October 2013 - Hans on the Bike - Cycling in Ottawa and beyond

Nervous Nellies and Fairweather Freds: November 3, 2013

October 29, 2013 Hansonthebike 0

Reading Time: < 1 minuteby Ottawa city councillor David –I am not an “avid” cyclist– Chernushenko. If you have missed David Chernushenko’s documovie, this is your chance to see it. And if you enjoyed it so much the first time that you ‘d like to see it over and over again (like your kids’ Dora the Explorer), than here is another chance to see the 2013 Bike Documentary with wise words from councillor David -I am not an “avid” cyclist- Chernushenko. It has lots of Ottawa content. The film will be followed by a panel discussion with Bruce Timmermans Award winner and newly elected Citizens [Read more…]

Ottawa's 2013 Annual Plaid Parade Recap (with pics)

October 27, 2013 Hansonthebike 0

Reading Time: 5 minutesDespite a cool Sunday (5C or 41F), about 150 people or so came out to cycle in the second annual Ottawa Plaid Parade. This year we started at the City Centre’s Art-is-in Bakery. Not a great back drop for photography, but lots of space to get together before the start. The tour followed the O-train pathway, connected with the Ottawa River Pathway and then turned south near the stacked stones in the Ottawa River. We then made our way back through Tunney’s Pasture and then turned east towards the Carleton Tavern on Parkdale. The ride ended a bit abrupt on [Read more…]

2013 Ottawa Plaid Parade Planned for October 27

October 22, 2013 Hansonthebike 0

Reading Time: 2 minutesAnd you thought that Ottawans dress in track pants and PJ’s in the weekend. Actually they do, also during office hours too sometimes. But here is a chance to see an estimated 200 hipsters in Plaid (baby hipsters, student hipsters, granny hipsters) on bikes, cycling through the Preston and Hintonburg neighbourhood this weekend. This year, we get to meet at Art-is-in Bakery at City Centre, between Preston and the new O-train bike path. Which is actually not the city’s centre at all, but an industrial-ish area with tons of loading docks. But the bakery has really good stuff as you [Read more…]

A Ghost Bike for Mario Théoret

October 20, 2013 Hansonthebike 12

Reading Time: 3 minutesIt 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…]

Citizens for Safe Cycling AGM 2013 recap

October 15, 2013 Hansonthebike 0

Reading Time: 5 minutesWe aim to be the least boring AGM in Ottawa and according to several members we are successful in that. Organising the AGM starts already a year in advance, by securing the Tom Brown arena. In spring we start to discuss a speaker and in the summer we put the to do list together, analyse improvements (not enough coffee) and we start to prepare the financial reports. As a non profit incorporated organisation, lots of work happens behind the scenes to make sure that everything is accounted for. The trick is to keep things simple and standardised in order to [Read more…]

2013 Draft Ottawa Bicycle Plan in 1500 words

October 10, 2013 Hansonthebike 0

Reading Time: 9 minutesI read through the draft Ottawa Bicycle Plan last night (update: I improved it a bit here and there on Thanksgiving, removing typos, adding headers and more insight in budgets). A document of nearly 150 pages that outlines the vision for the next 18 years. I think it is a very solid plan, perhaps one of the best I have read. It is clearly written by cyclists with lots of input from the public and Citizens for Safe Cycling, Ottawa’s bicycle advocacy group since 1984. It is all compassing, from infrastructure to education, from winter cycling to fall sweeping. From [Read more…]