May 26 to June 2 was Revelstoke’s 11th annual Bike To Work week.
Go By Bike, the organization that promotes the event is a province-wide organization that encourages riders to leave their keys at home and instead, hop on a bike with two feet and a heartbeat.
Through its online website, riders can join a team, track their kilometers, see how they compare with other teams, and even see the kilograms of greenhouse gases reduced. But it’s not just biking back and forth to work that counts. All riders are welcome and any ride, be it to work, the grocery store or recreation is fair game.
Revelstoke had 78 teams and 759 riders participate this year, and 107 of the riders were new this year.
Celebration stations set up in the mornings and evenings welcomed hundreds of bike commuters with some tasty treats and prize entries. Riders logged 2,733 trips covering 15,871 km—farther than riding from Alaska to Patagonia.
The top four teams in Revelstoke this year were the Oldtimers (previously known as the Silver Streaks), Parks Canada, Revelstoke Mountain Resort and the School District 19.
Revelstoke is known as one of B.C’s biking capitals, with close to 10 per cent of the population participating. In comparison, Whistler only had six per cent of its population participate this year. But, as most of us know, seeing bicycles on our roads is common whether it’s Bike to Work week or not.
Go by Bike’s website reports that 42,253 riders participated provincially for a grand total of 2,719,413 km clocked, that’s seven trips to the moon.
The most interesting number however, was the 578, 090—that was the number of kilograms of greenhouse gas emissions reduced as a result of the event.
And that was only in one week of riders making a conscious effort get the legs moving – showing a little motivation goes a long way.
@RevelstokeRevue
editor@revelstoketimesreview.com
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