Ottawa

Ottawa commuter

bus shelter Rijssen

Rain Sensor for Dutch Cyclists – “Braille” for the Viennese Pedestrian

January 4, 2012 Hans on the Bike - Ottawa, Canada 2

Reading Time: 2 minutesNo more seeking shelter in this bus stop for this Dutch family when rain threatens. Picture: Urban Commuter Ottawa Dutch city of Groningen councillor Karin Dekker activated the first rain sensor in the city with the highest bike modal share in the world. The sensor measures rain and snow. If precipitation is measured, the traffic light cycle changes, so that cyclists get green lights more often. If the test is successful, more bicycle friendly traffic lights will follow in 2012. The rain sensor is already implemented in the Dutch province of Noord-Brabant. When it is raining ánd the temperature is [Read more…]

Bikeway image by Dennis Leung - Ottawa Citizen

Whoosh!

December 30, 2011 Hans on the Bike - Ottawa, Canada 0

Reading Time: 5 minutesYou probably read already that Ottawa city staff is designing a bike way through the city. Some will argue that it is yet another example of a waste of tax payer’s money (as if $220,000,000 for the Queensway isn’t), but the reality is, that it will be a long term gain. The idea behind a bike way is to create a safe corridor for cyclists from one end of town to the other end. It will feed commuters into the down town as well as encouraging more people to take their bike to get across town for errands. Or to get around their own [Read more…]

Ottawa Moves – part 3/3 – Ken Greenberg

November 24, 2011 Hans on the Bike - Ottawa, Canada 0

Reading Time: 5 minutesKen Greenberg, Urban Design consultant, who is working on the plans for Bank Street, south of Billings Bridge, spoke in the evening of November 3. Ken started the evening with a video I had never seen before and is worth watching. The animation video from 1958 called Magic Highway USA shows a fantastic conceptual idea by Disney -with somewhat naive optimism- of how the world would look like in the future. I can’t start to describe the many ideas in the video, you have to see it yourself. Note the mention of GPS, large overhead road signs, rear view camera’s and cruise control (setting [Read more…]

Citizens for Safe Cycling AGM another successful bike event

November 4, 2011 Hans on the Bike - Ottawa, Canada 0

Reading Time: 6 minutesThree days ago, Ottawa’s local cycling advocacy group Citizens for Safe Cycling organised its Annual General Meeting (AGM). Usually AGM’s are boring events, but CfSC tends to spice it up a bit. The first part of the evening consisted of speakers, the second part of the official AGM, with approval of minutes, an overview of what CfSC did over the year, election of new board members, reports etc. If CfSC organises its AGM, it is in the news. The next day, I was at the dentist and she had seen the AGM on the news, and most of my wife’s [Read more…]

Hayley Richardson – Telling Bicycle Stories

October 17, 2011 Hans on the Bike - Ottawa, Canada 0

Reading Time: 4 minutesLearn more about what’s happening with cycling – on the other side of North America AND in your backyard! On November 1, Citizens for Safe Cycling will hold its Annual General Meeting, with a speaker from the City of Bellevue, Washington (near Seattle), and updates from the local bicycle community. The first half of the evening, which will include booths from local organizations, speakers, and refreshments, is free and open to all. You can expect booths from Ecology Ottawa, Envirocentre, Bicycles for Humanity, Hintonberg Cycling Champions and Right Bike (the purple bikes rental concept that will start in Westboro-Wellington West [Read more…]

Spacing Ottawa: ‘the everyday cyclist”

September 22, 2011 Hans on the Bike - Ottawa, Canada 0

Reading Time: 5 minutesSpacing Ottawa contributor Allegra Newman organised an evening at the Alpha Soul Cafe in up and coming Hintonburg on September 21, 2011 with the theme “Everyday Cyclists”. Panelists were Colin Simpson, City of Ottawa Senior Project Manager, Transportation – Strategic Planning Unit; Kathleen Wilker, Community Cycling Advocate, Co-chair Hintonburg Cycling Champions and free lance writer, Schuyler Playford, Assistant Community Project Coordinator Causeway Work Centre and Ian Fraser, West Wellington BIA Cycling Committee. As I am an every day cyclist myself (although not always too loyal to cycling in winter), I thought I am going to listen in. We took the [Read more…]

Visiting Ward 9’s bike infrastructure

August 30, 2011 Hans on the Bike - Ottawa, Canada 3

Reading Time: 9 minutesOttawa consists of much more than the usual suspects like Parliament Hill, the museums (musea), the Canal and the Byward Market. Not everyone who is visiting Ottawa will make it to places like Westboro, the Glebe, Old Ottawa South or up and coming Hintonburg, let alone making it all the way to a place like Nepean or Orleans, unless you have family there. Even most Ottawans don’t make it to the other side of the city usually. Before a number of municipalities merged into the current city of Ottawa, there was a place called Nepean. Mostly built up since the [Read more…]

Attractive New Low Impact Pavilion in Vincent Massey Park

August 22, 2011 Hans on the Bike - Ottawa, Canada 0

Reading Time: 3 minutesVincent Massey Park, across the Rideau River from Carleton University, North of Heron Road and West of Riverside Drive, is well known among immigrant groups, it appears, as often I see large numbers of East Asian immigrants barbecueing in the summer. The bike path along the river in Vincent Massey Park was closed for a while as the NCC has been widening the path. The NCC and the city didn’t really think of cyclists and simply closed the path, not realising the impact. Consequently, all of a sudden cyclists had to figure out another way around the construction site, which [Read more…]

Is Ottawa’s Bixi Bike Missing Its Target Group?

August 14, 2011 Hans on the Bike - Ottawa, Canada 9

Reading Time: 6 minutes(See for a spring 2012 update at the bottom of this page). Since the Bixi bikes (Bixi bike is rental bike that you can pick up and leave at a number of unmanned fixed locations) were introduced in Ottawa on May 18th 2011, over 13,000 (13,187 to be precise) times a bike was taken out of one of the ten stations. There are one hundred bikes, divided over ten stations. De average time a Bixi was used is 85 minutes. 24% of the bixis is used in Gatineau versus 76% in Ottawa. That makes sense as there are seven stations [Read more…]

NCC Bike Sundays: 10 Great Summer Pics

August 1, 2011 Hans on the Bike - Ottawa, Canada 0

Reading Time: 3 minutesFor 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…]