Cycling

cycling in Ottawa

Barrhaven Bicycling

December 11, 2013 Hansonthebike 3

Reading Time: 5 minutesThis winter, to beat the winter blues, I will post some sunny material that is still on the desk from earlier this year. Late August, we wanted to go for a shorter ride on a Sunday morning, but we didn’t feel like doing the closed loop along the Ottawa River once again, so after some staring on maps, we decided to go to Jan Harder territory. We packed out passports and cycled to Barrhaven. Barrhaven! When we were pondering buying a house in the late nineties, we took a look at Barrhaven, but we were nervous that the commute into [Read more…]

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Crowd Sourcing the Ottawa Cycling Map

July 3, 2013 Hansonthebike 4

Reading Time: 2 minutesAfter the long weekend it is now back to work for bike advocacy. The City of Ottawa maintains a map with different layers on line. The existing cycling facilities layer was recently updated – and can now be viewed on GeoOttawa- this is publicly accessible information. Please take some time to look over whatever part of the city you are most familiar with- and send in any changes to Melody (Melody.Andrews@ottawa.ca)  by email. If your suggestion is complicated- please include a screen shot. Remember the map should show what’s out there today—for example the O-Train pathway is on the map since it [Read more…]

Fledgling Bicycle Advocacy in Fredericton

June 7, 2013 Hansonthebike 5

Reading Time: 6 minutesFredericton, New Brunswick, is a quaint old town on the St. John River. Frederictonions frequently refer to their home town as a small version of Ottawa. It is a green and spacious place. A river runs through it, it is hillier than Ottawa though. During a visit to Fredericton, Dutch ambassador Wim Geerts was approached by deputy major Chase for advice on cycling, being the ambassador of the world’s bike friendliest nation. The ambassador, who has been promoting cycling during his five year stay in Ottawa, approached me to see if I could contact councillor Chase for some advice. Off [Read more…]

The Weirdest Bike Ride. Ever.

June 4, 2013 Hansonthebike 9

Reading Time: 6 minutesHow I ended up cycling with three MP’s Last Saturday was the National Health and Fitness Day in Ottawa. Or was it Sunday? Or Monday? It is not entirely clear to me when I read the website of John Weston, MP for West Vancouver-Sunshine Coast. Dick Louch (Velofest) told me Sunday night there was a bike ride on the Hill the next day (Short for Parliament Hill in Ottawa among Ottawans) to celebrate the Health and Fitness Day. It was the same day that Olivia Chow’s National Transit Strategy Bill was voted down. Oddly, no one I asked had heard [Read more…]

2013 Tulips on Two Wheels: a Bit of Holland in Ottawa

May 6, 2013 Hansonthebike 0

Reading Time: 4 minutesOne of Citizens for Safe Cycling’s goals is to make the public more familiar with the many issues that arise around cycling. There are many ways to stay in touch through social media and meetings, but we often preach to the converted at our meetings and to our followers on Twitter and Facebook. Those are the people who put effort in finding us. But there is a whole demographic out there who cycles but doesn’t realise what it takes to build Ottawa’s bike infrastructure. And with infrastructure we don’t mean bike lanes only, but also bike parking for example. So [Read more…]

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Crowd Funding “Bike City, Great City” – Ottawa City Councillor Makes Documentary Movie

March 27, 2013 Hansonthebike 3

Reading Time: 2 minutesWhat does it take to create a great bike city? Better planning, better building and better education. Money and a willingness to invest it in cycling. Most of all, it requires politicians, planners, engineers and voters to believe it is both possible and worth the effort. If you think it’s worth the effort, please consider a donation to help produce Bike City, Great City, an informative, crowd-funded film that promotes the values of urban cycling. This independent documentary will show how any city that encourages cycling by making it easier and safer becomes a more vibrant, attractive and healthier city for everyone. David Chernushenko, Ottawa [Read more…]

Cuban Bicycles

March 12, 2013 Hansonthebike 1

Reading Time: 3 minutesWhile most Canadians appear to have been to Cuba at least once in their life, my wife and I had never been. Somehow, the whole all you can eat all inclusive vacation among poor people didn’t really appeal to us. We both can’t sit on a beach for more than two hours anyway so we never gave Cuba much attention. But one gets older, one can handle only so much snow in one’s life and we too reached a point that we had enough of slipping and sliding and bundling up. So we read up on Cuba (hours on Tripadvisor, [Read more…]

Ottawa’s Cargo Bike Scene

January 3, 2013 Hansonthebike 4

Reading Time: 3 minutesFrom what I know, there are about six, seven bakfietsen (cargo bikes) in Ottawa. It is not much, but that’s changing. The first one that comes to mind is Lana’s, who blogs extensively about her bakfiets adventures. Ottawa cargo bikes Another one is Joel Mulligan’s bakfiets. Joel now works in Denmark, but left his white Bullitt behind at Tall Tree Cycles. Then there is courier Gary Watson on his orange Bullitt, who you often see down town. And then there is an Old Ottawa South architect John Donkin, who owns a bakfiets (which I borrowed for a show, see further [Read more…]

Ontario’s “Je ne sais quoi” Draft Cycling Strategy – part 2

December 17, 2012 Hansonthebike 2

Reading Time: 6 minutesThe Ontario Draft cycling strategy is not very clear. “Fluff”, is what a former City of Ottawa planner told me last week. I guess that is why they turn to the public. So your input is needed. In fact, I received an email from Toronto saying: “that this piece has already broken the threshold for most comments received on the EBR (Environmental Bill of Rights) and it’s only been up for a few days.”  Let’s zoom in into a number of issues, that are not overly hard to address. Increase bike modal share by proper design If you want to increase the [Read more…]

Ontario’s “Je ne sais quoi” Draft Cycling Strategy – part 1

December 7, 2012 Hansonthebike 5

Reading Time: 6 minutesAfter increased pressure from NDP Urban Transit critic Rosario Marchese and more recently Davenport NDP MPP and GTA issues critic Jonah Schein, Ontario Minister of Transportation Bob Chiarelli announced a draft bicycle strategy for Ontario and asks everyone for input. Finally, after earlier promises in August 2012 that he’d come with major announcements in weeks. This, after a city councillor from the GTA or Burlington somewhere had asked him the question during a Q & A at a major city councillor conference in Ottawa this summer. The Minister must have had enough of the NDP assaults and must have asked [Read more…]