The Peterborough Community Cycling Hub is an incorporated not-for-profit, member-based organization that promotes biking accessibility and education. The do-it-yourself approach to biking is promoted by those that run it, and encourages a learning environment for bike owners.
Tegan Moss is the director of the initiative, working alongside workshop facilitator Mike Stefanuk, and passionate volunteers to help make bikes and biking more accessible to the Peterborough community.
Started in 2003 by two Trent University students at Sadleir House, a recent partnership with the Trent Central Student Association has developed a second location on campus in garage near the Alumni House just north of Champlain College.
Both shops intend to teach people how to maintain their own bikes, but their initiative to make biking more accessible extends beyond that.
A bike share program was developed to remove barriers such as ownership that prevent some from experiencing the trails in Peterborough. By becoming a member, $20 for students and $30 for community members, anyone can have access to these services.
The bike share program caters to those that do not have access to their own bikes, such as first-year students and international students, who may not want to own a bike only to discard it if they decide to leave the country. It is a positive and encouraging program that allows members to have access to a bikes and helmets for a week to however long they need, simply to enjoy the experience of biking for at no cost.
Another initiative run through them is the Earn a Bike program that offers this accessibility for at-risk youth who earn a bike through working as volunteers at the Hub.
With the City of Peterborough looking into making buses more bike-friendly and extending trails, this is a growing development of the biking culture that is rich and vibrant in Peterborough.
Often those that recently move here are unaware of the accessible routes trails offer to get from one place to another, sometimes being more efficient that public transit itself.
The Hub is an organization that intends to help people learn of these opportunities, and hosts annual Bike Rodeos with the Police and Green Up. They also assist youth and elementary schools to educate on safety by performing bike checkups and helmet checks.
To volunteer or find out more visit their website.