Riding Safely around Trucks

Here is a good article about safety around trucks
The first video is also worth watching

Video and Dessert and the Little Vienna Bakery

The Juan De Fuca Cycling Coalition & Sooke Transition Town Society is putting on an informal evening of short videos on a range of subjects from cycling, to Permaculture, Transition Towns and more. It is meant to showcase positive and constructive ideas, as well as to be entertaining and informative, with time for discussion and socializing.

This is also a great opportunity to try out some of the Little Vienna's Bakery goodies, along with coffee and tea, all available at a special price for the evening. I have also asked Michael of the LVB to explain a bit about their baking. Some of it might surprise you!

CRD Pedestrian & Cycling Master Plan

Here is the CRD Pedestrian And Cycling Master Plan. It is a fairly extensive document that promotes all 13 of the Communities within the CRD to work together to create a regional network of cycling trails and routes, as well as addressing design guidelines, mapping, facilities,  education, transit integration, enforcement, planning and funding.
There are huge benefits of having all the communities work together on this. As well the CRD can take a role in coordination, helping to eliminate duplicated efforts, and to help in securing funding.
Take a look, and remember that there is always the need for continual public input.

The Greater Victoria Cycling Coalition has set up a committee to monitor and provide ongoing input to the plan. They are looking for volunteers from each community. I will be planning to participate as the Sooke and JDF Regional District representative, but would love someone to assist me on that. My schedule often has me out of town when meetings happen, so it would be good to have a back up person.

A lofty but attainable goal for Pacific Marine Circle Route

One of the goals of the Juan de Fuca Cycling Coalition is to encourage the creation of a world class cycling destination in our region. We have the foundation of that already with the Galloping Goose Regional Trail and the Pacific Marine Circle Route. What is needed now,  is to build on that with a safe network of trails, bike lanes and suitable accommodation alongside the existing camping facilities that exist along the route.
Check out what has been done across the border in Washington State with the Olympic Discovery Trail

Locally made bike rack

One of our local, highly talented, and generous citizens(Maywell Wickheim), along with Communities in Bloom have created a wonderful new bike rack. The first of these has been installed in front of the Stone Pipe Grill, wit a couple more to come. Watch for them!
The top trough will be used to plant flowers...or maybe as a watering trough for our local horses that sometime wander the downtown area!?

Sharrows come to Sooke!

Sooke now has Sharrows. These are located on Rhodenite St. It is a fairly quiet residential street, but it does see a fair bit of traffic around school start and finish times. Lots of kids are walking or biking on this route. There are no sidewalks here at this point in time. The road was slated to get bike lanes 2 years ago but the local residents were very vocal in opposing them. 
I believe this is a good solution for now until the road eventually gets sidewalks and parking pullouts.

The idea is that a cyclist should “take the lane”. In other words, ride the bike in the area of the markings. This is designed so that the cyclist is in full view of motorists, and far enough away from the curb and parked cars so that there is no chance of them running into an opening parked car door.

For motorists, this means sharing the road with bicycles, slowing down, and passing only when it is safe to do so. On a street like Rhodenite, the speed limit is 40k, so this really should not disrupt traffic flow in any significant way. Particularly in this area there can be many young children on bicycles, so please slow down (well below the speed limit in many cases) when you see children on their bikes and pedestrians)

Please feel free to leave your comments!

Sooke Bike Boxes Beautification

Here are photos of the newly painted Bike Storage Lockers that were provided by BC Transit for the Sooke Park N' Ride. Thank you to the students from Edward Milne Community School who did the painting!

Great ride up Harbourview; Sooke Mountain Park

This area I live in keeps amazing me with all the beautiful places! Today I finally got to ride all the way up Harbourview "Road" to Sheilds and Grassi Lake. What a gorgeous day with a relaxing swim in the lake and some great views.
I think this area is going to become a major Mountain Biking destination when more people discover it. It offers trails for all skill levels, and there are lots of them!
Check out my route on Bikemap

Sooke Slow Food Flyer; Please Print and Post where you can. Only 35 days left until the first annual Sooke Slow Food Cycle!

We are not Cyclists....we are People Riding Bicycles!

Here comes the Sooke Slow Food Fashion Contest!

Sooke Slow Food Cycle October 9, 2011

We are getting ready for the Sooke Slow Food Cycle on October 9th, 2011! Check out the Website and tell us what you think. It is still a work in progress but most of the info is up and running.
We are on Facebook as well!

Taking the Lane

Here is a good little animation about the dangers of riding too far to the right on a road. (Thanks for the link Colin)