Hundreds of cyclists took to the Bow River pathways on Friday morning to do what they do every day, commute to their downtown places of work.

But what made May 3 a little bit more special than usual was a hot Stampede pancake breakfast awaited them, alongside enthusiastic volunteers, cycling organizations and vendors at the Delta Gardens junction next to the Peace Bridge.

Bike to Work Day was celebrating its 17th annual event, to encourage Calgarians to consider cycling as an alternative to using private vehicles or Calgary Transit to get to work and to build bike culture in the city.

“We’re encouraging people to try bike commuting, and we’d love it if new riders participate. We just really want to be here, celebrate, and promote a cycling lifestyle. We’re trying to just improve the city by getting more people on bikes,” said Tanya Wiebe, an event coordinator with Bike to Work Day Calgary.

“What we’re trying to do is kick off this season for people to encourage people to get out, and really if you haven’t tried it before, we’d like you to give it a try and see if you like it.”

Organizers were also set up at seven other locations, handing out snacks and at some locations, bike shop staff were offering free bike tuneups.

Among the new locations this year, and the farthest ever pit stop, was in Edworthy Park.

“We like to be responsive to our partners… and we’re happy to work with them, and get everyone involved and keep making it bigger and bigger each year, and hopefully increase the attendance as well,” said Wiebe.

Lots of benefits to cycling to work

Among the benefits of biking to work instead of using a car or taking transit was being able to get to your location on time with a set plan—no traffic congestion, no waiting for bus stops, said Wiebe.

“You’ll get there on time, and it is it’s great for fitness. You see a lot more things out there,” she said.

That sentiment was echoed by commuter Kyle Picard, who bikes three days a week to his downtown job.

“I really enjoy it in that I get a chance to exercise while making a commute to work. If I’m already going to be in traffic. I might as well be getting some benefit out of it,” he said.

“I think it only really translates to about a 10-minute, 15-minute difference for myself to get from where I’m at home, to work here downtown. I think that it really is a nice appealing ride when you’re coming down into downtown.”

Some of the colder days in Calgary can be hard for cycling, Picard said. But now that warmer weather is returning he’s seeing more cyclists choosing to commute to work, especially from his direction in northwest Calgary.

“Not quite as many as I’d like to see, but I’m starting to see that trend change a little bit here, too. I know that there’s a few new bike paths that have appeared up in that neck of the woods, and so I’m seeing more people taking advantage of those,” he said.

Getting people to try it for the first time

Picard’s pitch for getting people to try cycling to work for the first time was that trying a little bit of cycling goes a long way.

“When I first started commuting I was only going one or two kilometers, and that was really all that I needed to get myself started,” he said.

Wiebe echoed that, saying that you don’t have to start big to get into cycling to work.

“One thing that’s recommended is, if you’ve never tried it before, you might want to try it on a weekend first to prepare yourself, and then you’ll know how long it’s going to take you,” she said.

“If you feel like you’re not fit enough yet, you can drive part of the way, or you can bike to someone from your office and carpool from there. So there’s lots of ideas on how to get more ready, to up your fitness level, and things you can do to prepare for a better ride.”

One thing that Wiebe said that the cycling community has been seeing more of, is families commuting to the downtown for work.

“There are people that do commute to work with their children which is impressive. They have different trailers, and they’re really into it,” she said.

“We’d love to get more employers making it more accessible by having indoor parking for their employees, and we have some companies that have promoted Bike to Work Day, and they’re getting involved, too.”

One of those organizations was Momentum, which saw its Executive Director Jeff Loomis cycling to their northeast Calgary location along with some of the non-profit’s staff.

“We have a crew from a Momentum biking to work because we believe sustainability is a value, so we try to promote biking to work. We have showers at work, a bike locker at work, and we want to have some fun and bike to work together today,” he said.

For more information on Bike to Work Day Calgary, see www.biketoworkdaycalgary.ca.