Record Year for Laurier Bike Lane
Reading Time: 5 minutes Laurier Bike Lane now has four full years and five fall seasons of data. We are taking a look at some of the bike counter data and try to find a trend.
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Sharrows: the Big Leap Forward or Just an Evasive Side Step
Reading Time: 4 minutes In which Dick van Veen ponders the good and bad of the use of sharrows as ‘infrastructure’
Laurier Bike Lane's Missing Data: a Reconstruction
Reading Time: 3 minutes Today, we will take a look at some Laurier Bike Lane data, because there was an odd dip in May. The data are collected in six different locations on the lanes between Bronson and Elgin. The counters are connected to a metal loop in the ground, which detects your bike’s metal. Every time someone cycles over the loop, it is detected and the ride is stored in the counter’s memory. The data of two counters are submitted to a server at midnight, processed and put on line. The other data sets are collected on a regular basis in other ways. The data you can [Read more…]
Wayfinding Signs in Ottawa
Reading Time: 6 minutes wayfinding in Ottawa has never impressed me. I remember there used to be a sign to Hull, I think it was on Bronson, about a foot square, that was covered by a tree branch for years, until the name ‘Hull’ ceased to exist. I am also often amazed that directional signs are put at the intersection or after an actual exit, rather than 200 meters before the exit. The photo below is a perfect example. NCC wayfinding signs Now the City of Ottawa is building a bike network, you might have noticed wayfinding signs starting to pop up. The NCC has [Read more…]
Bill 31 (The Bill Formerly Known As Bill 173) – Brief Update
Reading Time: 12 minutes Here is a bit of an update on Bill 31, which we used to know as Bill 173, that was to deal with safer roads. As you have read in an earlier post, Bill 173 was going to deal with cycling safety too. You can read back my post here. But the Ontario Government fell and when a government falls, the Bills “die” and they have to be reintroduced. On Tuesday October 21, 2014, the Bill was reintroduced as Bill 31 (Read Bill 31 to here). Bill 31 deals again with bike lights, counterflow lanes, cross rides next to a cross walk, bicycle [Read more…]
A Ghost Bike for Mario Théoret
Reading Time: 3 minutes It was a fairly cold but sunny Sunday morning on October 20, 2013, when I cycled to Hunt Club and Merivale to attend the placement of a ghost bike at this intersection, where Mario was killed earlier this week. From the media, I gathered a truck turned right and didn’t see Mario. Ghost bikes are usually placed anonymously, but friends of Mario decided to make it a public event. I didn’t recognise many people, other than CfSC members Peter Brebner (who made the bike seat covers for us) and Heather, who walked up to me to thank Citizens for Safe Cycling [Read more…]
Guest Post: Kelly Roche's impressions on Frankfurt and Wiesbaden Transportation
Reading Time: 4 minutes Two years ago, I was interviewed by Ottawa Sun reporter Kelly Roche at the opening of the Laurier bike lane. At that time, the Ottawa Sun was fairly hostile towards cyclists, (but not Kelly) complaining about the cost of bike infrastructure for ‘a handful of cyclists‘ (760,000 bike trips have been counted since the opening at the Metcalfe intersection counters alone). The total numbers are even higher as not everyone passes these particular counters. Not much of a wedge issue Over the last two years, The Ottawa Sun’s attitude appears to have changed. Of course, we know that newspapers like so [Read more…]
The Weirdest Bike Ride. Ever.
Reading Time: 6 minutes How I ended up cycling with three MP’s Last Saturday was the National Health and Fitness Day in Ottawa. Or was it Sunday? Or Monday? It is not entirely clear to me when I read the website of John Weston, MP for West Vancouver-Sunshine Coast. Dick Louch (Velofest) told me Sunday night there was a bike ride on the Hill the next day (Short for Parliament Hill in Ottawa among Ottawans) to celebrate the Health and Fitness Day. It was the same day that Olivia Chow’s National Transit Strategy Bill was voted down. Oddly, no one I asked had heard [Read more…]
Of a Woonerf, Too Many Signs and Complete Streets
Reading Time: 6 minutes A world without signs? We have one woonerf in Ottawa: part of Cambridge is designated as a woonerf. An ‘erf’ is a somewhat old fashioned Dutch word for the area around the farm house, where chickens roam, the dog guards and the cow explores. ‘Woon’ comes from the verb ‘wonen’, Dutch for ‘to live in a place’. Woon-erf more or less literally translates to “living yard”. Here in Canada, we’d like to translate it with ‘complete streets’ sometimes, but typically a woonerf has few curbs; traffic calming measures are taken to the extreme with planters, coloured pavers, bike racks and [Read more…]
Crowd Funding “Bike City, Great City” – Ottawa City Councillor Makes Documentary Movie
Reading Time: 2 minutes What does it take to create a great bike city? Better planning, better building and better education. Money and a willingness to invest it in cycling. Most of all, it requires politicians, planners, engineers and voters to believe it is both possible and worth the effort. If you think it’s worth the effort, please consider a donation to help produce Bike City, Great City, an informative, crowd-funded film that promotes the values of urban cycling. This independent documentary will show how any city that encourages cycling by making it easier and safer becomes a more vibrant, attractive and healthier city for everyone. David Chernushenko, Ottawa [Read more…]