Bike to Work Week a success

Bike to Work Week by the numbers shows Prince George is picking up on pedalling as a way to travel.

Between May 26 and 31, more than 590 riders from 57 teams took to two wheels as their mode of transit. Of those 146 were brand new riders.

That's up from the 440 cyclists in 2014, said Laura Sapergia, who planned the event for the Prince George Cycling Club.

"It's really exciting," said Sapergia, that the numbers reflect the uptick in riders they were seeing on the streets.

"There were more cyclists that you could see and so the fact that feeling it's bigger is actually supported by our statistics and data is even more encouraging."

The final tally could change a bit, since the final Monday is the cutoff for riders to report their week's activity, she said.

Sapergia took the last week to flip through the feedback riders scrawled onto colourful post it notes.

"Fix the damn potholes," was a favourite.

But there were also repeated calls for wider shoulders, dedicated bike lanes and trails, bike racks above and beyond the 60 announced for the downtown, improved signs and driver education.

"It's a lot of the same things that we've always heard before which is good but at the same time it means that it hasn't changed," she said. "It's still a concern that hasn't been addressed at a city level in any real way that people have noticed."

The Prince George Cycling Club will present its numbers and rider recommendations at an upcoming city council meeting and plan to publish a public report.

They can use the routes people logged online to help give advice around infrastructure.

That includes making route maps easier to find on the city's website.

"I'm looking forward to build on this with the Prince George Cycling Club," she said.

"I think the number one (recommendation) is an awareness campaign for both cyclists and drivers to share road with each other and be respectful of each other because we all have somewhere to go and we'd all like to get there as safely as possible."

She's heard stories of back tires getting bumped by cars and riders being brushed by side mirrors - "which is terrifying," she said.

"People have been sharing a lot of bad stories, stories that have scared them maybe which isn't' always nice to talk about it but it's the reality of it when drivers aren't really being safe around cyclists, not giving enough space."

She said it's important not to see those riding on the road as nameless cyclists.

"If you look at the teams that we have, all of the biggest employers are there. These are people that they are your friends and family."