Protest, Fish & Chips & Open House

Another teaser and action packed day, a summary of tasks accomplished and a story to eventually be told



While the Mayor of Vancouver has proclaimed to the world that we wish to become the greenest city on the face of the Earth truth be told that unless you are utilizing pedal power or riding electric vehicles then you are only viewed as a source of an never-ending supply of money to keep the Government alive. We have 42 designated spaces for 2-wheeled vehicles . While all the municipalities around us are encouraging use of more fuel efficient machines, which includes motorcycles and scooters, Vancouver is NOT. There is no safe place to park your bike, not corner clearances, not on the sidewalk, and not between cars as they frequently get bumped over. Anyway Saturday was the date slated for our motorcycle/scooter protest. The City (of Vancouver) has regulated that bikes should occupy ONE parking space and pay full price for that space, so as a law abiding group, we did.



We got there early and snapped up all the spaces on the busiest street downtown from Robson & Burrard. We put one bike into each metered spot and paid full price for our stay. Cars were circling the streets trying to find a place to park, and some tried to park between the bikes. The "tipped" over scooter was there to demonstrate what it looks like to have a car push it over.

Our protest was brief as we did not wish to lose tourist sales to the local merchants but the next time we will have a second wave of bikes to replace the original ones as we could get ticketed for "feeding" the meter.

After we left the downtown area, some of us headed over to an Open House sponsored by a local Suzuki Dealer, JP Suzuki in Burnaby.



Time for lunch and the hamburgers and hot dogs were ready to be dispensed as well as a non alcoholic beverage to wash it down. Even potato chips for the taking. While it was a sponsored event I put some paper into the donation bucket.



Today everything was on sale and there was an army of bikes available for Demo rides if you were so inclined. I hung around for a while chitting and chatting and looking for bargains.



A couple of us decided to go for a short ride. We headed south to get away from the city traffic. Over the Queensboro Bridge, west along River Road to Richmond, then south to Steveston highway, we eventually arrived at scenic Finn Slough



After we finished pointing and clicking we ended up in Historic Steveston, BC and shared a large order of fish and chips between the 3 of us



It was a varied day of different experiences: protester, socializer and rider with a full belly. What more could you ask for on a sunny cool day in Vancouver, British Columbia