Montreal conference highlights growing popularity of winter cycling

[secstate]

“By 2025, he hopes a quarter of summer riders will choose to ride all winter long –comparable to Calgary, which according to Bebronne has retained more than 30 per cent of riders since it installed a large network of protected paths.”

Impressive. I would also be curious for a sense of what the numbers are in DC (not that our winters are comparable to Calgary’s!).

The article makes the good point that, for many of us, anyway, it’s the road conditions, not the temperatures, that are a deterrent to winter riding. It is definitely a good sign that at least some cities are recognizing this. In Minneapolis, the trails are often cleared before the roads! Winter decided to pass DC by this year, but when contemplating joining Freezing Saddles I found myself wondering how willing I would be to commute down 14th St in ice & slush, or if the 15th St cycletrack would actually be maintained.

[Brett L.]

@secstate 154723 wrote:

Impressive. I would also be curious for a sense of what the numbers are in DC (not that our winters are comparable to Calgary’s!).

You’d be surprised. They do get more extremes, but thanks to a regional weather pattern called a Chinook (look it up DiCaprio), winter weather CAN be very mild in Calgary. It’s not uncommon to see weather in the 30s and 40s in Calgary in January and February. It’s also not uncommon to see it in the -10s and -20s, but who cares about that?

[secstate]

How do you know this, Brett??

[Allan C]

@Brett L. 154728 wrote:

… thanks to a regional weather pattern called a Chinook (look it up DiCaprio), winter weather CAN be very mild in Calgary. It’s not uncommon to see weather in the 30s and 40s in Calgary in January and February. It’s also not uncommon to see it in the -10s and -20s, but who cares about that?

I spent part of my childhood in Calgary. You could walk to school in a foot of snow at well below freezing and, when a chinook hit, walk home in a t-shirt.

Meanwhile in DC, my highly unscientific estimate of winter ridership is based on the office bikeroom, which can have 40 bikes in summer and typically about 8 on a day like today.

[Brett L.]

@secstate 154730 wrote:

How do you know this, Brett??

Alberta born and raised.

http://imgur.com/gallery/T1tks

[cvcalhoun]

@secstate 154723 wrote:

Winter decided to pass DC by this year.

Well, I wouldn’t say that just yet. We’ve still got some time for it to show up.

However, if it doesn’t, you can thank me. This was the year I decided to get chains for my bike tires.

[anomad]

Me too. I’ve had my fat bike prepped and ready for a snowy commute. I think it would almost double my commuting time though!

@cvcalhoun 154740 wrote:

Well, I wouldn’t say that just yet. We’ve still got some time for it to show up.

However, if it doesn’t, you can thank me. This was the year I decided to get chains for my bike tires.

[Steve O]

@f148vr 154719 wrote:

Came across this article:

http://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/montreal-conference-highlights-growing-popularity-of-winter-cycling-1.3278258

“Marc-Andre Gadoury says about 15,000 riders a day — about 12 per cent of the number of summer riders — use Montreal’s 400 kilometres of cleared paths.”

Impressive number, wonder how our region compares?

Arlington counts all the time.
My back of the envelope is that between 30k and 100k people commute by bike each day in the DMV, depending on time of year, weather, etc.

[Author]

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