Train+Bike... Car-Free Winnipeg

The Mondragon Bookstore baked up a bike cake for the festivities

According to the University of Winnipeg's student newspaper The Uniter, Bogota, Columbia has closed off the entire 7-million people city to private automobiles to observe Car-Free days in the past. In Winnipeg, Manitoba, citizens got on their bikes, paraded with a marching band, occupied a car dealership parking lot, closed off a street block, jousted tall bikes, and played street hockey ~ all thirty of us.

I've participated in a few car-free activities now and then in Vancouver (except for the naked bike rides), but here's what struck me about the Winnipeg community's version: entire families on bikes including three Trail-a-Bikes and many other kids on their own bikes; an escort by the Flaming Trolley Marching Band; sales guys in shirts-and-ties alternately swearing they'll call the police and cheering us on; impromptu chalk slogans in the car stalls of the Organza Organic market (I take credit for "You coulda ridden your bike" and "How organic are you?"); a wedding party's groomsmen joining in on the street hockey ~ tuxes and all; and the staff at the Mondragon allowing me to sip "white grape coffee" outside on the sidewalk.

I unwisely had left some bike maintenance tasks to the last minute and was directed by the busy crew at Natural Cycle to take my bike over the bridge to Gord's Bike Shop for more immediate assistance. Namely: make the three-speed hub on my Dahon folding bike work again so I could ride it fully loaded the 300km from Jasper to Banff, starting day after tomorrow. Carl in Whistler had gamely taken a pass at it, but as a result of my not test-riding it afterwards, it was still a gear short.

It turns out Gord Reid ~ who opened the shop in 1961 after an illustrious career as a competitive downhill skiier and bike racer ~ hires staff that use the internet as a wrenching tools. James looked up the SRAM system on their site and sure enough, the bike was back to fully functioning form. I hoped.

I jumped back on the bike and joined a gravel path on the Red River for some two-wheeled exploration. However I was quickly distracted by a gorgeous outdoor photo exhibition called Respect. The photos demonstrated from the air how Canada's boreal forests are changing.

I rejoined the Riverbank Parkway System at a touristy area called The Forks and read that these pathways are a part of Manitoba's 1,300 kilometre contribution to the 18,000 national total kilometres of the Trans Canada Trail.

Back at Albert Street the Car-Free festival carryed on in fine form. Staff from both the Mondragon and Natural cycle asked me if all was good with my bike and Michelle appeared to join for a curbside refreshment. We sat on the concrete steps of the Woodbine Hotel, and watched boys of all ages (and one brave girl) swish thier hockey sticks through puddles and around tall bikes.

It was tough leaving the idyllic bike-culture scene, but a dinner calzone at Corydon's Cafe 22 called, and we responded ~ all two of us.

[To view all the stories from this train-and-bike journey around western Canada, click Miteymiss's blog] 

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Winnipeg, Manitoba
September 22, 2007