intersection

Dutch style intersection with separate bike tracks in green

Dutch Style Intersections at Dynes Road

April 13, 2017 Hansonthebike 5

Reading Time: 4 minutes Dynes Road will get a make over as there is sewer work to be done. Much of the cycling infrastructure is usually put in place when the sewers have to be replaced. Main Street was an example of that. The road is open anyway, so this is a good reason to rebuild the street and these cost don’t eat into the cycling budget. So essentially we’ll get free Dutch style intersections. The residents at Dynes complained about speeding and part of the reason is that the road is very wide. (Mind you, it is drivers who speed, not roads). The part [Read more…]

Emotions at Dynes Road Info Session

April 11, 2017 Hansonthebike 2

Reading Time: 4 minutes Last week, Karen and I were at a public information session for the reconstruction of Dynes Road off Prince of Wales Rd just north-west of Hog’s Back Falls. The road will be ripped up between summer 2017 and 2019, so the city brought the residents together to explain what the plan is. Poof, slip lanes gone There were drawings of the street on display with a cool new element, plus bike lanes and bike tracks. The slip lanes at Dynes and Prince of Wales are gone in the drawings, thus making the intersection a lot safer for everyone. The engineers and councillor [Read more…]

A Closer Look at the Bronson Improvements

September 20, 2016 Hansonthebike 4

Reading Time: 5 minutes The city got a lot of flak for the Booth Bridge Boondoggle and rightly so, as the design goes against all the modern road design principles. Big intersections, 4 lanes, no bike infrastructure, despite the connection to Quebec, the Zibi developments, the future Senators stadium and the Ottawa river pathways, even though there have been dire warnings from different sides years (!) before it was built. Once the opening came closer, the general public woke up and started to ask questions. The city scrambled a team together and a temporary provision for cycling was made. All you can do is roll [Read more…]

8 Bike Infrastructure Improvements in Ottawa

April 28, 2016 Hansonthebike 0

Reading Time: 5 minutes Since 2011, when Laurier Ave got segregated bike lanes, many other infrastructure projects were built in Ottawa. You may have seen a few of my images in Janette Sadik-Khan’s presentation last night (I couldn’t be there myself, but I heard there were about over 1000 people). If she didn’t use them or if you weren’t able to go, here are a few examples of the improvements the city and the NCC have made. I thought I use a ‘before’ and ‘after’ image, so you can see the difference. There are more examples, but I want to keep the post to a [Read more…]

A Ghost Bike for Mario Théoret

October 20, 2013 Hansonthebike 12

Reading Time: 3 minutes It was a fairly cold but sunny Sunday morning on October 20, 2013, when I cycled to Hunt Club and Merivale to attend the placement of a ghost bike at this intersection, where Mario was killed earlier this week. From the media, I gathered a truck turned right and didn’t see Mario. Ghost bikes are usually placed anonymously, but friends of Mario decided to make it a public event.  I didn’t recognise many people, other than CfSC members  Peter Brebner (who made the bike seat covers for us) and Heather, who walked up to me  to thank Citizens for Safe Cycling [Read more…]

Of a Woonerf, Too Many Signs and Complete Streets

April 15, 2013 Hansonthebike 19

Reading Time: 6 minutes A world without signs? We have one woonerf in Ottawa: part of Cambridge is designated as a woonerf. An ‘erf’ is a somewhat old fashioned Dutch word for the area around the farm house, where chickens roam, the dog guards and the cow explores. ‘Woon’ comes from the verb ‘wonen’, Dutch for ‘to live in a place’. Woon-erf more or less literally translates to “living yard”. Here in Canada, we’d like to translate it with ‘complete streets’ sometimes, but typically a woonerf has few curbs; traffic calming measures are taken to the extreme with planters, coloured pavers, bike racks and [Read more…]

Ontario’s “Je ne sais quoi” Draft Cycling Strategy – part 2

December 17, 2012 Hansonthebike 2

Reading Time: 6 minutes The Ontario Draft cycling strategy is not very clear. “Fluff”, is what a former City of Ottawa planner told me last week. I guess that is why they turn to the public. So your input is needed. In fact, I received an email from Toronto saying: “that this piece has already broken the threshold for most comments received on the EBR (Environmental Bill of Rights) and it’s only been up for a few days.”  Let’s zoom in into a number of issues, that are not overly hard to address. Increase bike modal share by proper design If you want to increase the [Read more…]

Carleton University Cycling Meeting

November 29, 2012 Hansonthebike 2

Reading Time: 2 minutes At Carleton University Colum Grove-White and Tamara Nahal and others got involved in cycling safety on and around campus after the death of Krista Johnston on Bronson Ave. After a first successful initial petition to request better safety around campus, that gathered nearly 2000 signatures, the group is now organising themselves for the next step, by building a team that carries the torch. The nature of a university is such that eventually students move on to Macdonalds their job of choice, much to the relieve of their parents, so the Graduates would like your help. Here is a press release: Are you interested [Read more…]

Ottawa: Impressions of Ontario’s First Green Bike Box

July 17, 2012 Hansonthebike 8

Reading Time: 5 minutes Something new appeared on the streets of Ottawa, the very first bike box in Ontario. Earlier I had seen them in Vancouver, but this is an Ontario first and judging by the 50 thumbs up on Citizens for Safe Cycling’s Facebook page, it is solidly approved by cyclists. The green material is similar to the paint used in Laurier and should last quite a while, even through the harsh winters (which are getting less and less harsh anyway although I don’t have the evidence [citation needed].) I hadn’t really planned to go out and see it, but I had to [Read more…]