Real lifel at e s t n ews at Ca lg a ryH e ra l d . C om / l i f e

Editor: YvonnE JEffErY 403-235-8658 yjeffery@theherald.canwest.com fridaY, JulY 31, 2009 C8

CalgaryHerald

iNSide GaRDeNiNG

SEE PaGE C10

What to dowhen a good

garden goes bad

vitalsScooters takeover streets

eveNt • at least it’s not thehells angels.calgary’s scooter enthu-

siasts will take over citystreets this weekend duringthe garage sale rally 2009.hosted by the 2009

apocalypse scooter club,the group’s fourth annualscooter rally runs todaythroughmonday.the rally features four

day’s worth of eventsacross the city, including agarage-sale themed scav-enger hunt.

the rally kicks off at 7p.m. today at the ironwoodstage and grill ($20), whereriders will convene before amidnight scooter group rideto “parts unknown.”the weekend includes

a garage-sale themedscavenger hunt, a barbecueand raffle at edworthy Park,a karaoke party, and lots ofgroup rides throughout thecity.an optional rally pack

costs $20 and includes ashirt, patch and other items.anybody with a scooter iswelcome to participate;however, the club has strictrules of the road that all

rally riders must follow.for more information, go

to apocalypsesc.com ore-mail korhag@yahoo.ca.

CelebratingThe good lifeeveNt • the idea wassimple: save as many usedbicycles from the dump aspossible.it’s been one year since

the good life communityBike shop was formed andsince then, more than 600bikes have been rescuedfrom the garbage heap.tonight, the shop cel-

ebrates its first anniversarywith a fundraiser and partyat the hillhurst-sunnysidecommunity centre (13205th ave. n.w.).the licensed, all-ages

party, called “one year andPedalling strong,” startsat 8 p.m. and featuresperformance by the fakemoustache drag King troopfollowed by several bands.there will be door prizesand a silent auction.the good life Bike shop

is a non-profit, communityorganizationwithmore than1,800members. amongother things, the shoprefurbishes used bikes and

teaches cyclists basic repairandmaintenance to length-en the life of their bikes.for more information on

the event, to donate prizesor to volunteer, call thegood life at 403-984-4727;visit goodlifebikes.ca; or e-mail britt@goodlifebikes.ca.

SunFest 2009feStival • august in cal-gary is all about festivals.this sunday, inglewood,

calgary’s original mainstreet, hosts its annualsunfest.this year’s theme is a

renaissance street fair and

features street performersfrom the fringe festival, anart market, beer gardensand an outdoor fashionshow down 9th avenue,among other events.the fashion show starts

at 3 p.m. in front of espyand eye on design (12179th ave. s.e.) and featurescanada’s next topmodelfinalist nikita.ninth avenue will be

closed to traffic from 11thstreet to 14th street.for more information,

visit calgarysunfest.com orcall 403-265-3378.

— compiled by robin

summerfield, calgary herald

Bike-sharingprogramsmakecycling a breeze

emmagilCHriStcalgaryherald

a s I savoured the finalbites of my chickentikkamasala in a quaint

Indian restaurant in the Parisneighbourhood of Saint-Ger-main, my partner threw out anidea: “Wanna bike to the EiffelTower whenwe’re done?”Giveme amillisecond to

think about that: Um, yeah, Ido wannawalk 30 steps fromhere, grab a bike that will costme nothing and pedal alongthe river, passing the Louvre,the Grand Palais and countlessother architectural wondersbefore arriving at one of theworld’s quintessential icons.And, yes, I do want to wear

my dress and heels and lookcompletely normal doing so.And, yes, once I’m done oglingthe Eiffel Tower at night, I defi-nitely dowant to turn around,grab a bike again and fly pasttraffic as I own the bus/taxi/bi-cycle lane all the way back toour hotel.

So, that was settled.We did bike to the

Eiffel Tower.Andwe

did

feel as free as free can possiblyfeel. Andwe did burn off someof that tikkamasala in theprocess— but that was just ahappy side-effect.In short, I love bike-sharing.

I scouted out the systems inSeville and Barcelona, but thefirst time I actually got to hopon one of those ubiquitous citybikes was in Paris— not a badplace to get a taste for bike-sharing, considering the cityboasts the largest system of itskind in the world.Called Velib (whichmeans

“bicycle freedom” in French),the system boasts 20,000bicycles and 1,450 terminals— roughly one station every300metres in central Paris.Here’s howVelibworks: you

make a temporary deposit andpurchase a subscription ($45 fora year; $1.50 for a day) fromanyterminal, select a bike and, voila,the lock releases andoffyougo.

Once you’vecompletedyourjourney,

you return the bike to anyotherVelib terminal and the fee isautomatically charged to youraccount.The system is designed to

keep the bicycles in circula-tion, so the first half-hour ofuse is free, with the cost in-creasing the longer you havethe bike ($1.50 for the secondhalf-hour, $3 for the third half-hour and $6 for any additionalhalf-hours).Mass bike-sharing systems

are essentially extensions ofthe public transit system andwork to decrease air pollution,while increasing activity levelsand quality of life.The two-year-old program

in Paris— and similar systemsin cities worldwide—makescycling a breeze. You don’thave to think about storing ormaintaining a bike, nor do youneed to worry about it beingstolen. You also have the op-tion to bike one way (downhillto work), but not the other (up-hill back home).Of course, it helps that Paris

is fairly flat, tremendously con-densed and hasmild weatheryear-round.Even so, the Velib program

has faced many hurdles, thebiggest being theft and van-dalism. Thousands of bikeswere stolen during the pro-gram’s first year of operation,despite complex anti-theftsystems. To battle distributionproblems, a fleet of bicycle-transporting vehicles redis-tributes bicycles every night

to high-demand stations intime for the morning rush.

And maintenancevehicles

pump

tires and attend to damagedbikes.One of the largest keys to the

program’s success, however, isthe public-private partnershipthat makes it possible.In amodel that several Eu-

ropean cities have adopted,the system is financed andmanaged by an advertisingcorporation, in return for asubstantial portion of on-streetadvertising. The city receivesall revenue from the Velib pro-gram as well as a substantialannual fee.Canada’s first large-scale,

bike-sharing programdecidednot to go the public-privatepartnership route, butMontre-al’s Bixi (bike-taxi) programhasproven such an enormous suc-cess in just threemonths of ex-istence that Ottawa has a pilotprogram andToronto is lookingto start its ownBixi system.Montreal’s bike-sharing sys-

tem startedwith 3,000 bikesand 300 stations this spring, butis adding 2,000more bikes and100 new stations. No stationsaremore than 200metres apart.Run by the city’s parking au-

thority, Bixi required an initialinvestment of $15 million andis expected to pay for itselfthrough user fees.As of July 22, there were 7,671

members of theMontreal Bixisystem. The bikes have beenrentedmore than 250,000times and used to travel about2.3 million kilometres.The Bixi systemwas listed

as No. 19 on Timemagazine’s50 Best Inventions of 2008 list— and biking in a suit or skirtis now seen daily inMontreal.The biggest concern inMon-

treal seems to be the lack ofhelmets worn by Bixi users— a

concern

farmore prominent in Canadathan in Europe, and amajorstumbling block to Vancouver’sbike-sharing hopes, where bi-cycle helmets aremandatory.What about winter?Mon-

treal has even got that sussedout— the Bixi stations are so-lar-powered andwireless, re-quiring no excavation for theirinstallation, whichmeans theycan easily be removed beforewinter sets in.So, is a bike-sharing program

in the cards for Calgary?Ald. Druh Farrell asked city

council last September to backa probe into how a public bike-share programmight work inCalgary, but councillors wereevenly split on the idea. Amo-tion needs amajority of back-ers for it to pass, so for now theidea is dead in the water.The lack of cycling infra-

structure in downtownCalgary— a far cry from Paris’s bikelanes and bike lights— cannotbe overlooked, but other citieshave been facedwith the sameproblem, introduced bike-shar-ing and, as a result of its popu-larity, improved cycling infra-structure. It’s a chicken and theegg situation.Which needs tocome first?In themeantime, grassroots

ventures such as the Good LifeCommunity Bike Shop at EauClaireMarket and the Tour deNuit Society’s Ride the Roadtour on Aug. 23 are working onmaking bikingmore accessibleto all Calgarians.Find out more at their sites:

goodlifebikes.ca andmorepeoplecycling.ca.

with files from

canwest news service

egilchrist@theherald.

canwest.com

Bicycle freedom

emma gilchrist, calgary herald

different social norms and superb cycling infrastructure in european cities such as Strasbourg, france, seen in this picture, make choosing twowheels an appealing option.

Thegreenguide