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

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

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…]

Dog on bike

Reading Time: < 1 minuteThis is kind of the ultimate Dutch bike picture. Lady who lives in the town of Bergschenhoek, a 10 minute bike ride from Rotterdam, carries her dog around in a basket on her bike. But not only that, she also has two panniers, a bag hanging off her bars and a seat cover (that is supposed to keep her seat dry when the bike is out and it rains). And of course, no helmet….