Ottawa increases score once again in ratings by People for Bikes

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Yesterday afternoon People for Bikes, an American organisation for cycling advocacy, released the city ratings for 2025. Did Ottawa – Gatineau improve once again?

Yes and no. Ottawa has gradually improved its ranking by about 2 points per year, and hits a new high of 56 points this year, two more than last year. Gatineau, after years of growth, stagnated this year and has a score of 69, the same as last year, but still much higher than Ottawa.

Ottawa Rating

Gatineau now in large city group

There is not much point in looking at other cities though as every city is different. In a future post, I will look at some other Canadian cities. As more cities are being ranked, it is obvious that Ottawa and Gatineau drop somewhat in the rankings, but Ottawa is still 95 in the large city group category and 324 out of a total of 2901 cities ranked.

Gatineau rating

That is not bad at all, given there are now many European cities ranked too. Gatineau ranks 141 out of 2901 cities, and for the first time is now a member of the large city group at a 52nd spot since it crossed the 300,000+ population cut off for this group. Apparently, Gatineau has now 333,093 residents. The city is still in the overall 95 percentile, which is awesome. If Gatineau improves access to transit hubs, it will gain quite a bit. I suspect Gatineau benefits quite a bit from nearby Gatineau Park with 80 points in the recreation category.

National Capital Region rating

Ottawa and Gatineau are so intertwined in terms of cycling, that one could approach it as one city. I even bike from the Ottawa River Pathway via Quebec to Kìwekì Point to bypass downtown Ottawa. So every year I take a look at our region and create an extra ranking for the National Capital Region, by combining the weighed data of Gatineau and Ottawa.

That gives us a score of 64 (from 61 last year), the same as Calgary and not that far off from Vancouver (67) and better than Portland, with a rating of 61. Portland has been a shining example for good bike infrastructure for Ottawa in the past and I am happy to read that our combined Ottawa-Gatinau cycling network is just as good. In fact a rating of 64 gets the National Capital Region in the best 200 cities out of nearly 3000 ranked. Reason enough to do some biking next time you are in Canada’s National Capital Region.

How does People for Bikes rank the cities?

In short, People for Bikes looks at bike infrastructure and looks at six different categories that represent how well people can reach certain destinations by bike. Their website explains all the details, the methodology etc. but here is a quick summery:

People – how well can people reach other people by bike

Core Services – how well can people reach dentists, doctors, grocery stores, hospitals, pharmacies and social services by bike

Opportunity – how well can people reach employment (not available for Canada), higher education, K12 education and college by bike

Recreation – how well can people reach community centres, parks and trails by bike

Retail – how well can people reach retail by bike

Transit – how well can people reach major transit hubs by bike

As you can see in the table below, Ottawa keeps scoring low in the transit section. I hope with new LRT lines opening eventually, this will bump our score somewhat up again.

There is hope, in 2019 the total Ottawa ranking was 46; six years later it is already 10 points higher. Building cycling infrastructure is a long game; planning, designing, tendering, building takes years. In the next few years though, parts of Bank Street will have bike tracks. Greenfield’s bike tracks are nearly complete, new LRT station bike connections should improve, Richmond Road is getting there, new neighbourhoods are getting more separate infrastructure, so more goodies to look forward to.

As Peter Gabriel sung with Kate Bush in 1986: “Don’t give up, ’cause you have friends“. (also in city hall)

Confederation Heights

On another note: I attended a high level open house about Confederation Heights yesterday afternoon. That is the area between Riverside, Brookfield and Bronson. Happy to report there is lots of attention for cycling and the Modernist heritage government buildings (until someone discovers they are full of asbestos – I am speculating). Unhappy to hear I might be 110 years old by the time this new community of perhaps 20,000 residents might be finished. There are ideas of removing on and off ramps from the Airport Parkway, adding new roads and lots of mid and high rises. But usually, many ideas don’t become reality.