opinion & features

Alana Lajoie 0'MalleyThink again

It is coming up to (or is it already?) that time of year when most cyclists retire their rides for the season.  Understandable, I suppose.  One doesn’t exactly associate snow-packed streets with leisurely bike rides to work.  Still, I can’t help but notice that every year there seem to be more people on two wheels through the snowy months.

Last winter, I decided to give it a go.  I saved about $350 in bus fare (so what is that... like $700 if I had been driving?); saved hours of time waiting at bus stops or trudging along un-cleared sidewalks; got lots of great exercise and fresh air; and hey, I learned a few things about why winter cycling in Winnipeg actually makes a lot of sense. Here hey are:

1. Winter cycling gets you moving and outside.  I heard once years ago that on average, we spend less than six per cent of our lives outside.  Six percent!!!  Think about it, though – most of us sleep indoors, work indoors, eat indoors, and commute ‘indoors’ to get to a gym where we can ride a pretend bike or pretend ski machine or pretend hiking trail indoors.  I once heard an avid cyclist in Winnipeg say, “I hate to exercise.  That’s why I ride my bike.”  Yep.  
2. Cycling is a great way to keep warm in the winter.  It beats walking hands down, it trumps shivering at bus stops, and your feet don’t freeze up the way they do down there by the gas pedal.  And this isn’t just true for people who have all kinds of fancy gear.  A pair of very good mittens is really all you need.  But don’t take my word for it – try it for yourself.
3. Winter cycling is way less dangerous than it looks.  Seriously.  It just takes a bit of smart route planning and riding – stick to the major thoroughfares as much as possible, and slow right down on the side streets.  When I used to watch those nutcases speeding along Osborne on a cold January morning, I was convinced that they had a death wish.  But it turns out that in the winter, cyclists really take advantage of the traces cars leave behind.  While quiet side streets can often end up slushy, icy death traps, those big wide streets end up bare for most of the winter.  All the cars melt the ice (thanks cars!), and on snowy days they’re the first to get ploughed.  

I’ll admit it – it wasn’t all rosy.  To my surprise, the hardest part about my first winter on a bike was dealing with road rage.  Mine. 

More days than I’d like to admit, my early morning rides to my yoga studio became enraging meditations on how car-centric we still are.  Sidewalks and bike routes piled high with snow.  The odd driver yelling profanities or honking at me (Drivers – please don’t do this.  It is very dangerous.  It startles cyclists and risks making us swerve right into traffic).  I’d arrive at my yoga studio ready to go off on the first person who would engage me in a conversation about urban design for active transportation.

But I figure that if the biggest problem I had biking last winter was my own anger, there are more reasons to give it another go than not.  I’ll work on my attitude, and hope that more people take advantage of resources like the UWSA Bike Lab and Natural Cycle to learn about winterizing their bikes so that the whole idea gets just a little more normal every year.

– Alana Lajoie-O’Malley is the director of the Campus Sustainability Office at The University of Winnipeg.