NCC Bike Night in Ottawa

(apologies for the lack of photo credits, I don’t know where I got them from anymore)

Last Saturday the NCC Open Days events included a bike night ride in the early evening. Participants were asked to bring lights for a special night ride on closed roads and two bike and pedestrian bridges.

This was not the first time for a night ride in Ottawa, as bike night rides were organised before in the capital, but organising a ride of that size asks a lot from volunteers, including the cost (policing) of closing roads.

That the NCC took it on instead was a much better idea. The concept is not new of course as Montreal has been organising the Tour le Nuit for a long time already.

If you weren’t there, you missed quite a sight. Luckily, others did share video and photos of the event. When I asked several people how many people participated, I got answers from ‘at least 1000’ to ‘OMG, thousands’.

Video of NCC Bike night

The video that Greg put online definitely shows a lot of people biking away and it looks like everyone had a good time. There were lots of decorated bikes, there were cargo bikes and there were recumbent bikes. There were flashing and steady lights, Christmas lights and LED lights. There were children and seniors and I think I even spotted a four wheel Model T Ford inspired bicycle in the video. There were flags and bubbles. There was a DJ spinning music.

Riding along a World Heritage Site

The 6.6 km route went along Queen Elizabeth Drive, across the Rideau Canal (a UNESCO World Heritage Site no less) via the Flora Footbridge near 5th Ave in the Glebe and back across the canal at the Corktown bridge, which, by the way, was nearly not built and from what I heard was only voted in favour for with one vote more than against. But that is history. How times have changed.

How many people rode in the Bike night?

This week, I asked the city if they would mind sharing the bike and pedestrian data of people crossing the Flora Foot Bridge for September. The city has a counter at one side of the bridge, which is able to count cyclists and pedestrians. I figured this is a good pinch point to count participants.

From the city data, I extracted the numbers between 6 pm and 9 pm, when the event took place. Then I looked what the data were from the day before and after. Given the weather was very similar, I figured it was a reasonable comparison. That should give a pretty accurate picture.

Some NCC Bike night ride numbers

If you look at the graph below, you can clearly see the spike on Saturday evening. Based on the regular numbers, plus that some people used the bridge to get to the event and back, plus that some people did the route twice, plus that if two bikes pass at the same time, they might be counted as one, plus the fact that three people in a cargo bike count as one ride, my rough guess is that there were indeed around 1000 participants who enjoyed the ride last Saturday.

Now I have the November 1-14 data, I might as well share the totals with you (there are nearly 1500 daily bike rides on the bridge). Ever wondered how many boats go through the canal in Ottawa? Here are the shocking data.

An idea of scale

To give you a bit of an idea of scale, the Tour la Nuit in Montreal attracts around 17000-18000 participants and is just over 20 kilometers long. So there is some room to grow for Ottawa. Montreal’s first ride had about 3500 riders.

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Promising start for a night ride

A 1000 riders is a promising start. Events like this need to time to grow to become an event that people are even willing to travel for to attend. A night ride is just as important for a city as building steps along the river to linger on a sunny day, renovate a River House or create a swimming spot in the Rideau Canal. The Prime Minister’s house can wait of course.

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