Go By Bike Week wants Kamloops commuters to trade their cars for pedal power

KAMLOOPS — In 1995, Bike to Work Week began in Victoria and drew around 500 participants who hoped to raise the profile of commuter cycling.

Twenty-seven years later, the event has spread across B.C. and is now known by a different name.

“Go By Bike [Week] is to get people active, to reduce emissions,” Stacey Gagnon, Kamloops Go By Bike Week coordinator explains. “What we like to see is people on bikes, but any wheels count.”

For two years, COVID-19 limited how people could take part in events like Go By Bike Week. So far this year, the response from the commuting community has been solid.

“As of last night, Kamloops had 349 riders, roughly,” Gagnon says. “We had 123 new, which is unbelievable – one-third of the ridership is new.”

According to cyclists, there are many benefits to commuting by bike.

“I work really close by,” cyclist Leah Pascoe explains. “It’s actually faster, I think, to bike than to drive my car.”

“I get basically stress relief,” Derek Dixon tells CFJC Today. “To and from work, I get to process my day, and by the time I get to work and get home I know what I’m doing, I know the plan. It also helps to exercise during something I have to do anyways, which is go to work and come home.”

“Generally, it’s the exercise and the fresh air,” Bernie Peschke says. “But it also allows you to maintain some of your bad habits by burning some calories and just getting out.”

Peschke is a Go By Bike veteran, who has been at it for more than a decade.

“I’m in retirement, so I’m just supporting [the event] by participation I guess,” Peschke says. “On a nice day like today, it’s nice to get out and get a bit of exercise.”

If the hills of Kamloops are a bit daunting, BC Transit is free for cyclists this week. There are also a huge number of prizes riders can enter to win. And once you register, your cycling stats are added to the community totals.

“It logs the greenhouse gas emissions that are reduced, how many kilometres, how many calories,” Gagnon explains. “It’s all there on the Kamloops section of Go By Bike, so it’s pretty cool. You get to track it by the minute.”

Go By Bike Week runs from May 30 until June 5. To register, visit www.GoByBike.ca/Kamloops –then hop on your bicycle and go for a ride.