On Saturday July 25, we’re hosting a group bike ride from Vancouver to Maple Ridge.
Why we’re riding
The ride has two purposes: 1) to have fun riding some interesting new roads, but more soberly, 2) to memorialize road violence victims in the area.
Since December 2022, a short stretch of Lougheed Highway in Maple Ridge has claimed 5 pedestrian lives in a highly residential area. You can read more about it in our blog post here. The Province and the municipality are aware of the issues, but refuse to do anything, because for them, the fast movement of cars is superior to human life.
We’ll be placing flowers and signs at the locations of the fatalities, filming a bit of footage of the road conditions, and paying our respects to the victims. We hope that this brings some small bit of attention to the issue, and is a tiny step towards getting some improvements.
Details for joining the ride
When and where to meet:
You have two options:
- VCC Clark SkyTrain Station at 10am, or
- Braid SkyTrain Station at 11am
The route:
We’ll start at VCC Clark and take the Central Valley Greenway to Braid SkyTrain (you can meet here too – see above). We’ll then head down to the river, take the Traboulay PoCo Trail, the Pitt River Bridge, meander through Pitt Meadows, then go to Lougheed Highway to place our some memorials. Our final stop will be Lougheed and 222nd St. The route will involve some riding in mixed traffic, including on some larger/busier roads. We’ll be sticking together, but if you’re very uncomfortable riding in traffic this probably isn’t the trip to join.
On the way back we’ll ride through some farmland, take the same bridge, and head to Lafarge Lake Douglas SkyTrain where most of us will probably take transit home. (If you are keen, you can ride the whole way!)
Distances:
The round trip from VCC Clark back to Lafarge Lake Douglas is about 70km. If you meet us at Braid instead, it’s about 55km. We’ll set a pretty chill pace and have a sweeper so no one is left behind, and we’ll stop for a couple snack / coffee breaks along the way.
Please be prepared to comfortably ride at least 55km, including some riding in traffic on busier roads. Don’t forget sunscreen, shades, water, snacks, and a spare tube. There are options in the area to bail out to a bus if you need to, but they may not be super frequent or convenient.
Please RSVP
If you want to join, please email us at contact@visionzerovancouver.ca. This is how we’ll know to contact you if the plan changes, if we’re running late, or anything else that comes up.
There is some chance we’ll cancel the ride if air quality deteriorates or significant rain is expected. If we need to cancel we’ll contact you on Friday night at the email you used to RSVP. If you don’t hear anything, the ride is on.
Hope to see you all there and meet some new faces!
Vision Zero Vancouver 