Month: May 2015

Dream start of 45th NCC Sunday Bike Day Season

May 18, 2015 Hansonthebike 4

Reading Time: 5 minutesIt seemed like everyone was out cycling yesterday. Sunday May 17 was the first day of the Alcatel Lucent NCC Sunday Bike Days. The weather couldn’t have been better. Sunday, sunny, low humidity (under 40%) and 24 C/75F by 5 pm. And the numbers showed it: over 5000 bike rides were counted near Canal Ritz on the Sunday before Victoria Day Monday by the underground bike counters, and many more were cycling on the road as the paths were overcrowded. It was one of those perfect days in Ottawa. The NCC (a federal agency) closes 25 km of roads in [Read more…]

Impressions of 2015 Tulips on Two Wheels

May 11, 2015 Hansonthebike 0

Reading Time: 4 minutes  This year was already Citizens for Safe Cycling’s fourth Tulips on Two Wheels event in Ottawa. Every year around the time the 1 million tulips are blooming, we are out at the canal near Canal Ritz with our bike tune up station (managed by Cycle Salvation) and our information booth. Unfortunately, we get the muddiest spot along the entire canal. It is a spot that is used for truck parking during winterlude and it totally ruined. That’s why you hardly see any tulips in the pictures (only across the street). The event is a great opportunity to talk to cyclists who might [Read more…]

South Keys, Ottawa: the End of the Parking Lot?

May 7, 2015 Hansonthebike 3

Reading Time: 5 minutes  In my previous blog, I wrote about ‘Retrofitting Suburbia’, a 2009 book by Ellen Dunham – Jones and June Williamson. They describe how older suburban malls from around 50 years ago, when the car was still seen as the solution to many perceived problems, rather than the cause of many problems, can be successfully retrofitted into new town centres, including housing, entertainment, work spaces etc. 3000 parking spots A number of US mall owners have been rethinking the traditional model of the mall as we know it. They are interested in intensification; this naturally leaves less surface space for [Read more…]