living in ottawa

An infographic with data on Cycling in Ottawa

Infographic: Cycling in Ottawa

January 21, 2015 Hansonthebike 0

Reading Time: 4 minutes A few years ago, I wrote -as president of our local bike advocacy group- a letter to City Council in which we mentioned that (I believe) 23,000 bike rides were counted on Laurier Bike Lane (at Metcalfe) between November 2011 and March 2012. These numbers were collected by in-ground bicycle counters. At the next council meeting (or perhaps Transportation Committee, I don’t remember), one councillor asked about these numbers; he refused to believe the numbers and city staff was tasked to come up with the numbers instead. Of course, we were using the same data source and city staff must have rolled [Read more…]

Central Experimental Farm Under Threat Once Again

November 17, 2014 Hansonthebike 0

Reading Time: 7 minutes So another part of the Central Experimental Farm is lopped off. I thought that heritage status would have protected the Farm from further deterioration, but no, it appears that heritage status means nothing. I have been cycling over the Farm for years and it is by far the best part of my commute. The maximum speed is 30 km/h but most drivers go faster. I’d like to see that enforced better, as it is a working farm,  but five cars on a three km stretch is still a great cycling experience. But what is more important is that when you pass through [Read more…]

12 Ads with Bikes: How Bikes Sneak Into Main Stream Advertising

November 13, 2014 Hansonthebike 0

Reading Time: 4 minutes Remember the time that cycling was associated with either racing or  enviro-types who cycled out of principle? Those bearded types in home knit sweaters and goat wool socks, with safety vests, mirrors, reflective straps, and a milk crate duct-taped to the bike? That time when banks, consultants, coffee shops and drug stores had no desire to be associated with anything that remotely resembled a bicycle or their riders? When cycling had a negative association? When people felt bad for you when you arrived by bike? But times are achanging. When even bankers start to advertise with cycling images in their [Read more…]

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Nepean's Parks: a 19 km Bike Ride for Everyone

May 20, 2014 Hansonthebike 2

Reading Time: 5 minutes I had to bring a book back to the library and we decided to make a little outing out of it. Usually I take it back to the Main branch down town during lunch hour, but today (Victoria Day) we decided to cycle to the Centrepointe branch in Nepean, even though the Emerald Plaza branch is closer. It turned into an 19 km ride, mostly on bike paths, through parks and underneath hydro poles.   With an average speed of 14 km/hour (that included checking the map and taking some pictures) it took us about an hour and 20 minutes. [Read more…]

2014 Spring.Bike.Ottawa: "Understanding the Ottawa Cycling Budget" and much more.

March 19, 2014 Hansonthebike 0

Reading Time: 3 minutes On March 22 we are holding our third Spring.Bike.Ottawa event. The purpose is to get updates on local cycling. It turns out to be an event that is appreciated. We started the event because we felt no one had a good overview of all the bike initiatives going on in Ottawa. And there are a lot. There are many people working on cycling in Ottawa, often in the background. They are doing great things with little or no money. Spring.Bike.Ottawa brings those (mostly) volunteers together. We hold the event early in the year, to make people aware that cycling is [Read more…]

Bill 173: Amending the Highway Traffic Act for Cycling

March 18, 2014 Hansonthebike 0

Reading Time: 6 minutes Did you ever read Ontario’s Highway Traffic Act? I have to admit I have never gone through it with a dust comb, but I do flip through it once in a while. One of the oddities I found is that you don’t have to have a rear light (as I read it). Currently, you need to have a reflector or a red light. Indeed, you don’t need to have a rear light. Bill 173 is repairing a number of issues that society had already more or less accepted. Flashing Rear Lights Bill 173 is going to change that light issue. Or [Read more…]

Can you Bike, Skate and Walk to Work on Winter Bike to Work day?

February 5, 2014 Hansonthebike 0

Reading Time: 5 minutes Next week, February 14, 2014  is Winter Bike to Work Day. It is a day to celebrate winter cycling worldwide. Winter cycling is easier said than done as cycling in winter requires some preparation. If you haven’t biked in winter -and I mean serious winter, as in -20C to -30C (-4to -22F) sans wind chill, not those -2C Copenhagen ‘winters‘ extended autumns, you are likely thinking that winter cycling is a crazy thing to do. Not really. But you need a well equipped bike, a few extra layers of clothes and serious maintenance on your bike. It is not the [Read more…]

Barrhaven Bicycling

December 11, 2013 Hansonthebike 3

Reading Time: 5 minutes This winter, to beat the winter blues, I will post some sunny material that is still on the desk from earlier this year. Late August, we wanted to go for a shorter ride on a Sunday morning, but we didn’t feel like doing the closed loop along the Ottawa River once again, so after some staring on maps, we decided to go to Jan Harder territory. We packed out passports and cycled to Barrhaven. Barrhaven! When we were pondering buying a house in the late nineties, we took a look at Barrhaven, but we were nervous that the commute into [Read more…]

2013 Draft Ottawa Bicycle Plan in 1500 words

October 10, 2013 Hansonthebike 0

Reading Time: 9 minutes I read through the draft Ottawa Bicycle Plan last night (update: I improved it a bit here and there on Thanksgiving, removing typos, adding headers and more insight in budgets). A document of nearly 150 pages that outlines the vision for the next 18 years. I think it is a very solid plan, perhaps one of the best I have read. It is clearly written by cyclists with lots of input from the public and Citizens for Safe Cycling, Ottawa’s bicycle advocacy group since 1984. It is all compassing, from infrastructure to education, from winter cycling to fall sweeping. From [Read more…]

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Going Dutch? Ontario's Cycling Strategy Released!

August 30, 2013 Hansonthebike 0

Reading Time: 8 minutes Summarised for you: The Ontario Cycling Strategy in 1000 words: How Ontario will look like in 20 years. This afternoon, August 30, 2013, the Ministry of Transportation released its first provincial cycling strategy in 20 years. This is a much better document than the first draft that was floated around at the beginning of the year. Over 1000 individuals reacted when this first draft document was open for public input, a number that is unheard of in Ontario, which shows the desire for change. From this input and the input of many professionals comes the Ontario Cycling Strategy. The document contains [Read more…]