| About
Bike and Bloom in the Month of June: A Sustainable Celebration June is "Bike Month" in Vancouver, a month in which people are encouraged to leave their cars at home and bike to work, for fun and for the health of the natural world and themselves. We have decided to add another sustainable practice to this magnificent month, that of urban agriculture and community gardening. By combining both Bike Month with community gardens we have created a festival that can most simply be described as a "community garden bike crawl"! Traveling from community garden to community garden, exploring their crops and the innovative projects that abound in the world of urban agriculture, we`re encouraging Vancouverites to get out there and join the celebrations. The Festival`s final destination is a farmer`s market, where people can find out about where their food comes from, purchase organic groceries and enjoy some good local tunes! Overall the festival is it's name; "biking" and "blooming" in the month of June! For the festivities to proceed smoothly, however, safety must be taken into account. With this in mind, we used GIS to perform safety analyses of our city`s pathways to maximize safety and enjoyment and showcase local agriculture at it`s finest. We have taken into account both path type (local roads, major roads, bike paths and etc.) and Land Use (commercial, industrial, residential and etc) our major determinants in our safety network analysis. After all, a safe celebration is a sustainable celebration! Our plan is to develop a series of bicycle routes throughout the City of Vancouver that will be led on weekends during bike month in June, showcasing local community-building initiatives. This involves promoting active transportation and local food systems through coordination with community gardens, farmers market, and the existing Vancouver bike route network. The City of Vancouver has decided to create 2010 community garden plots by 2010. Bike and Bloom in the Month of June will foster the development and long-term viability of these gardens. Our project aims to provide a working map of resources for local community organizations and the City of Vancouver. Our goals are to encourage the participation in alternative active transportation, healthy eating, community-based agriculture and food security. |