education

The downside of el cheapo free bike lights

March 20, 2018 Hansonthebike 0

Reading Time: 3 minutesBike Ottawa, Safer Roads Ottawa and others have been handing out free bike lights for many years now. As I often volunteer, somehow I always end up with yet another set of lights. I am using the lights myself, or hand them out to visitors who arrived by bike and forgot to bring a light. The lights last about a year and run on two CR 2032 batteries. Turtle lights This week, I was emptying out our kitchen drawer and collected a dozen turtle lights. Most of them didn’t work anymore. I was going to replace the batteries but it [Read more…]

Bike Ottawa ‘Lights on Bikes 2017’ at Cork Town Bridge Ottawa

November 8, 2017 Hansonthebike 3

Reading Time: 4 minutesSince 2012 BikeOttawa organises once a year a quick campaign to draw attention to bike lights. We usually do that in the first week after daylight saving (not savings) time. I remember in the first few years that tons of cyclists were cycling without a light but I have this anecdotal feeling that it is getting a lot better. Of course I still see people cycle on Bronson late at night without any type of light, but if you stand along the ‘big commute’ routes, I am impressed how many residents have lights on their bikes. you kind of need [Read more…]

Serviço Consular Holandesa com Bicicleta de carga

August 4, 2016 Hansonthebike 0

Reading Time: 2 minutesAt large events such as the World Cup soccer and the Olympic and Paralympic Games, there are always people getting in trouble. It can be drugs or alcohol related but also incidents such as loosing one’s passport, a serious collision or worse, a death. Holland Heineken House The Netherlands Embassy prepares for that by setting up a temporary office during those events, for example in the Holland Heineken House, a place that serves as the temporary location where everything and everyone Dutch comes together (medal events, Dutch radio and TV, spaces to hang out etc). Orange bicycles In Brazil, the [Read more…]

Impressions of 2015 Tulips on Two Wheels

May 11, 2015 Hansonthebike 0

Reading Time: 4 minutes  This year was already Citizens for Safe Cycling’s fourth Tulips on Two Wheels event in Ottawa. Every year around the time the 1 million tulips are blooming, we are out at the canal near Canal Ritz with our bike tune up station (managed by Cycle Salvation) and our information booth. Unfortunately, we get the muddiest spot along the entire canal. It is a spot that is used for truck parking during winterlude and it totally ruined. That’s why you hardly see any tulips in the pictures (only across the street). The event is a great opportunity to talk to cyclists who might [Read more…]

Canadian books about cycling: FrostBike, Happy City and Every Day Cyclist's guide to Canadian law

Gift Card from Santa? Here Are Three Canadian Books

December 29, 2014 Hansonthebike 1

Reading Time: 5 minutesSo now what? Your mother-in-law gave you a gift certificate (or even cash in an envelope) for Christmas and you really don’t know what to buy because you have everything already. Here are three books related to cycling (or to the broader theme of a better city) for winter reading. All three books are written by Canadians: Tom Babin, who writes for the Calgary Herald; Charles Montgomery, a Vancouverite and our own Ottawa authors Craig Forcese and Nicole Laviolette, law professors at Ottawa U. 1 Frostbike – Tom Babin Tom interviewed me in September 2011 when I was speaking in Calgary [Read more…]

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Large Turnout for First Fisher Heights Bike Day

May 26, 2014 Hansonthebike 0

Reading Time: 4 minutesWow, was that ever a fun afternoon. The whole week we had been watching the weather at Fisher Heights. The entire week, the weather forecasters predicted a gray and rainy Saturday. Until it was Saturday: wall to wall blue sky in the morning, clouds in the afternoon, but sun all day. Fisher Heights and Area Community Association Bob McCaw had suggested a bike afternoon already months ago. The association wanted to have a spring event and asked if something like that would be feasible. We invited the City Wide Sports department staff, who design a few mini road situations with [Read more…]

2014 Spring.Bike.Ottawa: "Understanding the Ottawa Cycling Budget" and much more.

March 19, 2014 Hansonthebike 0

Reading Time: 3 minutesOn March 22 we are holding our third Spring.Bike.Ottawa event. The purpose is to get updates on local cycling. It turns out to be an event that is appreciated. We started the event because we felt no one had a good overview of all the bike initiatives going on in Ottawa. And there are a lot. There are many people working on cycling in Ottawa, often in the background. They are doing great things with little or no money. Spring.Bike.Ottawa brings those (mostly) volunteers together. We hold the event early in the year, to make people aware that cycling is [Read more…]

Bill 173: Amending the Highway Traffic Act for Cycling

March 18, 2014 Hansonthebike 0

Reading Time: 6 minutesDid you ever read Ontario’s Highway Traffic Act? I have to admit I have never gone through it with a dust comb, but I do flip through it once in a while. One of the oddities I found is that you don’t have to have a rear light (as I read it). Currently, you need to have a reflector or a red light. Indeed, you don’t need to have a rear light. Bill 173 is repairing a number of issues that society had already more or less accepted. Flashing Rear Lights Bill 173 is going to change that light issue. Or [Read more…]

Vanier Prime Candidate for High Bike Modal Share

June 4, 2013 Hansonthebike 8

Reading Time: 4 minutesVanier is a former municipality in Ontario, which was amalgamated with the City of Ottawa in 2001. It is situated at the east end of down town, east of the Rideau River. It only got the name Vanier in 1969, after Governor General George Vanier. It was unfortunately also known for being rough around the edges. But it has a an urban maple groove and a sugar shack in its former city limits. Lately, like Hintonburg, it is going through some real change. There has been gentrification, there are active  community groups  and there appears a new pride in the [Read more…]