The Project

In Vancouver, cycling is an expression of who we are.

So suggests Gordon Price, godfather of west coast new urbanism and former city councillor, who is responsible in part for this evolution.

From a car-centric region teetering on the edge of inner-city freeway hell, to one of the non-European world's bike meccas, Vancouver has come a long way in just a generation.

Vanbikes — both this website and the book — aims to tell that story.

Some of the people, places, stories, art, ideas and decisions that helped shape west coast cycling culture.

I came from bikes too, riding around suburban and downtown Toronto in the 1980s. 

In the '90s, exploring Vancouver by bike, I somehow never knew there was a group of people fighting everyday, on their own time, for everyone's right to bike safely — to and from work, school and shopping, for exercise, recreation and freedom.

Showing their faces, telling their stories.

For the past 30 years or more, these people worked and sometimes fought to bring a sustainable transportation system to Greater Vancouver:

• Equitable, evidence-based policies and legislation

• Flexible and response public planning & development processes

• Safe, accessible facilities for all transportation modes

Vanbikes is a voice for building on that momentum by understanding where we came from, and what we've learned.

Buy the book.

Vanbikes: Vancouver’s Bicycle People & the Fight for Transportation Change was published in print and e-book editions in July 2022—buy a copy now.