bike

Cycling with Just Food Ottawa on a Hot Summer Day

August 28, 2012 Hansonthebike 3

Reading Time: 6 minutes Checking out community gardens on excellent bike tour by Just Food Ottawa I never knew so many cyclists would be interested in food and community gardens. Gardening, food and cycling, three of my long term favourites. Last Sunday, after a failed attempt a year before, I finally made it to the Just Food community garden tour. “Just Food’s mission is to work towards a vibrant, just and sustainable food system in the Ottawa region. Just Food is a grassroots, non-profit organization that includes staff, volunteers, community partners, members and funders“, says their website. Both my grandfathers in Holland grew vegetables [Read more…]

Destination Prince Edward County, Ontario

August 14, 2012 Hansonthebike 6

Reading Time: 6 minutes In terms of cycling, Canada is a hidden gem. In terms of wine, even more so. Tell your relatives back in Holland that you toured Canadian wine country on a bicycle, and they think you are kidding them. Canada: that is polar bears, RV rental in the Rockies, hard working farmers and Dutch Reformed Christians. The folks in Europe don’t associate Canada with wine and cycling. Yet, just 250 km (for my US readers, that is 150 miles)  outside of Ottawa, the second coldest capital in the world, you’ll find a place called Prince Edward County, a place so unknown [Read more…]

Destination Kanata and the Greenbelt

July 30, 2012 Hansonthebike 2

Reading Time: 7 minutes Most of the cycling advocacy efforts are naturally focussed on the down town area. It is where the pressure of traffic is highest and where many people converge on their way to work. Besides commuter cycling, Ottawa’s down town offers great recreational cycling; there are lots of opportunities to bike around and this is an asset for Ottawa that has not been exploited very much. I am trying to convince Tourism Ottawa, but other than some polite exchanges, we haven’t really moved on that file. Judging by the name, you’d think they promote tourism, but the focus is really on [Read more…]

Ottawa: Impressions of Ontario’s First Green Bike Box

July 17, 2012 Hansonthebike 8

Reading Time: 5 minutes Something 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 minutes Ottawa’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…]

Visiting Charleston, South Carolina

June 19, 2012 Hans on the Bike - Ottawa, Canada 0

Reading Time: 5 minutes April is not a great month in Ottawa, so my wife and I had planned a trip to South Carolina and Georgia’s low country along the coast. The coast line resembles very much the Dutch coast line of about a thousand years ago before the Dutch closed the gaps between the sand banks. That in it self doesn’t make it a holiday destination, unless you are a geography buff, but the lush green and warm weather definitely do. Ottawa’s ski season is over in April, the weather is usually not something to write home about, the trees are still bare [Read more…]

Video: “Summer Cycling in the City of Ottawa”

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

Reading Time: 2 minutes Two 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…]

Images of a Bike Friendly Weekend

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

Reading Time: 4 minutes I 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…]

Hot Start for 42nd Edition of Ottawa-Gatineau Summer Sunday Bike Days

May 22, 2012 Hans on the Bike - Ottawa, Canada 0

Reading Time: 3 minutes Where some cities in the world set aside -if you’re lucky- one day a year for a car free cycling experience, Ottawa has its Bike Sundays for 42 years already (and inline skating, walkers and runners, although the latter two are vastly underrepresented) . That makes it probably the oldest Bike Sunday initiative in the world. And not for one Sunday, but all Sundays between Victoria Day (somewhere around the 20-25th of May) until Labour Day, usually around the 4th of September. That probably comes down to 14-15 Sundays a year. Since 1970. No one outside Ottawa knows that the NCC has [Read more…]

One Minute at The Hague Central Station

May 14, 2012 Hans on the Bike - Ottawa, Canada 0

Reading Time: 3 minutes The last three posts probably gave you a peek into every day cycling in The Hague. If you are in the down town area, you always see cyclists, no matter what time of day. However, there is one spot where many seem to converse: Central Station. People cycle to and fro the station. Below are a few very random pictures that I took probably half a minute apart. There is a steady stream of cyclists coming and going to the station. (There is a large square, currently being redesigned). People leave their bike and take the train or arrive by [Read more…]