2020 Year End Report

The past year has been especially challenging for, well, everybody. But we’re still happy to report the success of many of our activities, both traditional and new, and 12 months full of events, courses, new programs, and bike rides. See below for highlights of what we did in 2020.

Go by Bike Week

Though we were sad to have to postpone Bike to Work Week in May, Go by Bike Week turned into our most successful fall event ever. Special highlights included the new Sticker Challenge, completed by over 200 participants, the continued fun of our Celebrations Stations this year (despite safety precautions and physical distancing), as well as the fantastic opportunity to meet with our awesome local cycling community.

The Sticker Challenge:

Over 200 participants completed the sticker challenge, which included over 40 businesses as well as 13 Celebration Stations. We can’t wait to make the sticker challenge bigger and better next year!

Grand Prizes:

Our e-bike grand prizes went to some very deserving prize winners. Congratulations to everyone who won a prize and, if you didn’t, that’s what next year’s GBBW is for 🙂

Bike Skills

Despite cancelling our courses for several months in the spring and early summer, we ended up teaching a total of 24 bike skills courses to over 1,100 people, the majority of which through our Everyone Rides Grades 4 and 5 program in the fall.

Bike Skills 2020, by the numbers:

• 6 adult courses with 65 total participants
• 1 youth course with 4 participants
• 2 kids courses with 12 participants
• 1 Train the Trainer course with 7 participants
• 14 Everyone Rides Grades 4 and 5 courses with 1122 participants

Everyone Rides Grades 4 and 5 is a program designed to give kids the skills they need to bike to school and have fun biking around their neighbourhood. The course consists of an in-class section teaching basic traffic skills and ABC bike checks as well as a fun on-bike portion teaching kids basic bike handling, how to ride on the road, and multi-use trail etiquette. Thanks to HUB Cycling and the Ministry of Transportation for allowing us to run this pilot program. We look forward to teaching more ERG-45 courses in 2021.

Webinars

New for 2020 were our webinars, a way to deliver bike skills that didn’t involve any in-person contact. Between May and September we hosted webinars on everything from bike maintenance to accessibility in cycling, from cycling as a family to avoiding injury while biking. By the numbers:

• 14 webinars offered
• 387 total attendees
• 19 different guest speakers and instructors

International Winter Bike to Work Day

Think back 100 years ago to February 14th, 2020, when we held Victoria’s International Winter Bike to Work Day. We hosted a fun event on Valentine’s day morning at Janion Plaza, with 179 attendees!

See shocking photos below of people standing next to each other! Without masks on!

The Mural

In July, we moved from our office at 614 View Street to a new location on 1034 Hillside Avenue. If you’ve picked up a prize or a holiday package then you’ve seen our new office, plus the new mural on the side of it!

This mural was designed by local artist Kay Gallivan and funded by the City of Victoria’s My Great Neighbourhood Grant. It was painted during the Hillside/Quadra Collective’s Out There Art Festival, celebrating local artists around Quadra Village/Lekwungen Territory.

Cycle Therapy

2020 saw the first release of Cycle Therapy in two years! In light of such a well, not fun year, this edition highlights positive stories from the local cycling community. We published articles from some of our community partners, GBBW participants, and longtime members of Capital Bike and Bike to Work Society. Cycle Therapy will be distributed to local bike shops in 2021, stay tuned!

Light the Night

Over the past month we have distributed 700 pairs of lights to our local partners Our Place, VIRCS, and Cool Aid to keep folks on bikes safe through the darker winter months.

Neighbourhood Rides

In place of the postponed Bike to Work Week, we developed family programming called Neighbourhood Rides. These Scavenger Hunts, Discovery Rides, and Ride the Distance routes are like self-guided tours to local landmarks and hidden gems in communities across Greater Victoria. See some photos submitted by participants below, and check out our Neighbourhood Rides which are available year round on the Capital Bike website.

Thanks to all the sponsors who made our events possible this year!

BACKER LEVEL

Crag X • Dockside Physiotherapy • Modo

CONTRIBUTOR LEVEL

Market on Yates • Two Wheel Gear • NomadEX       

DONOR LEVEL

Alive Mindbody • Art Gallery of Greater Victoria  • Bard and Banker • Bean Around the World • Boulder House • The Boulders Climbing Gym • BC Aviation Museum • Camosun Athletic and Exercise Therapy Clinic  • City of Victoria Recreation • Driftwood Brewery • Esquimalt Recreation Centre • Float House • Flying Squirrel Trampoline • Frontrunners • Habit and Sherwood Cafe • Home Hardware • Horror Escape • Hotel Grand Pacific • Il Terrazzo • i.O.N Clothing • Iyengar Yoga • JK’s Bicycleitis • Level Ground • Little June Café • Lululemon • Milestones • Moksana Yoga • Pagliacci’s • Panago • Patagonia • Pixelart Computers • Russell Books • Saanich Recreation Centre • Serious Coffee • Six Mile Pub • Sea Cider Farm and Cider House • Sports Rent • Spinnakers • Valhalla Pure Outfitters • Vancouver Island Brewing • Victoria Kayak •

–  District of Central Saanich  –  District of Highlands  –  District of North Saanich  –  Town of Sidney  –  Town of View Royal  –