Advocacy

Post Velo-City event in Ottawa

August 7, 2012 Hansonthebike 0

Reading Time: 2 minutesIn 1643 John Owen wrote : If the mountaine will not come to Mahomet, Mahomet will goe to the mountaine“. It is a phrase I remembered when we were putting a post Velo-City event in Ottawa together. Velo-City is a large four day bicycle conference and I am sure most of you have heard about it, so I won’t go too much into detail. Apparently, there were about 600 professionals in Vancouver, where the event was held earlier this year. Every even year, the European Cycling Associaition organises the event outside Europe, every odd year somewhere in Europe: last year it [Read more…]

Cycling Advocacy at Work: The Ramps are a Go!

July 25, 2012 Hansonthebike 0

Reading Time: 4 minutesBike troughs in Ottawa’s Light Rail Stations will be permitted Often in advocacy, you wonder why you spend all that precious private time meeting, explaining, presenting, convincing why a certain idea you have will benefit the citizens of Ottawa. You need to get to understand how the City works, in order to not to talk to the wrong people and wasting your time. Of course, you have to meet during working hours with professionals, which happens to be your working time too. You have to find allies, you have to defend yourself against those who haven’t seen the light yet, [Read more…]

Ottawa: Impressions of Ontario’s First Green Bike Box

July 17, 2012 Hansonthebike 8

Reading Time: 5 minutesSomething new appeared on the streets of Ottawa, the very first bike box in Ontario. Earlier I had seen them in Vancouver, but this is an Ontario first and judging by the 50 thumbs up on Citizens for Safe Cycling’s Facebook page, it is solidly approved by cyclists. The green material is similar to the paint used in Laurier and should last quite a while, even through the harsh winters (which are getting less and less harsh anyway although I don’t have the evidence [citation needed].) I hadn’t really planned to go out and see it, but I had to [Read more…]

Can-Bike 4 Kids

July 15, 2012 Hansonthebike 1

Reading Time: 4 minutesOttawa’s oldest bicycle advocacy group, Citizens for Safe Cycling (CfSC), was -amongst others- founded by Bruce Timmermans. From Dutch descent, he was used to cycling as a means of transportation, before the word environment was invented and CO2 was mostly found in soft drinks. When he died in 1999, CfSC received donations which were set aside for good use in bicycle advocacy. In 2011, there was still a small amount left and Jamie Stuckless of Green Communities Canada applied for the remaining amount to use for cycling education programs for kids. Together with Can-Bike, they approached a number of schools [Read more…]

Video: “Summer Cycling in the City of Ottawa”

June 6, 2012 Hans on the Bike - Ottawa, Canada 0

Reading Time: 2 minutesTwo nights ago, I gave a presentation in Kitchener Waterloo about cycling in the Netherlands and Ottawa. Talking about another country is one thing, but feels sometimes somewhat remote.  I find it much more useful to add some of the work that we do in Canada. My latest presentations saw therefore some time allocated to Ottawa too. People seem to really appreciate the stories (and some great pics) about Ottawa’s growing interest in cycling as a means to get around. Over the years, we have had our share of foreign speakers but I think Ottawa is now at a point with [Read more…]

Capital Velo Fest 2012 Fashion Show “A Model Event”

June 4, 2012 Hans on the Bike - Ottawa, Canada 0

Reading Time: 5 minutesLast year in 2011, we had our first Capital Velo Fest at the front lawn of City Hall, better known as Marion Dewar Plaza. Ms. Dewar was a former mayor of Ottawa and mother of current MP for Ottawa Centre, Paul Dewar. The sun was out most of the day and hundreds of people dropped by. At the second edition of Velo Fest, the weather was unfortunately not very cooperative. This has obviously an effect on the numbers, as most of the day it was very quiet. There were a number of bike retailers, the MS Society, Envirocentre, Ottawa Bicycle [Read more…]

Images of a Bike Friendly Weekend

May 29, 2012 Hans on the Bike - Ottawa, Canada 0

Reading Time: 4 minutesI can’t believe it either, but today I carried the tripod of the camera of an Ottawa Sun reporter. Such is life in Ottawa. In the newspaper, you tell your story, no matter if the newspaper writes favourably about your mission or not. And then you chat about holidays, the weekend and all that. I was walking down Laurier when I saw the Ottawa Sun reporter having lunch and was spontaneously interviewed about non cyclists in the bike lanes. I never heard cyclists complaining about it, but apparent opponents of the bike lane are upset that the bike lane is [Read more…]

Tulips on Two Wheels: Saturday May 5th at Canal Ritz

May 4, 2012 Hans on the Bike - Ottawa, Canada 0

Reading Time: 4 minutesEveryone in Ottawa knows why we have tulips, but for those who don’t live here (and I have readers as far as Chicago and Charleston, SC), here is the short summary: Dutch Princess Juliana stayed with her daughters in Ottawa during World War Two. As a token of appreciation, the Royal Family donated thousands of tulips and still continue this tradition until today. The Dutch bulb growers chip in too, so every year hundreds of thousands of tulips bloom in the Capital. Add a canal and lots of bikes and the occasional waft of weed, and you’d swear you are [Read more…]

May is Bike to Work Month in Ottawa

May 3, 2012 Hans on the Bike - Ottawa, Canada 0

Reading Time: 4 minutesWhile some cycle year round and others dust off their bikes when the snow is gone, there are also many people who wait until May before they finally get the bikes out. Last year, I participated in Bike To Work month by volunteering in one of the booths along the paths along the canal. It was really early and it was really cold. It was good to see however, that so many cyclists were out already. I vaguely remember the spandex types out cycling early between 7 and 7:45 am and then slowly the cyclists change to the casually dressed [Read more…]

Ramping up the Ramps

April 4, 2012 Hans on the Bike - Ottawa, Canada 0

Reading Time: 6 minutesOttawa City council gets input from several advisory groups (soon to be abandoned apparently) on specific issues. One of those groups is called the Roads and Cycling Advisory Committee aka RCAC. RCAC has 9 members at large and 3 representatives from the cycling community, amongst others the Ottawa Bicycle Club and Citizens for Safe Cycling. This is a valuable channel for citizens to stay in touch with decision makers. The City of Ottawa’s website says the following about RCAC: The mandate of the Roads and Cycling Advisory Committee is to provide advice and guidance to Ottawa City Council and its [Read more…]