It’s starting to drizzle on the summer concert series at Esther Short Park. The poor weather doesn’t seem to have much of an effect on Johnny Limbo and the Lugnuts — the featured band — or those moving to their cover songs on the dance floor.

Neither has it slowed down the members of Bike Me! at their tent on the southeast corner of the park. Group leader Leah Jackson fields questions while other members ride around the park on eight bikes connected with plastic tubing to a cart. The bike sleigh carries a pair of videographers from Los Angeles travelling the country documenting the role of bicycling in the context of the economic recession. For a rainy Vancouver afternoon, it’s a busy day in the park.

Bike Me! is a recently established Vancouver bicycling advocacy organization. The group started meeting in April in an attempt to provide cyclists a voice in the city, said Jackson.

The group has about 150 members on its mailing list, while 20 to 30 attend the monthly meetings, said Jackson.
“People have been receptive, not just because of the advocacy, but because we are reaching out to help people that want to learn how to do more on their bicycles,” said Jackson. “It’s advocacy, it’s education and it’s fun.”

During the August meeting, members gathered in folding chairs in a garage-converted-to-an-office-type-space in the back of the Wallis Engineering building on 4th Street. Bikes lined the walls. At this particular meeting, two engineers from the Columbia River Crossing project explained the improvements to bikers and pedestrians of each of their two designs.

One of the goals of the Columbia River Crossing Task Force is to improve pedestrian and bike access with the new bridge. The current crossing has just a four-foot wide lane for pedestrians and bicyclists to share. Both the engineers and Bike Me! members acknowledged that accidents are common.

One option would have decks underneath the bridge with a 12-foot-wide lane of space for faster bike commuters and a 12-foot wide slower lane for multiuse. The other option would have lanes of the same width next to the highway. It would have a longer run-out on both ends of the bridge because it would be 20 feet higher.

At the end of the meeting, Bike Me! members endorsed the first option due to its all-weather function, lower level of ambient noise, and elevation, as long as the paths are properly secured and well-maintained. The earliest project completion date isn’t until 2012. But with a $4 billion dollar price tag, it’s the most significant of many projects Bike Me! hopes to influence.

Additionally, the group hopes to establish itself as a non-profit and continue to promote the expansion of bike lanes throughout Vancouver.