A nice surprise in the mailbox from “Green Passport” principal Dave Krentz:
I’ve been enjoying your Tags for months now, and giving nothing back. Well, guilt has overwhelmed me, so I’m sending this video that I made with footage from my GoPro camera when I rolled into town for Velo-City last June.
The video briefly documents my ride between YVR and Accent Inns in Burnaby (bike friendly hotel) on arrival day.
It’s a lovely piece of film-making, and for those of us in Metro Vancouver, a small revelation:
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Also, a request from Dave:
I’d also like to invite you to take part in the second annual Getting There Green Day. It’s a Facebook event that gets people thinking about green transportation, by asking that wherever they’re going on the first of spring, they get there green. Joining is simple, fun and free, and although the event is open to anyone in the world, it’s made in Canada by yours truly!
Please check it out here. If you love it, please join us, and then share it far and wide.
Now, Dave, you have to send us that other video you referenced, of cycling in Vancouver.
And to other Tag lurkers out there, you can send in stuff too. The blog must be fed.
I’d love to see this video, but I’m not going to install Silverlight to play it…
Huh… I just downloaded the WMV file from the link and watched it with VLC.
Neat video!
Than you, Agustin! I trimmed it down from about 2 hours of footage. I took my time getting to the hotel because it was such a nice day. The return trip? Not so nice! Cold and rainy, plus my bike was so loaded I had no room for the GoPro. Made it in about 1 hour and 15 minutes, though.
Great tip to download it, thanks. It’s not obvious how to do that – the big “download” link on the page downloads Silverlight and not the movie. To download the movie you have to click the “View Folder” link, then right-click on the thumbnail of the video and select “download”.
It was nice seeing familiar places in the video – I’ve cycled pretty much everything that was shown except for the airport itself. Judging from the contour lines on VanMap I think the Ontario bike route has a very slightly less steep grade up from the Fraser, but Cambie is pretty close and they’re both considerably better than any of the other North/South bike routes between there and points east.
The Accent Inn is a lot easier to access now than it was a few years ago because of the Central Valley Greenway. I really love how much easier it’s made the trip from Vancouver into Burnaby without having to run the gauntlet of Broadway.
Sean, it was nice reading your comments. I have to agree the Central Valley Trail was my main corridor for the commute between home base and the conference. I tried Broadway briefly: no thanks!
I was very pleasantly surprised by the airport, that is, what a fun and mellow experience it was cycling out of there. I needed the bike box for the return flight so I stored it at a luggage storage shop right next to the carousels. I changed in the washroom and assembled the bike near the elevators in the luggage pick-up area. Then I literally just rolled out the door and onto the road.
It was funny climbing Cambie. I’m used to southern Ontario hills, and when I first got to Cambie I thought “no problem” and attacked it like I was Ryder Hesjedal. About 2 blocks later I was being passed by … well, everyone, and learned to think of it as more of a long-term project. It was a nice, relaxing visit after that!
Agreed, Silverlight is not on my machine and is unlikely to get there.
Gordon, thank you so much for featuring my video and promoting Getting There Green Day. I think that’ll push our numbers past the 100 participant mark: we’re at 97 right now.
And yes, I’ll be happy to send along the Vancouver cycling video. It’ll be largely about my commute between Burnaby and the Sheraton Wall Centre, where Velo-City was held, but I’ll throw in a few other features too. Thing is — it’s still just raw footage, so I’d better get busy!
Nice Video. You can use Runkeeper to track your route with GPS. It is great.
Thanks Tim. Do you know if Runkeeper would work with my Nokia phone? It’s Android, I believe
You do not need to download it to watch it! I just clicked on the pic and it took me to a website where it played. What is missing is a map – but seeing Dave Krentz’s comment I guess he took the scenic route! I recognized the Oak St Bridge intersection then the Canada Line bridge and the Central Valley Greenway.
Point well taken, Stephen. I thought about putting a detailed map showing my route into the video but thought it would be too cluttered. Thus, the largely symbolic map at the beginning. I just might put the entire route down on paper (electrons?), and if I do I’ll send it along to Gordon.
The other video comes first, though 🙂