Winter

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

February 5, 2014 Hansonthebike 0

Reading Time: 5 minutesNext 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…]

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…]

Ottawa’s Second Annual Winter Bike Ride in Perfect Conditions

January 29, 2013 Hansonthebike 2

Reading Time: 5 minutesIf you mention winter cycling, one tends to think of bearded middle aged men, who’s mission it is to prove that one can live without a car in Ottawa under any circumstance, come hell or high water, or in this case, high snow. Ottawa, for those who are not from here but perhaps from a more tropical place like Toronto, is the second coldest capital in the world, leaving to Ulanbatar the first place. Which means we have to put up with fairly chilly conditions. Temperatures can go as low as -30C and to -40C if you take the wind [Read more…]

When Ottawa Wakes up from Hibernation

March 20, 2012 Hans on the Bike - Ottawa, Canada 0

Reading Time: 3 minutesTalking about extremes. The Ottawa winter has been odd, to say the least. The canal wasn’t open for skating for long; on the other hand, only a week and a half ago we were still skiing in the Gatineau. All of a sudden the weather turned around and Sunday, Ottawa saw 25.1 degrees (as in 77F) . The normals are +4 (40F) max and -7 (20F) minimum for March 18. We hopped on our bikes and cycled along the canal to the Byward Market, and back along the Ottawa River via Parkdale Ave to Nepean. I have never seen so [Read more…]

NCC evening: of Post-It Notes and Tapestries

February 23, 2012 Hans on the Bike - Ottawa, Canada 0

Reading Time: 4 minutesLast night, the NCC organised its second of two public meetings on the vision of the capital region for 2067 after a similar one was held in Gatineau the night before. The NCC has had its own road show over the last four months and visited a number of Canadian cities to ask Canadians what they’d like their capital to be in 2067. Marie LeMay, who revealed she will turn 105 in 2067, (do the math),  kicked off the evening with her trademark enthusiasm: one of the more interesting remarks was that Canadians appreciate their capital more than Brits like London or Americans like [Read more…]

Cycling in the snow….

February 6, 2012 Hans on the Bike - Ottawa, Canada 0

Reading Time: 3 minutesIt doesn’t happen too often, but Holland was covered in snow late last week. Cyclists kept cycling, resulting in some really nice pictures of cyclists in the snow. If the “inexperienced-with-snow” Dutch can do it, teens included, we Canadians can no longer use the argument of a snowy country as a reason not to cycle. Enjoy the screen shots from the nu.nl website I took this weekend. You will notice few cars in the pictures, as many cyclists are separated from faster traffic on special bike paths or cycle through city centres with traffic calming measures. Many kids cycle to [Read more…]

Group picture winter cycling in Ottawa

Successful First Winter Family Bike Parade in Ottawa

January 23, 2012 Hans on the Bike - Ottawa, Canada 0

Reading Time: 4 minutesThe first Ottawa Winter Family Bike Parade on January 22, 2012 attracted 50 cyclists, here posing in front of Ottawa City Hall. Commuter cycling is gaining popularity in Canada. – Photo: Paul Clarke So today was the day: Ottawa’s first ever winter bike parade. If you are not from Ottawa, you might think: “Big Deal”. But Ottawa happens to be the seconds coldest capital in the world (after Ulanbataar in Mongolia), so planning a bike ride in Ottawa made a lot of people think that we were out of our minds. But that’s just it. Today we showed that cycling [Read more…]

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Beat the Blues with the Family Winter Bike Parade

January 17, 2012 Hans on the Bike - Ottawa, Canada 0

Reading Time: 2 minutesWhen I speak to audiences in Canada, I often hear that ‘Canada is too cold for cycling‘. Obviously, that is more of a mindset than a reality. Indeed, there are days that the weather is not really cooperating, but that applies more to the poor road conditions than the temperature. Let’s face it, lots of people are out on snow mobiles, on skates on the canal in Ottawa, or on skies on the slopes of the Rockies or the cross country trails in Gatineau Park. The temperature doesn’t bother all those outdoorsy folks. During the 56 days winter bus strike [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…]