The challenge starts for me today!

Today was the first full day of the challenge for me. This morning my 5 year old son and I rode to his school and parked his bike. I’ll be picking him up after school as well. He really enjoys the ride and today asked me “why can’t I ride on the road dad?”. My answer was simple for now. Until he has his training wheels off, I would prefer he rode on the sidewalk. However as he gets better and the training wheels come off, what is my excuse? I shouldn’t need one and much to my wife’s concern, I will let him ride on the road. It is safe. He should feel safe and learn how to ride properly alongside the traffic. The good news is that my house is on a not too busy road and we turn onto University just past Bridge in Waterloo which has a bike lane. After that it is just another not too busy road to his school. So why not ride in the painted bike lane? We’ll see how it goes when the wheels come off!

After that it was a straight shot as usual to Communitech. I take Bridge to Lancaster and then some side streets over to the Hub. Other than Wednesday of this week, my goal is to ride every single work day of June. This requires some planning with the family schedule, but it should work nicely. In case you are wondering, I am not riding on Wednesday due to a commitment which requires me to head slightly out of town for the day. I wish I could ride, but the equipment required and distance is a deal breaker. I am also going to be riding a different route each day to work and home. I want to see what each of the side streets is like and how valuable they are to the commute home. It is important to me that the City of Kitchener takes from my rides the knowledge that routes can be direct with proper lanes, but that isn’t the only aspect of a cycle commute. Being able to take side roads effectively can cause less stress on a rider allowing them to be more confident in biking to work on the road.

Off we go on the month long adventure!

- Brendan L. from Communitech.