Winter Cycling Because I Want To

For me, winter cycling is a choice: this is what I want to do. I am not poor, I am not in need of your help; I chose and I want to ride my bike.

If you choose to ride your bike year-round in Ottawa, your biggest obstacle is likely your critics. Everybody, it seems, has something to say, and much of it is negative in some way, even if it is innocent.

I have heard the following assumptions:

• That I can't afford a car (why else would I be cycling in the winter?)
• That I don't like driving
• That I believe that everybody should ride a bike all the time (Oh, so you think that I should ride my bike too?)

And I often hear the following comments:

• Isn't that dangerous?
• I knew/read about a cyclist who died...
• You shouldn't ride in the winter.
• What about ice?
• Isn't it too cold?
• Do you want a ride?

The truth is that I can certainly afford a car but I do not want one. I had a car and it turned out to be an expensive decoration for my driveway; I barely drove it 800 km in one year, including a trip from Toronto. I love driving: I got my driver's license on my 16th birthday and especially love driving a car with a manual transmission. Driving in the city, however, is more annoying than fun. I drive slowly in residential areas because people live there. When I reach a road with a higher speed limit, the city layout ensures that there are enough controlled intersections to slow me down enough that my average speed is not much higher than on my bicycle. For many trips, at certain hours, the bicycle is a contender for total travel time.

While I certainly encourage people to ride their bikes more often and would be happier with more cyclists on the road, I do not think that it is for everybody, and there are people who should refrain from cycling. Cycling as a mode of transportation does take a lot of planning and it will not fit with scheduling for everybody. Many people work far away from home and cycling is out of the question. Other people do not wish to cycle in the dark, which eliminates commuting for 6 months of the year.

Cycling at any time is dangerous. Is it more dangerous in the winter? Yes, in the same way that driving 100 km/h on the highway in the winter is more dangerous. However, I do find that I am much more aware of road conditions on my bike than in the car and can adjust for them quickly. Mostly, I find that winter cycling is more difficult, not more dangerous. Cycling during or after a big snow dump is nearly impossible with this type of bicycle: the wheels slide all over the place and keeping the bike balanced becomes difficult. Ice is only a concern when turning, stopping, or cycling on a slope. When doing these things slowly, ice is no problem but riding along a slope is quite difficult at any speed. Keeping warm is also not a problem; keeping too warm is, however. Even in -20 weather I seem to overheat.

I never want to hear horror stories. Just because I am a cyclist, it does not mean that I want to hear about every dead cyclist in the world. In the same way that parents do not want to hear horror stories about children just because they have children of their own.

Every day I see motorists who should not drive in the winter but nobody stops to tell them that. Why would anybody tell a cyclist that they should not ride in the winter?

Offering a ride to a cyclist is not helping them, it is undermining their choice. It is like offering a ride to somebody who is walking their dog. 

For the most part, winter cycling has brought a lot of happiness to my life. Cold, snow, and wind can be defeated. That freezing rain last week, however, might have killed my bike for the next little while, since water crept in everywhere and then froze solid.