The New Elgin Street. Can we do it?
Reading Time: 6 minutesToday, we compare a run of the mill street in Ottawa with the Witte de With Street make over in the Netherlands and see what we can learn from the Rotterdam.
Infrastructure
Ottawa completes 4 bike & ped bridges + 1 overpass
Reading Time: 4 minutesOttawa finished 5 major pedestrian and bike connections in 2015 with a total value of over 30 million dollars. Here is an overview.
Designing the Innovative Greely Cycling Loop
Reading Time: 3 minutesLong considered Ottawa’s conservative heartland with black pick up trucks and Ottawa Sun readers, rural Ottawa is asking for bike infrastructure: “All our little neighbourhoods are separated by our big roads.”
Sharrows: the Big Leap Forward or Just an Evasive Side Step
Reading Time: 4 minutesIn which Dick van Veen ponders the good and bad of the use of sharrows as ‘infrastructure’
Brookfield Path Connection Open Again
Reading Time: 3 minutesIt took forever, but finally the connection between the two Brookfield Roads is open again. The Sawmill Creek corridor, that cuts through Brookfield, is host to the Transitway, the Airport Parkway, the O-Train (now Trillium line) and a bit of railway tracks. In the past we’d cross the corridor on our bikes, going underneath the Transitway and then crossing the Trillium Line at grade. But since the the frequency of the trains on this line have increased, the city no longer deemed it safe for cyclists and pedestrians to cross (let alone the fact you’d have to wait more often for all [Read more…]
Is Parkdale's Median Curb Cut Sufficient?
Reading Time: 4 minutesAs it was finished late last year, this bit of bike infrastructure dropped off the radar screen somewhat. At the very north end of Parkdale, it is a bit of a pain in the neck to get to the Ottawa River Pathway/Trans Canada Trail. The northbound stretch on the east end of the Tunney’s Pasture buildings is usually OK to cycle ( I am never there during rush hour though), but then you get this onramp after the Indonesian Embassy to the SJAM Parkway eastbound (towards Downtown and Gatineau) and the off ramp coming from the parkway. This whole area is clearly [Read more…]
Dutch Design in the Nation's Capital: Churchill Ave, Ottawa
Reading Time: 5 minutesIt must have been around 2010 when Joel Mulligan mulled over a beer at Pub Italia: “if we could only have a bit of Dutch bike infrastructure in Ottawa, so that people can experience what safe cycling is really about“. Few people around the table could envision that four years later, Churchill would be that ‘bit of Dutch bike infrastructure’. And not just five meters, but an entire avenue. Fifties design nearly put back in again For those who don’t know Churchill Ave, it was an old style 50’s era wide road, with some parking on both sides; a connector [Read more…]
From Terry Fox to the Experimental Farm
Reading Time: 7 minutesA description of a bike ride from Kanata to Ottawa's Nepean, south of the Experimental Farm near Baseline. Nearly the entire route goes over bike lanes (10% and Multi Use Pathways (80). IT is not the shortest route, but a very safe one. You can take a Rack and Roll bus back from Ottawa.
O-Train Path, Where Art Thou?
Reading Time: 2 minutesThe O-train multi use pathway (MUP) is delayed. And that is no April Fool’s joke. As you remember, the first stage was built and finished last summer and stops just south of the Queensway, at Young Street, where a narrow pedestrian bridge connects the two sides of Young. Ribbons were cut, photos were made, blogs were written. And then it became quiet. Winter came early and the path was inaccessible, other than for the odd urban skier, which I guess I could cover too as Urban Commuter now I come to think of it. From Young to Carling The second phase [Read more…]
Main Street Will Become a Complete Street and Here is Why
Reading Time: 8 minutesUpdate July 17, 2013: council passed the proposal for Main street with 18 in favour – 6 against (Moffatt, Blais, Hubley, Desroches, Deans, Harder: worries about traffic flow from suburbia to down town and timing of reconstruction). The City of Ottawa has active transportation high on the agenda. The highest priorities are pedestrians and cyclists. After active transportation comes public transportation. At the bottom of the pile is the car, the 3000 pound gorilla that has shaped Ottawa over the last 60-70 years or so. But the car’s hegemony over infrastructure is starting to show cracks. Rescue Bronson Ave has [Read more…]