Wednesday June 27, I got a phone call from the office of the Governor General of Canada.: if I would like to join GG Julie Payette on a short bike ride on Canada Day. The Governor General is the official representative of Queen Elizabeth II in countries that recognize the Queen as Head of State. Which Canada does. The role [Read more…]
In Quebec province a new law aims to make cycling safer. More reflectors on your bike, cycling with prudence on cross walks, no more demerit points for cyclists, no more signalling of an intention to stop for cyclists, hands on the bar override signalling when needed. Read more about the details here: some good and some questionable regulations. July 2, [Read more…]
Bike Ottawa, Safer Roads Ottawa and others have been handing out free bike lights for many years now. As I often volunteer, somehow I always end up with yet another set of lights. I am using the lights myself, or hand them out to visitors who arrived by bike and forgot to bring a light. The lights last about a [Read more…]
Last week I spent some time at the Maitland overpass open house at the most unknown arena in Ottawa, the J. Alph Dulude arena. When you Google his name, nothing but arena results come up, plus 48 restaurants ‘near JA Dulude arena’. So if you know more, let me know. Update: Christopher send me this information when I put this [Read more…]
Last November I went to the ACT Conference in Mississauga, Ontario. At one of the break-out sessions, I listened to a Pecha Kucha series (I did one too) and listened to Luis Patricio from London, ON. He gave a very entertaining talk about the installation of Ecocounter bike counters. Luis is originally from Brazil. Before Luis came to Canada, he [Read more…]
Ottawa is a large place. We have a photo of my wife’s father standing in front of a row of brand new houses. The trees behind him look about 5 years old at the most. He is four years old and the neighborhood is called Old Ottawa South. ‘Old’ was likely added later as there was no New Ottawa South. [Read more…]
Recently, Statistics Canada released commuter data for 2016. Over the last 20 years, commuter trips grew considerably. That is not a surprise as the population grew, from 29.6 million in 1996 via 32.5 million in 2006 to 36.3 million in 2016. Yes, that is 7 million people extra in 20 years. This growth is about the equivalent of the entire [Read more…]
This week, I was at an open house for new bike infrastructure on Heron, between Bank and Data Centre Road. At that stretch, Heron is a wide arterial with 60 kph speed limits but where it is easy to roll at least 70 kph. It is a spaghetti of roads and railway tracks in that area, and after 19 years [Read more…]
It’s one of those design flaws that you don’t see coming. But once you know it, we should incorporate it in the manual for proper bike infrastructure: never run a bike path right next to parking. This is what you get: drivers rolling their car against the curb. Obviously drivers don’t realise what they are doing, so you have to [Read more…]
Since 2012 BikeOttawa organises once a year a quick campaign to draw attention to bike lights. We usually do that in the first week after daylight saving (not savings) time. I remember in the first few years that tons of cyclists were cycling without a light but I have this anecdotal feeling that it is getting a lot better. Of [Read more…]
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