bike

NCC evening: of Post-It Notes and Tapestries

February 23, 2012 Hans on the Bike - Ottawa, Canada 0

Reading Time: 4 minutesLast night, the NCC organised its second of two public meetings on the vision of the capital region for 2067 after a similar one was held in Gatineau the night before. The NCC has had its own road show over the last four months and visited a number of Canadian cities to ask Canadians what they’d like their capital to be in 2067. Marie LeMay, who revealed she will turn 105 in 2067, (do the math),  kicked off the evening with her trademark enthusiasm: one of the more interesting remarks was that Canadians appreciate their capital more than Brits like London or Americans like [Read more…]

Cycling in the snow….

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

Reading Time: 3 minutesIt doesn’t happen too often, but Holland was covered in snow late last week. Cyclists kept cycling, resulting in some really nice pictures of cyclists in the snow. If the “inexperienced-with-snow” Dutch can do it, teens included, we Canadians can no longer use the argument of a snowy country as a reason not to cycle. Enjoy the screen shots from the nu.nl website I took this weekend. You will notice few cars in the pictures, as many cyclists are separated from faster traffic on special bike paths or cycle through city centres with traffic calming measures. Many kids cycle to [Read more…]

Group picture winter cycling in Ottawa

Successful First Winter Family Bike Parade in Ottawa

January 23, 2012 Hans on the Bike - Ottawa, Canada 0

Reading Time: 4 minutesThe first Ottawa Winter Family Bike Parade on January 22, 2012 attracted 50 cyclists, here posing in front of Ottawa City Hall. Commuter cycling is gaining popularity in Canada. – Photo: Paul Clarke So today was the day: Ottawa’s first ever winter bike parade. If you are not from Ottawa, you might think: “Big Deal”. But Ottawa happens to be the seconds coldest capital in the world (after Ulanbataar in Mongolia), so planning a bike ride in Ottawa made a lot of people think that we were out of our minds. But that’s just it. Today we showed that cycling [Read more…]

No Image

Beat the Blues with the Family Winter Bike Parade

January 17, 2012 Hans on the Bike - Ottawa, Canada 0

Reading Time: 2 minutesWhen I speak to audiences in Canada, I often hear that ‘Canada is too cold for cycling‘. Obviously, that is more of a mindset than a reality. Indeed, there are days that the weather is not really cooperating, but that applies more to the poor road conditions than the temperature. Let’s face it, lots of people are out on snow mobiles, on skates on the canal in Ottawa, or on skies on the slopes of the Rockies or the cross country trails in Gatineau Park. The temperature doesn’t bother all those outdoorsy folks. During the 56 days winter bus strike [Read more…]

bus shelter Rijssen

Rain Sensor for Dutch Cyclists – “Braille” for the Viennese Pedestrian

January 4, 2012 Hans on the Bike - Ottawa, Canada 2

Reading Time: 2 minutesNo more seeking shelter in this bus stop for this Dutch family when rain threatens. Picture: Urban Commuter Ottawa Dutch city of Groningen councillor Karin Dekker activated the first rain sensor in the city with the highest bike modal share in the world. The sensor measures rain and snow. If precipitation is measured, the traffic light cycle changes, so that cyclists get green lights more often. If the test is successful, more bicycle friendly traffic lights will follow in 2012. The rain sensor is already implemented in the Dutch province of Noord-Brabant. When it is raining ánd the temperature is [Read more…]

Bikeway image by Dennis Leung - Ottawa Citizen

Whoosh!

December 30, 2011 Hans on the Bike - Ottawa, Canada 0

Reading Time: 5 minutesYou probably read already that Ottawa city staff is designing a bike way through the city. Some will argue that it is yet another example of a waste of tax payer’s money (as if $220,000,000 for the Queensway isn’t), but the reality is, that it will be a long term gain. The idea behind a bike way is to create a safe corridor for cyclists from one end of town to the other end. It will feed commuters into the down town as well as encouraging more people to take their bike to get across town for errands. Or to get around their own [Read more…]

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 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…]

Cycling to a Canadian War Cemetery in the Netherlands

November 11, 2011 Hans on the Bike - Ottawa, Canada 0

Reading Time: 5 minutesMy parents went through World War 2 in the Netherlands, but were too young to really remember. They were 6 and 9 when the war was over. My mom remembers planes dropping ‘Swedish whitebread” and my dad remembers they had to leave the house as the Germans were at one end and the Allied forces at the other end; my dad’s family was in the line of fire. Nowadays, our biggest worries are empty cell phone batteries and status updates on Twitter. Last summer, we visited the Netherlands. It may sound odd, but I haven’t seen much of the country, [Read more…]