Infrastructure

A complete separate pathway s the right solution for Maitland

The Maitland Overpass: the cycling issue with on ramps and slip lanes

March 6, 2018 Hansonthebike 8

Reading Time: 6 minutesLast week I spent some time at the Maitland overpass open house at the most unknown arena in Ottawa, the J. Alph Dulude arena. When you Google his name, nothing but arena results come up, plus 48 restaurants ‘near JA Dulude arena’. So if you know more, let me know. Update: Christopher send me this information when I put this blog out: It was a small and quiet open house, with only a handful of panels. However, I did manage to talk to a few staff, councillor Jeff Leiper and Giacomo Panico (not in function, he stressed), as well as [Read more…]

Heron pathways

Heron Road Bike Infrastructure at Transitway

November 30, 2017 Hansonthebike 4

Reading Time: 4 minutesThis week, I was at an open house for new bike infrastructure on Heron, between Bank and Data Centre Road. At that stretch, Heron is a wide arterial with 60 kph speed limits but where it is easy to roll at least 70 kph. It is a spaghetti of roads and railway tracks in that area, and after 19 years in Ottawa I still have a hard time to orient myself if I don’t drive on Heron Rd. There is LRT, VIARail, the Transitway, Heron Rd and the Airport Parkway/Bronson and its on and off ramps. Data centre road winds [Read more…]

Open: Ottawa River Pathway Behind Parliament Hill

November 21, 2017 Hansonthebike 0

Reading Time: 5 minutes2024 update: the pathway is closed. It should open again in the Fall. There is work being done near the Supreme Court. There is a cliff where some rock came down several years ago. This is being worked on. More here: https://ncc-ccn.gc.ca/projects/parliament-hill-escarpment-rehabilitation Just before the first snow came down in the weekend of November 18-19 I thought I’d go for a bike ride to check out the repaired Ottawa River multi use pathway behind Parliament Hill and the Supreme Court. Shoreline and pathway washed out As you remember, the path was closed since the heavy rain in spring and had [Read more…]

Halloween

Halloween: 13 Spooky Scenarios for Cyclists

October 31, 2017 Hansonthebike 1

Reading Time: 9 minutesToday 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 minutesThis 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 minutesPercy 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 minutesAs 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 minutesNetherlands’ 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 minutesFor 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 minutesLast 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…]