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Segregated Cycling lanes
3 Comments | Posted by Mike in Centretown, Ottawa, bike lanes, city council, commuting
Hello all!
With winter finally seeming to have been beaten, it’s time to take this blog out of its seasonal (albeit never planned) hibernation.
There’s been a lot of attention paid in the past few weeks to a pilot project that would see the city create a segregated cycling route through centretown on a trial basis. The Sun was the first to report on it on March 15th (though doesn’t have most of the details exactly right and is pretty slanted against), Centretown News followed up on the 26th (their details are right, but they managed to get some names wrong), and the Citizen has something published today. Note all stories talk about different events: the Sun followed the original presentation to the Roads and Cycling Advisory Committee (full disclosure: I’m chair of RCAC. I write here as an individual), the latter follow Councillor Holmes’ stepping in to propose the creation of a different consultation mechanism.
I think that there’s lots to be optimistic about in this. Given that this will be a bit of a first for Ottawa (at least in the core). My impression, at least based on what RCAC was told, was that the plan was to begin meeting with other community and business groups. What is being proposed here is to make the consultation process more formal. That might slow things down a bit, but I’m not sure that we would have seen any changes this cycling season in any case. It’s more important that we do what is needed to make sure that everyone is comfortable with the process and is able to contribute as much as is possible: it’ll produce a better result, and it will help avoid infighting amongst various road users/business groups/residents.
Now, in The Citizen Holmes’ suggests that downtown was listed as an option, but the cycling plan calls for considerations of larger east-west routes, which is true. I think that the idea of a downtown route for the pilot has more to do with it being an area where there is a good concentration of places to go, local residents, and people commuting in. There’s also already a lot of bicycles. That’s a good mix for a first project, and is probably different than if it were farther from the core.
3 Comments for Segregated Cycling lanes
Kelvin | April 1, 2010 at 10:40 am
Mike | April 13, 2010 at 9:56 pm
There is already an existing segregated east-west bike lane across downtown – the east-west Ottawa river pathway. Now, I know it is not well placed for everyone, but none the less, it gets a fair bit of use (full disclosure: it works absolutely perfectly for me).
Anyway, the point of my (first ever) comment here is this: this pathway has been closed down at the steam plant behind the Hill for the next 2 weeks, without any prior warning, without any signage until you come to the fences at the steam plant, and with absolutely no effort by the NCC or PWGSC to minimize the impact of the closure on trail users. Not that I am surprised, but just pissed off.
Anyway, a heads up for any pathway commuters.
jac | May 11, 2010 at 3:07 am
All of this is fine and dandi folks. But, until you change the underlying systems and mindset of the people… good luck!
I got hit on April 24th on Preston and sommerset. I was going straight on Preston south bound. The driver going north and turning left on sommerset. As I approached the intersection (about 25m or so), I perform a visual on the driver. The light turns green around this time. Next thing I know the driver is turning in front of me! I clip the back end. The driver yells out “you cut me off”. Five other people yell “you cut off the cyclists”. The driver never gets a ticket because he claims he was in the intersection first. The driver claims to be x-ottawa cop. He leaves a voice message on my answering machine stating he is too busy to cover the costs of my bike until May 18th. He also states in there that “I was travelling at a good clip”. Proof that he did see me and that he knew I was moving (speed limit is 50km/h in this area… try to do that on a bike!). He took the chance and cut in front of me.
But, because the police did not give a ticket. I have to prove fault to his insurance. Not an easy task!!!
Then I noticed someone else got hit from behind on the monday on sussex (where someone was killed Sept 2009). The driver did not get a ticket.
Something very very strange is going on with the police not issueing tickets. Maybe against cyclists?
Then I noticed a report on trirudy.com where one cyclist went up to the gatineaus this weekend and got harrassed by police.
What is going on here!!!!
We need a change in mindset and in our system.
Denmark is a very expensive city to drive in. It has major deterents. Hence, cycling is made easy while driving difficult.
In Canada, driving is seen as a right. Heck, you can pretty much run someone over and get away with murder!!!
Our system(s) is stuck in the 1950s!!!
The (woefully outdated) official bike map “suggests” Slater and Albert and the cross-downtown routes. Anyone who’s actually witnessed the wall of buses and the other two lanes of pandemonium during rush hour would laugh at the idea.
While any attempt to navigate Centretown on two wheels is still too dicey for me (I live close enough to walk), somebody from the city should at least come out and revise that the best routes right now are probably Wellington or Laurier.