Brampton Bike Hub 1st Anniversary

Bike Cage Official Opening

A crowd of over 60 BikeBrampton members, Pedalwise mentors and protégés, and dignitaries gathered to celebrate the 1st anniversary of Brampton Bike Hub and the official opening of the bike cage at PCHS.

David Laing, BikeBrampton Chair, welcomed everyone with the following remarks:

“BikeBrampton almost had 3 levels of government representing 3 political parties to celebrate biking and active transportation… If you visit the Brampton Bike Hub virtually any Wednesday evening you may get the impression we are a small group with big ideas. What we do seems like we are enjoying ourselves, mostly talking, planning rides, planning routes, complaining about weather, roads and paths, and generally having a good time. We get people out of their cars and onto their bikes. Each of us is trying to do our part to reduce the 30% of Ontario’s carbon emissions coming from transportation… It’s getting easier being an early adopter in the suburban cyclist movement…But there are still too many stories of close encounters of the motorist kind and too many cyclists injured or killed on Brampton roads. We must do better…

I am grateful to partners like PCHS who provides us with support and free space and is quietly there for us. I am grateful to Vélo-Canada-Bikes having faith in letting BikeBrampton be part of the national coalition, and Environment and Climate Change Canada for funding our EcoAction project. I am grateful to Peel Public Health for the Healthy Living Supports grant which allowed us to build this bike cage. And I am grateful to Peel Public Works and the AT team who through their work, generated most of the ideas for the Pedalwise and BikeWrx programs we run in the Brampton Bike Hub.”

Judi Varga-Toth, Executive Director of Vélo-Canada-Bikes, travelled from Ottawa for our celebration. She wowed us with news that the Brampton Bike Hub success is the talk of the country!

Sonia Sidhu, MP Brampton-South, who sits on the Federal Health Committee, has been a great federal supporter of the active transportation work we do at BikeBrampton. She thoughtfully presented us with the following plaque. MP Sidhu rose in the House of Commons on Dec 13th with these Facebook video comments where she graciously acknowledged the volunteers at BikeBrampton.

BikeBrampton welcomed new City of Brampton Regional Councillors Wards 1&5, Rowena Santos and Paul Vincente to our official opening. We were honoured to receive their certificate.

MP Sidhu, David Laing, and Regional Councillors Vincente and Santos presented our EcoAction Carbon Challenge winners with their certificates.

Peel Public Health Manager Pat Bromby spoke of the physical and mental health importance of an active lifestyle. Their grant allowed BikeBrampton members Gerald, Peter, Steve and David to design, build and outfit this new bike cage.

Peel Public Works Commissioner Janette Smith conveyed her remarks, with thanks to everyone there and their on-going commitment with the new Community Cycling Program contract that will continue the Bike Hub, expand in Brampton and extend to Caledon.