Canmore Community Cruisers don’t just want to encourage residents and visitors that riding their bikes is the cheapest, healthiest and, in many cases, quickest way to get around town – they want to help local businesses and organizations prove that’s the case.
With a grant from the Alberta Ecotrust Foundation to engage businesses in welcoming cyclists to their establishments, the Cruisers are working this summer to make Canmore more bike friendly than ever before.
Canmore Business and Tourism business engagement coordinator Paula Remple is leading the effort to engage businesses and sign them up for the initiative. Remple, who rides her bike to work most days, has an objective to certify businesses that meet specific bike friendly criteria and promote them to cyclists.
Already the initiative is seeing tremendous buy-in with the first bike friendly businesses, The Market in Three Sisters and Unwined, which are offering discounts to those who show up on two wheels and have lots of bike parking.
The Canmore Folk Music Festival is also signed on as the first bike friendly event as a great way to lessen traffic congestion at the popular annual music festival. There will be bike parking, a bike fix-it station and the Cruisers will be on hand to provide ABC bike checks and talk about Bike Friendly Canmore.
Having the initiative reach out to events is something special event manager Cyd Fraser is looking forward to.
“I look forward to seeing a well-organized system that encourages all event/community coordinators to take this on with enthusiasm, which will have a ripple effect out into our audience – the whole world,” Fraser said.
Contact Remple at [email protected] for more information about the program.
