Go by Bike Week a virtual success! | HUB Cycling: Bike Events, Education, Action in Metro Vancouver

Last week (May 25th-31st), we saw Bike to Work Week transform to ‘Go by Bike Week’. As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, our traditional spring celebrations took a new online format for the week. The event series, presented by MEC, included daily webinars, live stream Q&As, video tips, social media contests and of course heaps of prizes! The event series aims to celebrate cycling in Metro Vancouver and encourage riders both new and returning to consider cycling as one of their transport modes of choice.

The week got off to a slightly soggy start on Monday, but this only helped drive interest for the first lunchtime webinar on an ‘Introduction to City Cycling’ with HUB’s Bike Education team - 100% of the spots available were taken! Monday also saw the first of our two-part series of free bike repair stations for essential workers: a service provided in partnership with MEC, Vancouver Coastal Health and BC Centre for Disease Control. Thousands of participants logged trips and hundreds more took part in the digital event series:

Success by numbers:

40 bikes repaired for free for essential workers
420 people registered to take part in our lunchtime webinar series
3050 people registered to participate
Nearly 10,500 reached via our livestreams
38,894 KGs of greenhouse gases saved
179,362 total kms cycled

“We always encourage participants to continue using their bikes to get around after Bike to Work Week, but one of the benefits of repositioning the event as ‘Go by Bike’ in Spring 2020 is that we were able to market the campaign to a broader audience” explains Rowena Far, Go by Bike Week Manager.

The number of trips taken by bike since the beginning of the pandemic has increased by 30% in the City of Vancouver alone. Data from Vancouver Parks board reveals that there has been a three-fold increase in cyclists riding through Stanley Park (8,301 compared to 3,000 on the same date in 2019).

Go by Bike Week helps celebrate and support getting people on bikes, which helps contribute to happier, healthier and more connected communities for everyone. We’re currently planning a second event in late September (w/c September 28th). The format of this event will depend on current health recommendations and restrictions at the time but will hopefully include a combination of physical and digital events.