Urban planning

Retrofitting Suburbia

April 28, 2015 Hansonthebike 0

Reading Time: 5 minutesOne of the books I have been reading lately is “Retrofitting Suburbia”. Authors Ellen Dunham-Jones and June Williamson are making the case for urban design solutions for older office areas and the large aging (and already dead) shopping malls from the 50’s and 60’s (and the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s eventually). Changing demographics The authors promote retrofitting those old malls and edge cities to urban cores, in order to reduce VMT (Vehicle Miles Travelled). The authors believe that creating an attractive walkable area, with cars being pushed to perimeter, will create more attractive places in the burbs for people to [Read more…]

Chaudière Island in Pictures

February 18, 2015 Hansonthebike 0

Reading Time: 4 minutesIn January 2015, I had an opportunity to visit the Domtar and Hydro Ottawa sites on Chaudière Island in the Ottawa River between downtown Ottawa and downtown Gatineau. As you all likely know, the site will undergo a complete metamorphoses, starting soon. The property is closed for the public as it is still a working Hydro Ottawa site so I thought it was really cool to see it, before it will be completely transformed over the next twenty years. In a way, although it was cold, I was happy to see it in winter. It really adds to the atmosphere [Read more…]

Canadian books about cycling: FrostBike, Happy City and Every Day Cyclist's guide to Canadian law

Gift Card from Santa? Here Are Three Canadian Books

December 29, 2014 Hansonthebike 1

Reading Time: 5 minutesSo now what? Your mother-in-law gave you a gift certificate (or even cash in an envelope) for Christmas and you really don’t know what to buy because you have everything already. Here are three books related to cycling (or to the broader theme of a better city) for winter reading. All three books are written by Canadians: Tom Babin, who writes for the Calgary Herald; Charles Montgomery, a Vancouverite and our own Ottawa authors Craig Forcese and Nicole Laviolette, law professors at Ottawa U. 1 Frostbike – Tom Babin Tom interviewed me in September 2011 when I was speaking in Calgary [Read more…]

The Most Beautiful Bike Path in the World is in Liguria

September 8, 2014 Hansonthebike 0

Reading Time: 6 minutesMention you have been to Italy, and people usually assume you have been to Rome, Venice, Tuscany and Pisa. The odd person mentions Capri, Sicily or even the Italian Alps, but few will ever ask if you have been to Liguria. Liguria Liguria is the province that stretches from the French border, past Genua towards Cinque Terre along the Mediterranean. Think Cannes, Nice, Monaco and then start from the border at Ventimiglia along that same coast eastbound. It feels like time stood still in Liguria and that is perhaps because it is mountainous (the Alpi Maritimi); perhaps that has kept [Read more…]

Public Spaces in Aix-en-Provence and Avignon

May 22, 2014 Hansonthebike 0

Reading Time: 6 minutesKaren and I choose to go on holidays in April, after November usually the crappiest month in Ottawa. The snow is gone, the land is brown, the rain is cold and the winds are nasty. Temperatures hover between -5 and +10 C or so. Many Canadians escape winter in February and fly to a resort in the Carribean, but we actually like the winter. But April, no thank you. Last year we were in New Orleans, but this year it was time to visit the family in Holland again. But Holland’s weather is iffy in April too so we opted [Read more…]

A Ghost Bike for Mario Théoret

October 20, 2013 Hansonthebike 12

Reading Time: 3 minutesIt 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…]

2013 Draft Ottawa Bicycle Plan in 1500 words

October 10, 2013 Hansonthebike 0

Reading Time: 9 minutesI 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…]

Guest Post: Kelly Roche's impressions on Frankfurt and Wiesbaden Transportation

July 29, 2013 Hansonthebike 0

Reading Time: 4 minutesTwo 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…]

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Crowd Sourcing the Ottawa Cycling Map

July 3, 2013 Hansonthebike 4

Reading Time: 2 minutesAfter the long weekend it is now back to work for bike advocacy. The City of Ottawa maintains a map with different layers on line. The existing cycling facilities layer was recently updated – and can now be viewed on GeoOttawa- this is publicly accessible information. Please take some time to look over whatever part of the city you are most familiar with- and send in any changes to Melody (Melody.Andrews@ottawa.ca)  by email. If your suggestion is complicated- please include a screen shot. Remember the map should show what’s out there today—for example the O-Train pathway is on the map since it [Read more…]

Main Street Will Become a Complete Street and Here is Why

June 20, 2013 Hansonthebike 5

Reading Time: 8 minutesUpdate July 17, 2013: council passed the proposal for Main street with 18 in favour – 6 against (Moffatt, Blais, Hubley, Desroches, Deans, Harder: worries about traffic flow from suburbia to down town and timing of reconstruction). The City of Ottawa has active transportation high on the agenda. The highest priorities are pedestrians and cyclists. After active transportation comes public transportation. At the bottom of the pile is the car, the 3000 pound gorilla that has shaped Ottawa over the last 60-70 years or so. But the car’s hegemony over infrastructure is starting to show cracks. Rescue Bronson Ave has [Read more…]