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

Reading Time: 4 minutes On 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 minutes My 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…]

Un Peu de Paris au Marché Parkdale

Reading Time: 3 minutes It has been a really nice autumn in Ottawa, and last fin de la semaine (Michael: that translates to ‘weekend’) was no exception. Sunny crisp weather, temperatures I wished we could have throughout the winter. It makes cycling so much more pleasant. Often we take the bicycle to Parkdale Market. It is one of those succesfully revitilised places, where an open air market, a park with a wade pool and a small stage make the area feel welcoming. It is also cycling and pedestrian friendly. There is a plan to build an enormous high rise at the north end, where [Read more…]

NCC Bike Sundays: 10 Great Summer Pics

Reading Time: 3 minutes For a North European, closing the road for people to cycle feels a bit odd; people simply cycle every day everywhere over there. As long as you have to close roads, you obviously have a (perceived) safety issue among the population. However, North Americans consider cycling still mostly a sport (although it is changing), which you do in an enclosed environment, like on track, in a hall, or in this case a closed circuit. Canada’s National Capital Commission has been closing a number of parkways (kind of beautified roads, with lots of landscaping to impress locals and foreign dignitaries alike) [Read more…]

Capital Velo Fest Ottawa a Relaxed Affair

Reading Time: 3 minutes Today was a gorgeous day for Capital Velo Fest, the first bicycle festival in Ottawa. The weather was cooperating, the 60% change of showers never came and the twenty or so booths of companies and organisations like Envirocentre, Citizens for Safe Cycling and the Ottawa Bicycle Club attracted enough people to make it a nice social outing. Although most visitors were cyclists already, there was new stuff to see for them too. Especially the two cargo bikes, brought in by Tall Tree Bicycles, attracted a lot of attention, as did the recumbent bikes of Ergo Cycles in Ottawa. Everyone agreed [Read more…]

Successful Hintonburg Kids Ride

Reading Time: 2 minutes There is hope. A new generation of cyclists is taking to the roads. Kathleen Wilker organised a kids ride on May 28th from the Hintonburg Community Centre to the Parkdale Market and Arts Fair. Despite a somewhat gray morning, a few dozen kids and their parents came out for the ride of less than one kilometer. Kathleen gets it. No need for grants, no large advertising campaigns, just roll up the sleeves and organise a neighbourhood event. A very simple ride for the kids and T-shirts for the best decorated bikes made this a nice community event that doesn’t cost [Read more…]