Urban planning

Rethinking Sparks Street: 7 Necessary Changes to Bring Back the Spark

December 21, 2011 Hans on the Bike - Ottawa, Canada 0

Reading Time: 6 minutesI used to walk more or less the same loop during my lunch time hour and Sparks Street was mostly included. But since the Laurier bike Lane is in place, I have changed my route and abandoned Sparks. Laurier is livelier, and with the bike lane in place, there is not only more to see in terms of cyclists, there are also some nice restaurants. The Persian Express has become a hang out for meetings for me as they offer nice food for a relatively low price (all you can eat buffet) and they have a three season terrace. Presse Café [Read more…]

Ottawa Moves – part 3/3 – Ken Greenberg

November 24, 2011 Hans on the Bike - Ottawa, Canada 0

Reading Time: 5 minutesKen Greenberg, Urban Design consultant, who is working on the plans for Bank Street, south of Billings Bridge, spoke in the evening of November 3. Ken started the evening with a video I had never seen before and is worth watching. The animation video from 1958 called Magic Highway USA shows a fantastic conceptual idea by Disney -with somewhat naive optimism- of how the world would look like in the future. I can’t start to describe the many ideas in the video, you have to see it yourself. Note the mention of GPS, large overhead road signs, rear view camera’s and cruise control (setting [Read more…]

Ottawa Moves – part 2/3 – Andrew Wiley Schwarz

November 18, 2011 Hans on the Bike - Ottawa, Canada 0

Reading Time: 5 minutesAfter Gil Peñolosa’s talk at Ottawa Moves the night before , it was time for Andrew Wiley Schwarz on a sunny Thursday morning, November 3 to talk about bike and pedestrian infrastructure in New York City. Andrew works for the New York City Department of Transportation as an Assistant Commissioner. His talk was a frank case study and lessons learned on New York City’s changes in the urban landscape. From studies, NYC discovered that there were more pedestrian movements than they’d thought there were; they also learned that parks don’t connect in NYC (sounds familiar?). People moved around in isolated areas instead of [Read more…]

Ottawa Moves – part 1/3 – Gil Peñolosa: 8-80 cities

November 14, 2011 Hans on the Bike - Ottawa, Canada 0

Reading Time: 4 minutesOn November 2 and 3, the City of Ottawa organised a two day series of speakers and work shop on DOMO, the Downtown Ottawa Mobility Overlay. As DOMO is a bit of non-descriptive acronym, it is now called “Downtown Moves”. And moving it will. With the new Light Rail eventually in place, thousands of people will appear above ground at the same time, only to find three feet side walks in many places. It is hard to believe that a complete tunnel and underground track, including stations, will be ready before the 150th anniversary of Canada in 2017, when turning a [Read more…]

The small outdoors: 10 patios on Laurier (and 2 bonus food trucks)

July 19, 2011 Hans on the Bike - Ottawa, Canada 0

Reading Time: 3 minutesAt first glance, Laurier Ave in Ottawa might come across as a concrete jungle-like street with uninspiring buildings. But in the end, it’s the people who ‘make’ a street: there are a number of coffee places and restaurants with outdoor terraces. I went out at lunch time and found 12 places with a terrace to watch the world go by and see cyclists in particular. Watching the world go by It is quite fun to see that virtually every few minutes someone cycles by, usually very calmly. Added bonus, you can keep an eye on your bike if you are [Read more…]