A sunny 22°C day made it a no-brainer to bike to my meeting at the Nemesis coffee shop in Surrey City Centre. I picked the most direct route from South Surrey (where I live) to City Centre: a 22-km straight shot up King George Blvd (KGB).

The route mostly offered painted bike “infrastructure” with short, occasional sections of separated pathways for cyclists, pedestrians, and anyone else not using a car to get around. The painted bike lanes were better than nothing (some would disagree), but separated infrastructure is much safer and is more likely to attract new, inexperienced, and vulnerable riders. I hope the City of Surrey builds out its separated infrastructure as City Centre grows and attracts more people from the region to its downtown destinations.

Leaving South Surrey, I crossed the Nicomekl River and Serpentine Rivers, then climbed out of the Serpentine River valley into Surrey’s Newton neighbourhood. The climb was about 80 metres of elevation over 1.5 km of distance—approximately 5.5% grade. Once I reached the plateau, riding my bike was almost as quick as driving a car. Every time a light turned green, cars, trucks, and motorcycles would race ahead of me only to be waiting for me when I caught up to them at the next red light. I noted that the Surrey Costco in Newton is about a 45-minute bike ride from my house, which is only about 15-20 minutes longer than it takes to drive. I did cargo bike runs to Costco when I lived in Edmonton, so I’m going to add a Surrey Costco run to my list of upcoming bike trips.

I rode through Newton on KGB until I reached City Centre, then headed west on 102 Ave. to Nemesis. City Centre is home to the Central City shopping mall, City Hall, Civic Plaza, City Centre Library, SFU’s Surrey campus, Surrey Memorial Hospital, Holland Park, and two Expo Line SkyTrain stations: Surrey Central and King George. There is definitely a vibrant urban scene emerging in this part of Surrey.

After my coffee meeting at Nemesis, I set off for an early supper at Tacofino in Metrotown (Burnaby). Google Maps suggested I use the Alex Fraser Bridge to cross the Fraser River, but I planned to take that bridge on the way home. Instead. I navigated toward the Pattullo Bridge. The bridge only has a sidewalk on the west side–not great, but good enough to get across the river. (A new version of this bridge is currently under construction and will include an active transportation lane.) Coming off the Pattullo Bridge, I rode the Central Valley Greenway to the BC Parkway, and followed the parkway along the Expo line through New West, into Burnaby, and all the way to Metrotown.

Supper at Tacofino Metrotown was delicious. Their lemongrass chicken burrito is worth the ride! (I can also get it at the Tacofino in White Rock a few kilometers from my home.) The burrito is probably at least a thousand calories, so I was glad to burn off some calories on the ride back from Metrotown to South Surrey.

The ride home was a subset of a ride I recently did from BC Place (Vancouver) to South Surrey: BC Parkway to the Queensborough Bridge, across Queensborough to the Alex Fraser Bridge, down the Delta Greenway to Colebrook Rd, and back on KGB to Crescent Road and the Elgin Heritage Park Trail. I made it home from Metrotown in about 2.5 hours.

My trip to Metrotown and back was about 80 km. That would be long as a daily commute, but it was perfect as a hybrid commuting and sightseeing adventure–yet another way to enjoy the polycentric layout of Metro Vancouver.