- This event has passed.
Bike for the Future – Stop the Cuts – Cancelled
May 1, 2022 @ 11:00 - 14:00
Ride Cancelled
We’ve decided to cancel our May 1st Bike for the Future – Stop the Cuts ride due to the weather.
Our next ride will be on May 15th at 11 am starting at the Forks. We will be riding a loop around the downtown and returning to The Forks. When we return from the ride you can check out the Green Action Centre event which is scheduled from 12-4 at The Forks.
Bike Winnipeg and Communities not cuts presents….
Bike for the Future – Stop the Cuts
Come ride with us as we celebrate May Day, a day commemorating the historic struggles and achievements made by workers and the labour movement.
We will be riding a 9 km loop from the Legislative Building – South side to City Hall and back through the forks. We will be riding our bikes to the MayWorks event at City Hall (starting at noon). Our ride is open to people of all ages and abilities and will roll at a pace that allows everyone to keep up!
When: May 1, 2022 (May Day), 11 am
Where: Meet at the Legislative Building – South side
Route – Clockwise
What is Bike for the Future?
Bike for the Future was first held in August of 2021 in response to cuts to active transportation funding and the need to create safe speeds for active transportation users in our neighbourhoods.
We are a group of concerned citizens advocating for safe spaces for our friends and families to actively commute. Walking and cycling are the two most environmentally friendly modes of transportation and need to play a key role in our greenhouse gas reductions. Transportation makes up 50% of Winnipeg’s emissions (https://winnipeg.ca/
We are in the midst of a climate emergency. Extreme weather events are happening more frequently. Locally weather extremes are having a negative impact on agriculture. Air quality warnings became common place in the summer of 2021 as fires raged in northern Manitoba and Ontario. Every day when we turn on our radios and TV’s we see and hear how our global neighbours are suffering from a host of extreme weather events being amplified by anthropogenic climate change. We have had enough foot dragging by all levels of government. They have a responsibility to make walking and riding a bike the easiest way to get around within and between our urban neighbourhoods.
Winnipeggers need a transportation system that allows them to safely, comfortably, and conveniently travel from point a to point b, they need access to safe bike storage, and they need affordable access to bicycles. Currently 60% of Winnipeggers feel unsafe walking and cycling. To make it safe and comfortable, motorized vehicles need to drive slowly on our residential roads (no more than 30 km/h). We need separated and protected spaces on routes with higher vehicle speeds and we need plenty of places to safely cross busy streets and rail lines in a reasonable amount of time.
- We demand that the city start making investments on par with need and non-budget public policy in our cycling and walking strategy. Currently, the City of Winnipeg funds 2 million dollars’ worth of AT projects a year; the city should be spending at least 10 times this amount. It would be reasonable to expect that the cycling network will be completed within the next 10-20 years, not by 2100 at the current pace of budgeting.
- The city and province need to work out how to lower the default speed limit to 30 km/h immediately. City engineers can set higher speeds on collector and arterial routes where appropriate.
- The Winnipeg Police need to stop targeting people that ride their bikes on the sidewalks in areas where no safe alternative exists. The problem is not sidewalk riding, the problem is a lack of safe infrastructure for people actively commuting.
- The city and province need to get a handle on bicycle theft by addressing the root causes of theft. There is an epidemic of bike thefts which discourage people from actively commuting. Providing better mental health supports, living wages and a universal basic income as well as installing more secure solutions for people on bikes could go a long way to reducing bike theft and encourage more people to actively commute.
- The city needs to look at solutions for areas that are difficult to cross. For example, when the Arlington bridge closes, the distance that someone living on the north or south side of those tracks needed to travel to get somewhere on either side could increase significantly. It would be reasonable to expect the city and the railway company to produce a new crossing or tunnel. Rivers also pose a significant barrier to walking and cycling: the city needs to look at adding more pedestrian and cycling bridges to make cycling between neighbourhoods more efficient.
Hosting a cycling related event in Winnipeg? If it fits within our event list posting guidelines, we’d be happy to post it for you. Please email us at eventlistings@bikewinnipeg.ca.