Vancouver Roadies and Snobbery

I'm from the Sunshine Coast have the privilege to ride into Vancouver and often around UBC. In the last 5 years I've seen a ground swell of road cyclists hitting the pavement in the wee hours in the morning, many in groups or pairs or as individuals. Riding on the Sunshine Coast, there are so few of us roadies, when I see one I always make the effort to nod or wave to let the other know that we share the same passion. Lots of smiles and even a hello on occasion. When riding in Vancouver, smiles or a wave seem to few and far between. Its not like there are few riders in Vancouver, in fact there are as many as a couple of hundred I see on my ride. Maybe, its because if others waved, they would be always riding with one hand on the bar or a smile would cause severe facial cramps. The other day I did a little survey - wave to every rider and see if I get a response - anything goes, hell I excepted a nod or glance. 2 out 10 is what I got - terrible really. Whats going on Vancouver roadie's? Are you so into your Strava workout that you've forgot to acknowledge the other people that share your passion? That only a $5000 bike and Zip wheels could ever turn your head? I just think that you're all snobs!

I'll tell you what, take your snobby attitude and shove it in your chamois. And when you come to the coast you check that snob out and bring your smiles and waves to other cyclists on the road. You'll enjoy the ride and share your love for cycling. Okay?


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

We Build Trails to Ride not Protest

What bugs me with the recent events from Elphinstone Logging Focus is their new trail called the Community Health Trail. Lets call this what it is - this is a protest trail under a veil of "promoting community health, focusing on biodiversity and nature". On their website, ELF describes the role of the trail to

"guides us through a key part of the Mt. Elphinstone Prov. Park expansion proposal area. This new protected zone would protect vital resources, such as forest wildlife habitat, wildcrafting and treasured recreational opportunities for future generations." 

This trail is built to protest logging development plain and simple.  You'll see that ELF avoided all the other trails - mostly mountain bike trails - to leave their own mark on the hillside.  I'm a trail builder whether building my own or helping others and one common attitude that mountain bikers share is that we build to ride for fun and connect interesting features together such as log bridges, old skid roads and rocky ridges.  We don't as a matter of course, find out where all the future logging blocks will be and put a trail through it. Certainly a different mindset than the MTB'ers, ELF's idea of trail is to  build trails to push their agenda of protectionism and possibly at the exclusion of other users; then try to spindoctor the trail as a "community health trail". Its no secret that the ELF's agenda is to protect Robert Creek Forest from logging and its so paramount that if exclusion of mountain biking, motocross, horse riding is required in order to protect it, then so be it.

What part of the community does this trail serve?  Does it bring in races such as the BC Bike Race; will it support economic generation of tourist dollars such as  the equestrian or mountain bike events and will it support current services such as bed and breakfast's and our local shops?  We are a community and to do so, we need all local economy working together including logging, motorized sports, horse riding, hiking and mountain biking. 

So I propose that we need to welcome and support ELF's Community Trail.  We, as a community of mountain bikers, motocross/ATV riders and horse riders, need to acknowledge this great trail and RIDE IT! I rode it the other day and its a fantastic, challenging trail to ride!  Thanks ELF for all your efforts in bringing us a trail for the rest of the community to enjoy!

---WAB1234----

So there is this bunch of crap going on the Elphinstone face. It seems that small group (size is a relative thing) is trying to protect the face with a park proposal. This group's effort is to preserve the park from logging but does so at the expense of others that use the area for other types of recreational experiences. The modern logging practices maintains the access to the face and therefore allows all persons to do what they want to do in the area. Mountain biking, building trails, ATV'ing, Horseback riding and paint balling. Typically when parks are granted access becomes limited because there isn't enough money to maintain such a large infrastructure. The present parks presents there own set of problems where trail maintenance, race use and trail upgrades takes 4 months for approval. People here don't recreate like that and therefore will go somewhere else. Don't think that this group hasn't thought about this and the scary part is that they have and made the decision to go ahead with the proposal. Granted logging could be better and planned better, but a park is not the answer.  There is a letter in the paper that explains it better.


March 14, 2012
The Editor – Coast Reporter
RE: ELF THREATENS MOUNTAIN BIKING BY CALLING FOR A PARK
Editor;
I am a Professional Forester and actively practice integrated resource management in my daily work.  I am also a mountain biker, trail runner, and mushroom picker and use the Roberts Creek Forest for my personal enjoyment.  My mountain bike friends build, maintain and ride the many trails on the Sunshine Coast - an area second to none for mountain bike riding with a promising economy built around it.  
When mountain biking was a fledgling sport, riders opened up old logging and shake cutter roads and built trails.  Now bikes are shuttled to trailheads and Provincial racing events are held on the maintained logging road system.  Like it or not, our mountain bike recreational experience is directly tied to having a road system maintained by continued harvesting in the Roberts Creek Forest.   
The BC Park system is highly regulated as are Regional Parks, albeit to a lesser degree.  Park infrastructure is expensive to maintain and as demonstrated by many other parks on the Sunshine Coast, trails and roads are often closed citing liability, high cost to operate, safety concerns and typically with Park mandates - an overall mandate for natural ecosystems.  
If Elphinstone Logging Focus (ELF) gets their way with their 1500 ha park concept, most recreational activities done in the Roberts Creek Forest will be banned.  When was the last time new mountain bike trails, jumps or bridges were built in a Provincial Park?  Mountain biking, horseback riding, ATV use and gathering botanical products is generally prohibited in Parks - but not in the Provincial Forest.
We should advocate for a more comprehensive planning process that integrates important values like recreation use with sustainable logging and responsible forest stewardship, particularly in the interface areas like the Roberts Creek Forest.  If this area becomes a Park, would you actually recreate there?
Warren Hansen
Langdale

Where are Cyclists Respected on the Coast?

Well a cyclist got hit on Hwy 101 a couple weeks ago.  Its even on the new bike lane that I've written about in previous post.   To tell you the honest truth, I thought that it was bound to happen so I'm not surprised.  Like most cyclists like me that put on 3000-5000km/per year on BC roads, we see a lot of cars or trucks passing by us.  A majority of what we see are good drivers that give some space but we also see a few drivers that get uncomfortably close.  Whats that zone of comfortableness? 3-4 feet away is my zone.  Sometimes (2-5 times/year) I get the WTF moments when I don't think that that driver saw me at all.  It's these drivers that should be seeing a cyclist but it seems that it doesn't register that there is a human next to the road.  Deer or other wildlife probably get more room on the road!  

I've cycled through many places in BC this year.  Kelowna, Nanaimo, Comox, Powell River, Sidney, Vancouver, North Vancouver, West Vancouver, Ladner, Richmond, Mission, Chemanus, Mill Bay, Brentwood and of course on the Sunshine Coast.  What I come to conclude is that Sunshine Coast drivers are the worst for ignoring cyclists on the road.  I can't understand why, but the highway section between Gibsons and Sechelt is creepily terrible.  The best place for  drivers to give room to cyclists? West Van or North Vancouver Island.  Yep Redneck or Yuppies areas seem to be a safe haven.  If you are in a retirement or a hippy community like the Sechelt, Roberts Creek or Gibsons, look out the white hairs are coming to get you! My last brush was a grey car with bumper stickers - Ban Clearcut Logging and No Farms, No Food....f'in hippy!

----WAB1234----

Bike-lanes safe or an opportunity to be ignored

Let's set the background on this diatribe - I like riding my bike for the enjoyment of making myself fitter and in better health. These values are much the same as why a runner runs, or a skier skis, or an ATV rider rides, why men play hockey and softball above the age of 40. I don't ride to save the world or to try to make a small statement that I'm making the world a better place. On the contrary, I'm a Forester so I'm really behind the 8-ball on that goal. However, the one thing that puts me into the fray of taking my life into my own hands, is sharing my sport on roads used by cars with almost mutually exclusive uses (drivers don't drive to keep fit...). So, due to the cycling advocacy groups, our local government and the Ministry of Highways have been diligently making bike lanes (paving an additional 1-2m wide sections) on the highway and rural roads effectively making them wider. For the general public, its viewed as an extrinsic thing to do to make our roads safer - right? I'm starting to think not....but how?

Flashback to mid 1990's - No lanes were in on most highways and rural roads, except for a small 1m section of the extreme right of the road, was available to ride a bike. Bikes therefore had to ride on the road and cars must "share" the road in the strictest sense of the word. Drivers actually respected the space of riders, possibly crossing the line to provide the ultimate respectful regard. Drivers that didn't respect this space were considered "assholes" and "got fingered".

Forward to 2011 - Majority of the highway's have wide areas or bike lanes for riding on the right-hand most part of the road. This inherently separates the responsibility of the driver to consider the cyclist as an entity to avoid. My recent and dare I say, anecdotal experiences, seems that drivers almost don't see, or ignore the cyclist riding in these bike lanes. Often when riding in the lanes, drivers are hugging the white lines which begs the question "do they see me at all?". So, I ride to closer to traffic -often riding on the white line in order to be safer not only from traffic, but often the bike lanes are not cleaned of dirt, glass, or sharp rocks that eats tubes like you wouldn't believe. Do I get the respect applying my rebel cause tactics? - yes so far. I'm sure that it pisses off drivers that will be inconvenience to go around a cyclist, but that how it is. Do I feel safer in bike lanes? I must say that I like to think so, but when most drivers don't even slightly give space to bikers on bike lanes, what will happen when I come to that section of road that there is no bike lane and roads need to be shared? I don't like to think about it, cause in an effort to become safer, the respect is gone and therefore the road is that much more dangerous for us to ride on.

----WAB1234----

Almost Sideswiped

I wrote this last year...still pisses me off!


I meant to write about this for a while.  About a week ago, I was just doing my regular riding route on the highway and a purple F150 brushed me (about a foot away from the mirror) and then suddenly turn right in front of me.  All I could do was jam my brakes on and yell at the top of my voice.  The driver kept driving up the road probably not even aware of the almost carnage that could have occurred.  I felt incensed! Pissed off! and woefully helpless....I felt that I should have track the person down and let him know that the driver was in the wrong or something like that. After a week of thinking about it, I believe that it was an honest mistake and something that any driver of automobile wouldn't get how I feel unless they could feel that their life was in jeopardy too.  Something like if their brakes failed or someone was in their lane heading towards them in a head-on collision.  At least, a head-on would get their attention whereas hitting a bike rider would even dent the quarter panel.  Suffice to say that whatever the odds, it'll be Truck 1; Rider 0 every-time. 


---WAB1234---