Off the Couch: Protest Ride Today

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I just came back from a visit to Europe to see my mother, my sister and her family and to a bit of travel in lesser known places in Portugal such as Alcobaça, Aveiro and Gimarães, medium size towns comparable to say Kingston, ON.

We like that more as tourism is much less, prices are for locals and restaurants are not advertising in German, English or Russian in those towns. My Portuguese is non existent, but with a limited knowledge of French, Italian and a bit of Spanish, I can read quite a bit of Portuguese.

Guimarães’ version of the Byward Market is car free. The structure on the left is from the 14th century, built after a battle was won by the Portuguese

Roundabout galore

Portugal has lots of roundabouts, so many in fact that we would only see a traffic signal once in a while. Days would go by without encountering a single traffic signal. It’s all about roundabouts: traffic flows and no waiting for lights when there are no other cars.

Another thing that struck me is that drivers stop for pedestrians who intend to cross the road at a crosswalk. I found the driving somewhat aggressive in residential streets, but drivers always stop for a crosswalk, no matter how last minute you step on to a crosswalk. They’ll stop.

We saw several bike lanes in Lisbon, in Aveiro and Gimarães; not all well connected, but it is a start. I will write more about it later this year.

That bike lane thing

Talking about bike lanes, I was following the news in Ontario about the Conservatives’ evil plan to limit bike infrastructure and even bragging they might pull some of them up.

I personally doubt they will do that, but Ford goes far in pleasing the voters: selling alcohol at gas stations, buck a beer, ‘free’ car license renewal, cutting TO city council in half, removing windmills, selling out the Greenbelt, expanding a licensing regime that allows dogs to track down captive coyotes, foxes and rabbits in massive fenced-in pens and possibly even handing out money (which is our own money in the first place).

Some people wrote that the whole bike lane thing is a distraction of the Highway 413 environmental assessment modifications. Distracting from the many real problems we have in this province currently, from housing to education to healthcare to transit. But politicians know how to play the game: find a clickbaity issue and set people up against each other. Divide and rule. It’s a centuries old trick.

But there is another concern: as someone wrote from Bike Ottawa,

“Of course this [bike lane removal] is utterly ridiculous, but also extremely dangerous. And I mean immediate danger, as that kind of culture war-mongering gives license to vindictive drivers to verbally and physically assault us. All of this to placate some Toronto voters and try to hide the reality, which is that Ford failed to deliver an adequate transportation network.”

In the 25 years of cycling in Ottawa I have had the odd white guy yelling to me (it is nearly always white guys), when I am just biking along. One even yelled “to fuck off to a gym” when I was just happily cycling home. A taxi driver even got out of his car after I pointed out he was cutting me off when he left the roundabout. He had passed me in the roundabout and then turned right.

Recently a guy yelled from his truck that I will be run over one day when I crossed the road at a crosswalk on the Prince of Wales roundabout (he had to stop (GASP, the idea alone!) and clearly didn’t like that at all- despite the those flashing PXO lights).

Obnoxious

Since the pandemic though, some drivers have become just plain obnoxious. I don’t have the numbers, but it feels like there are more hit and runs than in the past. Kill a person and just drive away. I should also add that many drivers wave me through at intersections. It is just those bad apples.

Another thing that bothers me is the meddling in municipal affairs. What is next? The location of a stop sign? No more cycling in winter? Removal of speed limits? Hundreds of city planners in Ontario all of a sudden now have to submit their plans to some remote office in Toronto and the irony is that they likely have to provide data, the same data that Ford doesn’t want to see.

This however is a good opportunity to not plan roads at all anymore, and only build cycling infrastructure to avoid dealing with the Office of the Approval and Removal of Bike Lanes altogether. As famous Dutch soccer player Johan Cruyff once said: “every disadvantage has an advantage” (he was a master in cryptic logic).

I am not even going to mention induced demand (“build it and they will come”) because it is an inconvenient truth for Mr. Ford.

Lastly, it was interesting how quickly the MTO had a clip of an angry man kicking a flexipost and clogged traffic next to an empty bike lane. Of course, they don’t show roads that are clogged without bike lanes. Our biggest clogged highway is the Queensway, and since I last checked, there are no bike lanes. Oddly, when the Queensway was widened, Liberal MPP Chiarelli announced this would get hard working Canadians home faster. He too knew that wasn’t true.

The Mayor’s office also came right out of the gate saying that our city will comply to the new law. Of course they will, ’cause it is the law, but Mark could also have decided to lay low and talk to Ford how important cycling is for our city: environment, health, tourist dollars, less cars on the road, cleaner air for those who live downtown. O’Connor alone counts 150,000 trips annually according to city councillor Ariel Troster.

Even the Bloor St. BIA came out against removing their bike lanes: “bike lanes are good for business, they improve safety for all road users, and reduce congestion,” said Brian Burchell, general manager of the Bloor-Annex BIA. “Bloor Street in the Annex is a thriving main street and the bike lanes are an essential part of what makes that possible.”

Protest

Anyway, all this to say that Bike Ottawa is organising a friendly protest ride with many other organisations including Envirocentre, Ecology Ottawa, Kidical Mass and Strong Towns Ottawa.

I am not much of a protester myself to be honest, it is just not really my thing to chant in a park or ride in large groups. But once in a while it is necessary. I don’t have high hopes that the government will even take note, and in the conservative back offices in Ottawa and Toronto they’re probably laughing how they screwed “all those elitists” (your dentist, your employer, your neighbour, your children’s teacher, your health care worker) on their bikes. Our hope should be on Olivia Chow (who was a speaker at a previous Bike Ottawa AGM BTW) who knows how politics works.

So I will be out there and I hope you will too. Just to make a point. Even if it is just once in your life. Other than that, it is really nice to be among likeminded people in this angry world of today.

The rally is today at 3:30 pm at Confederation Park. We’ll bike towards Bayview Yards where there is a forum with 4 speakers at 5 pm and then the Bike Ottawa AGM (you have to be a member for a month to vote). The best part of the annual AGM is hanging out with other cyclists. During my presidency, I heard regularly that the Bike Ottawa AGMs are the best AGMs in town.

Hope to see you there and sorry for the ramble. But it is important stuff for the future of cycling in Ottawa. Update: I think I counted roughly 200+ people at the gathering.

You can sign Ariel’s petition here: https://www.arieltroster.com/cycling_ayn_2024?recruiter_id=3892

You can comment on the bill until November 20 here: https://ero.ontario.ca/notice/019-9266 Even if you only write Ford that it is a bad idea. No need for data to support your opinion.