
Tough economic times are putting more people on bikes – as a cost-saving alternative to the car. Environmental considerations are another good reason people are using to dust off their old bikes, or buy a new one. Whatever the individual motivation – as an idea, bikes for transportation are back.

It’s not a great revelation to be sure, but coming with them is a new type of customer, one often intimidated by the atmosphere of the local bike shop and different from cycling enthusiasts. They don’t want to get sweaty, or dirty, or look like a rolling Lycra billboard. Gear-inches mean nothing to them and spending thousands on a top-of-the line machine isn’t what they are after. They want to get to work safely. They want simple machines that are easily maintained. They want trailers, whether they’re hauling kids or groceries. Some are going to be very interested in electric assist options. They are definitely going to need more education than the experienced cyclist who knows what he wants before he (or she) ever sets foot in a bike shop.

How can you embrace this demographic and make them feel welcome in your store? Consider non-traditional ways to market your store and services. Maybe it’s a ladies-only evening after regular store hours? An equipment checklist (you can see my version here) for the commuter cyclist? Workshops or tip-sheets for riding in traffic? Can your staff provide good reasons to avoid the big box stores and dispel the illusion of cost-savings department store bikes seem to offer? Above all, does your staff embody the cliché of the elitist, unhelpful bike store employee, or will every potential customer be treated to helpful, respectful, superior service?

Making the Most of the Media
According to a search I performed using Google Trends, news results for ‘bicycle’ in the year 2008 spiked in March and again in May, while overall searches peak in July. Nothing beats free coverage in the media for reaching lots of consumers at a low cost. But, it’s important to be ready with newsworthy angles for writers and editors to consider. Can you provide a reporter with the name and phone number of a Mom who takes her kids to school on a bike? Know a senior who’s reaping the health benefits of cycling? A businessman who rides to work but still looks sharp when he gets there? These are the kinds of angles the media will be looking for this year, as cycling for transportation becomes more and more visible. Expect electric assist to also be a hot topic.

Above all, be proactive. Develop relationships with the press and approach reporters and producers with story ideas (pdf) before they occur. The media is always in search of new and interesting angles. Budget cuts in most newsrooms mean there’s little time for research and development of new contacts however. Come to the table with good ideas and compelling visuals. Media coverage is sure to follow.

I feel optimistic about the bike industry. I believe the bicycle is a marvelous invention about to undergo a rebirth and a return to its traditional place in society – as a tool for transportation, in addition to being a recreational machine. I think change brings opportunities. If you are in the business of selling bicycles or bike-related goods and services and need a writer with an understanding of your industry and its challenges, please give me a call or send me an email.

Labels: bike industry, Chris Keam, cycling, marketing

Momentum magazine hosted a sewing workshop for cyclists on Saturday, Nov. 8. On hand to teach participants how they can recycle old sweaters and dress slacks into stylish arm warmers and cycling knickers was Nan Eastep of B Spoke Tailor. Here's some highlights of the fun, and an interview with Nan about her company and its products.

Labels: B Spoke tailor, bikes, clothes, cycling, fashion, Momentum magazine