Infrastructure

Halloween

Halloween: 13 Spooky Scenarios for Cyclists

October 31, 2017 Hansonthebike 1

Reading Time: 9 minutes Today is Halloween so I wrote up 13 scary cycling scenarios for you. Some of them are infrastructure related, others are law related and yet others are behaviour related. I hope it doesn’t scare you away from cycling. Storm sewers Storm sewers are usually placed within about 60 cm of the curb. This is also where cyclists ride. Some storm sewers have a design so that it makes no difference how they are placed, but others still have a pattern that allows for bike wheels to get stuck, causing serious falls. Warn your municipality that this has to change. In [Read more…]

New Multi Use Pathway on Brookfield Road Planned

October 9, 2017 Hansonthebike 9

Reading Time: 7 minutes This Tuesday, October 10, you should go to Riley Brockington’s Open House at Brookfield High on Brookfield. For many years, better cycling infra is planned for the route between Hog’s Back Falls and Saw Mill Creek and on Tuesday, you will have a preview of what the plan is about. Councillor Brockington’s invitation already mentions that this is going to be a bidirectional multi use pathway link.  Initially I thought it wasn’t a good idea to design a  bidirectional solution until I realized that it is part of a larger network and then it does make sense. Prince of Wales [Read more…]

Not sure why I choose for red, I guess I was brainwashed by the many Dutch images I studied. Looking northbound.

Could Ottawa’s Percy Street Become a Bicycle Street?

August 1, 2017 Hansonthebike 1

Reading Time: 6 minutes Percy Street In the previous post, we read about the Dutch bicycle streets and the Dutch quest to design guide lines based on best practices. With the information under our belt we can take a look at Percy street in downtown Ottawa. Percy is a north-sound street that runs through residential areas. It is a desirable route for cycling in the west side of downtown because it crosses underneath the 417 Queensway highway, which runs east-west through downtown; it is mostly an elevated highway. North of the Queensway, Percy is a one way south bound street of about 1200 metres, [Read more…]

Bicycle Street in Utrecht, Netherlands in front of the Gerrit Rietveld huis. Note that the bike street still has a refuge too.

Bicycle Streets: A Next Step for Ottawa?

July 25, 2017 Hansonthebike 3

Reading Time: 7 minutes As Ottawa sees the number of residents who bike increase, it is time to improve our existing infrastructure. The NCC pathways, built in the seventies, are becoming overcrowded by commuters, tourists and utilitarians alike and therefore the federal agency is planning to widen the paths likely starting with the ones that were flooded this spring. To give you an idea of numbers, June, despite being fairly rainy, saw 60,000 bike trips on each side of the canal. I was pleased to see that west of the Adawe bridge, the city slipped in an advisory lane, and there was no negative [Read more…]

Ney-and-Partners-Groentje

7 Gorgeous Bike and Pedestrian Bridges in the Netherlands

July 11, 2017 Hansonthebike 3

Reading Time: 6 minutes Netherlands’ cities have been building some fantastic bike infrastructure in the last decade. Bridges that look more than just a utilitarian crossing over a river or road. Cities don’t always chose the cheapest option per se, to great chagrin of some, but don’t underestimate the effects of beautiful design.

Portage Bridge in 3D. The counter is on east side in the red circle.

Death Trap on Portage Bridge: Systematic Safety

June 27, 2017 Hansonthebike 3

Reading Time: 5 minutes For a number of years now, cyclists pass a bicycle counter totem on the Portage Bridge across the Ottawa River on the border of Quebec and Ontario. The totem shows to everyone passing the inter provincial bridge the number of bike trips when people cycle over the conductivity loops embedded in the bike tracks. Gradual growth on Portage Bridge The numbers show a gradual growth since 2014, although the wet spring might have an effect on the 2017 numbers. Yet, three years of over 300,000 trips annually is considerable. Bear in mind that the counter doesn’t operate in the first [Read more…]

Newly paved path on Colonel By.

Colonel By – A Missed Opportunity

June 20, 2017 Hansonthebike 4

Reading Time: 3 minutes Last week, I cycled along the renovated canal walls on Colonel By. The path there has been repaved after extensive work on the walls, but I was a bit disappointed that the path wasn’t made any wider now everything was open anyway.   Most of the multi use pathway is a fair bit away from the road, which makes it a much nicer cycling experience. Unfortunately, the stretch east-ish of the Bank Street bridge runs right next to the road, a stretch of about 400 metres. At the other side of the road there is an area that is really [Read more…]

Main Street Ottawa opens as (almost) Complete Street

June 19, 2017 Hansonthebike 11

Reading Time: 8 minutes Last Saturday, the renovated Main Street in Ottawa was officially opened. The opening of this brand new complete street was folded into the annual Main Street fest and part of the street was closed off for motorized traffic. There was a brass band playing, there was an artisan farmers market, there was the bouncy castle (no event in Ottawa is complete without a bouncy castle, face painting and a booth of Safer Roads Ottawa) and there were hamburgers (veggie and halal included) for the fundraising part of the event. Cast iron for David Chernushenko From the tongue-in-cheek gift of the [Read more…]

The Mackenzie bike lane seen from north towards south in front of hte US Embassy

Bike Lane at US Embassy Open 2/2: Photos

May 19, 2017 Hansonthebike 7

Reading Time: 5 minutes As you read in the previous post earlier today, the Mackenzie bike lane was opened today. The stretch in front of the embassy was an eye sore after a lane was blocked off by concrete barriers. Mayor Watson called it something else, but I forgot what he called the barriers. (Update, Mathieu Fleury wrote they are called Jersey barriers) The mayor mentioned former ambassador Bruce Heyman and thanked him for his initiative. Dr. Kristmanson said a few words, mentioning the closing of the ceremonial boulevard this Sunday morning for Bike Sunday (“The first time ever that the boulevard is closed [Read more…]

Doug went out and did the measurements. The bike gives you an idea of the size. This photo looks south bound.

Bike Lane at US Embassy Open 1/2: Concrete Barriers Removed

May 19, 2017 Hansonthebike 4

Reading Time: 4 minutes Today, the bi-directional bike lane on Mackenzie Ave in front of the US Embassy will officially open. It is probably the safest one in the world, with bollards anchored in two meters of underground concrete. Why is that? To protect the embassy. Soon after the attacks on 9/11 the American embassy in Ottawa became even more fortified as it already was. On the west side of the embassy in the Byward market, Clarence street was slightly reconfigured so that truck bombers couldn’t drive straight into the embassy. The road got a wave built in, to stop high speed attacks; an [Read more…]