Lunenburg County residents love to cycle. This spring, I set out to interview 10 folks who cycle as a way to get around on the South Shore. Commuter cycling is not very visible here but what I learned was there are in fact lots of folks riding as their form of transportation.
People like Sarah Tennant, who cycles to work at the Bridgewater Hospital.
“From a mental health standpoint, I find it really helps me decompress and feel happy and good. Cycling’s always been a little bit about independence and that freedom to go where I wanna go when I wanna go there and not have to wait for somebody else or find parking or all those other things, you’re just free,” Sarah said.
Al Heubach is the owner of the former Bike Barn outside of Lunenburg. Referencing the fear some people have of cycling on our existing infrastructure, Al said, “you gotta start somewhere and then you build, and the more you ride, the more comfortable you feel, the further you can go.”
In recent years, most municipalities in Lunenburg County have created plans for implementing active transportation infrastructure, but we haven’t seen much actual construction begin on the ground.
A study conducted by Dr. Meghan Winters and colleagues from Simon Fraser University found that 58% of residents surveyed in nearby Halifax were interested in cycling but concerned by a lack of safety. That’s a lot of people who would choose cycling over driving, if given the opportunity.
During my interviews with locals, Cathy Guest, owner of Freewheeling Adventures and a regular commuter cyclist, said, “Unless we’re gonna have a real cycling safety network, I don’t think that people are gonna get on their bikes. So when we have that kind of a network, the people on bikes are gonna just blow away the community. I mean, people are gonna say, where are these people coming from? Everyone wants to ride a bike, they really wanna ride a bike. And once it becomes safe, they will come out in droves, that’s my feeling.”
The demand is there. Now we need our municipal leaders to step up and commit to implementing their active transportation plans at budget time.
Join us on Saturday, October 4, from 6-8 p.m., at the Old Confidence Lodge for a Bike Party, with free snacks, tune-ups, a film screening from the project referenced above, and a fun cycling panel. Register on Eventbrite by searching “Bike Party!”
Meghan Doucette is the Co-Founder & Creative Director at Lemonade Co., an ethical marketing, branding and website design business that supports social impact organizations. She’s also a long-time cycle commuter.
