Copenhagen on the Bike
Reading Time: 7 minutes Hans on the bike visited #Copenhagen and cycled around the areas outside of downtown too. Here are some impressions of Copenhagen infrastructure.
Infrastructure
Trillium Pathway Phase 3 – photos
Reading Time: 5 minutes The Trillium pathway is finally finished. The third stage was landscaped and finished in September/October 2018 (project OTT-046) and completes a wonderful and safe cycling loop along the canal, the Trillium railway tracks and the Ottawa River. A cycling tourist’s dream. No refuge The original project envisioned crossing Prince of Wales via a refuge. I like refuges very much because unlike at a traffic light, you don’t have to wait in the middle of the night for traffic that isn’t there. Back in the Netherlands in the 1980’s, many lights were switched to amber after a certain hour (perhaps 10 [Read more…]
Cycling in Urban Sudbury, ON
Reading Time: 8 minutes Sudbury is a city in the near north of Ontario. The distance from Ottawa is around 500 km, similar to the distance Amsterdam – Paris. It is well known for its mining activities. We once spent one night there. Initially the plan was to stay at the campsite at that time, but once we figured out the campsite was sandwiched between two highways, and the prevailing sound was one of truckers’ air brakes, we decided to go to a motel instead. There was another campground north of Sudbury, but we never found it. This was before smart phones and before [Read more…]
The mystery of the Adàwe Crossing cycling numbers
Reading Time: 3 minutes Gone are the days that councillor Fleury walked through the Rideau river on his way to university following a self imposed desire line. Now there is the Adàwe crossing. And it is hugely popular. To get a better idea of its success, I took a belated look at the 2016 and 2017 data of the cycling and walking trips on the new bridge. The data is available from the City of Ottawa Open Data repository. (update: after I connected with the city about the suspicious data, it turns out the data the city provides in the spreadsheets is not correct, [Read more…]
Bike lanes on Confederation Boulevard in Downtown Ottawa
Reading Time: 5 minutes When the O’Connor bike lanes were built, we were told that it wouldn’t go all the way to Confederation Boulevard (Wellington St) in front of Parliament Hill yet for reasons I forgot already. It wouldn’t make much sense to dump cyclists on Wellington anyway with nowhere to go unless you are an experienced cyclist. And even experienced cyclists like myself mostly don’t enjoy a ride on Wellington anyway. Many traffic demands But now the city and other parties are returning to the drawing board to finally connect O’Connor, Mackenzie and Colonel By(cycle) bicycle lanes. With the many traffic demands in [Read more…]
How About a 2nd Billings Bridge in Old Ottawa South?
Reading Time: 3 minutes A hotly debated area for safe cycling in Ottawa is the intersection at Riverside and the Billings Bridge, built in 1916. According to BikeOttawa’s website, the intersection at the south side is the one that has the most reported collisions in Ottawa, including a deadly one, when Meg Dussault was waiting on her bicycle at a cramped sidewalk/MUP and a right turning truck caught her bars. Vision Zero From a Sustainable Safety or Vision Zero point of view, this intersection needs to be changed, so that this can never happen again. There are plans to build a path underneath the [Read more…]
New pathways Along Hospital Link in Altavista-Riverview
Reading Time: 6 minutes Although the Hospital Link is not completely finished yet, I decided to go out and take a look recently. The weather was finally a pleasant 20 degrees again, unlike the sweltering 34-36 Celsius (nearly 100F) last week. I had been doing some 20 km and 30 km bike tours with tourists in the heat, and although it is bearable when you are moving, the sun really hits you when you stop cycling. I cycled there first on my own; later in the weekend I went back with Heather Shearer after a meeting at city hall. We approached the link from [Read more…]
Cycling in Quebec: don’t get caught without reflectors!
Reading Time: 6 minutes In Quebec province a new law aims to make cycling safer. More reflectors on your bike, cycling with prudence on cross walks, no more demerit points for cyclists, no more signalling of an intention to stop for cyclists, hands on the bar override signalling when needed. Read more about the details here: some good and some questionable regulations. July 2, 2018 UPDATE from Steve Truttmann: Out cycling on the Quebec side yesterday morning, a QPP officer kindly told me that I must now remove my ear buds, law is now in effect. I was advised they will crack down on [Read more…]
The K&P Trail in Kingston, Ontario
Reading Time: 8 minutes Summary During a stay in Kingston, I explored the city’s waterfront and the K&P Trail. A lovely 30 km route that touches on many different aspects of Kingston. It needs a few improvements, such as crossing the VIA Rail tracks on Division Rd and access to the trail right after the overpass and the Sydenham Rd crossing. Wayfinding could be improved: despite some prep at home, I still managed to miss part of the trail. You can do it in two hours or take a whole day if you stop for museums, craft beer and lunch in the park. I [Read more…]
Cycling in Toronto was a challenging experience
Reading Time: 11 minutes “It is safe infrastructure that makes people bike, not more uniforms”.Last week we visited Toronto. Karen had meetings and I tagged along for a day and a half. Because we booked the train in time, our tickets were only $100 return each in economy class. On the way in I had to listen to Dora the Explorer on the Ipad of the young traveller in front of me for an hour and a half. The lady across the aisle at the windows seat had her feet up on her partner’s lap. For reasons unclear to me, we were an hour [Read more…]