Victor Cumming strapped on his bicycle helmet before heading to a news conference.
“Ready team? Ready then let’s go.” Cumming said, as he straddled his bike and pedaled off.
Vernon’s new mayor, is an old hand when it comes to commuting on a bike.
“I started cycling and commuting back in the 70’s,” Cumming said.
After four decades, the mayor continues to roll that way.
“Soon as the good weather comes on, bang, I’m back on my bike again,”
Naturally, when it came time to unveil the city’s new bike corral pilot project, Cumming decided to go green and trade four wheels in for two.
“Ok here we are opening the new bike corral on Main Street,” Cumming said, as he cut the ribbon at the opening ceremony.
The bike corral is essentially a seasonal on-street bicycle parking rack. The city’s active transportation manager said the idea is to use car parking in the curb lane for bikes without congesting the sidewalk.
“We are actively trying to promote, active sustainable transportation and that means on bike, on foot, on skateboard and bike transit,” said the City of Vernon’s Angela Broadbent.
The new bike corral is a pilot project from the Downtown Vernon Association (DVA).
“From the DVA’s perspective it’s good for business, it will be huge on drawing tourists from the rail trail,” said the DVA’s Dudley Coulter.
The City of Vernon and the DVA are hoping that cyclists will use the multi-use bike path along 30th Street from the wildly popular Okanagan Rail Trail to access the downtown Vernon core for shopping, dining and entertainment.
“We’re finishing the multi-use path and you will be able to come here from the hotels in the north end of the city and connect right down the multi-use path to right here and right down to Kal Lake and the Rail Trail,” Cumming said.
Vernon will look to the success of the new bike corral over the next four months, before deciding on whether it will become permanent or if it will be expanded.
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