A neighbourhood that’s geared toward cycling, with amenities like bike routes and plentiful, convenient bike parking, encourages people to use bikes for everyday tasks and helps create a healthier community.
This week, I spent some time with Meg O’Shea, Sustainability Coordinator for the Strathcona Business Improvement Association, and Donna Chen from cycling advocacy group HUB: Your Cycling Connection, to find out how they’re working together to promote cycling and bring benefits to families, individuals and businesses in the Strathcona neighbourhood.
Meg explained that the impetus for the SBIA to become more involved in cycling began with participation in HUB’s Bike to Work Week, which highlighted the strong energy around cycling in the neighbourhood.
They felt this offered an opportunity to raise the profile of cycling and help businesses become more cycle-friendly in ways that would benefit the businesses themselves, their employees, and their customers.
Knowing that HUB are very much Vancouver’s cycling experts, the SBIA began a discussion with them about how to promote cycling in ways that would add value for everyone while supporting business needs in Strathcona.
For HUB, who are used to working at a more city-wide scale, the collaboration was a great opportunity to test a new, neighbourhood-level approach to cycling needs.
Investigations by the two organizations highlighted a number of opportunities.
Key among these was improving awareness and access of the many services on offer in Strathcona.
Meg explained that for many bicyclists, the three blocks between Adanac — one of the city’s most popular bike routes — and Hastings, where Strathcona’s retail sector is located with a wealth of destination shops, stores and services, is seen as a significant barrier.
There’s no easy through route, and currently a lack of bike parking on Hastings East poses a problem.
With this in mind, the SBIA is developing a cycling asset map that lists cycle-friendly services such as bike parking, stores that keep bike pumps behind the counter, and community centres that have spare tubes on hand for bicyclists.
Their hope is that this will encourage bicyclists to utilize local businesses, while also making it easier and more convenient to run errands by bike.
The collaboration between HUB and the SBIA also aims to benefit the 8,000-plus employees who work in Strathcona.
Recently the SBIA hosted a HUB Workplace Cycling Workshop for all of its members, hoping that it would particularly benefit the smaller businesses that might not be able to justify the cost of a workshop on their own.
The two organizations already have a number of future plans lined up to build on the work that has already been done, including social rides in the summer to highlight services, facilities and locations off the Adanac route, and potentially implementing shared bikes for businesses.
Both Donna and Meg agree that the collaboration has been hugely productive so far.
The two organizations have not only been able to share practical ideas for improvements, but benefit from each other’s perspectives on how promoting cycling can make a neighbourhood better for everyone.
For more information about HUB, visit:
For more information about the Strathcona Business Improvement Association, visit:
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Kay Cahill is a cyclist and librarian who believes bikes are for life, not just for commuting. Read more at , or send a comment to
