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Spacing Ottawa

Padraic — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 15:07:27 +0000

We’ve been quite fond in the past of linking to articles from Spacing, the fantastic Toronto-based urbanism magazine. Now, CiO readers should be sure to subscribe to their new Ottawa blog, where they cover such issues as Lansdowne, pedestrian bridges and Big Joe Mufferaw. As well, in Spacing Radio #012, you can hear Spacing Ottawa editor Evan Thornton discuss the tension “between the ceremonial and the everyday” in designing Ottawa.

Finally, I recently bought a print subscription to Spacing, and despite the high price, it’s definitely worth it. Given the huge amount of content these folks create covering urban issues in a variety of cities, I’m happy to support them.

A Great Resource for Ottawa Cyclists

Adam — Wed, 27 May 2009 18:16:23 +0000

Gobiking.ca is a great site which provides details about a number of cycling routes both in Ottawa and Eastern Ontario. Seeing as I will be moving to Kingston for two months this summer, the site is particularly useful for giving me some weekend trip ideas. Having taken many of these trips over my years in Ottawa I can testify that the descriptions of the routes is completely accurate. The only brief complaint is that important information is not readily available (such as distance and estimated time) and often requires reading the full article. Simialry the maps provided are fairly rudiementary and I would suppliment them with at least a trail map from the NCC if not a good local map.

It also provides links to bike stores in Ottawa, dicsussion forums and a blog roll which features our little home in cyberspace.

WarmShowers.org: Couchsurfing for Touring Cyclists

Joshua — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 03:22:54 +0000

During my spring break from school I headed down to California and bicycled with three friends along the coast. They’re all McGill alums who are cycling around the US. They left Salt Spring Island in January and are going to wind up on Rhode Island this summer. The details of their story, and the raison d’etre of their trip, are on their blog at www.theurgencyofnow.us.

One of the tools that they’ve been using on their trip is www.warmshowers.org, a sort of “couchsurfing for cyclists”. You create a listing on the site in order to let cyclists stay with you and to stay at the homes of fellow cyclists along your route. It’s still a nascent service, with fewer than 10,000 users, that’s been online for less than three years. By way of comparison, there are 1 Million Couchsurfers as of this month. That said, despite the smaller userbase, there are some noteable advantages to using warmshowers over the more general sites like Couchsurfing and Hospitality Club:

You are going to stay with someone who understands what it’s like to be cycling for an extended period of time. You’ll likely have an understanding host if you’re in need of a shower or want to borrow a tool.
The site strives to make itself useable for people for people who are cycling and thereby have spotty internet access. For example, you can print off contact information en masse for people in a specific geographic area.
You can search user profiles on the site for criteria that just aren’t as relevant to other sorts of travellers. Want to find someone who has storage space so that you can leave your bike box? Check. Want to know how far someone is from the nearest bicycle repair shop? Check. Want to know if they have a car for vehicle support? Check.

WarmShowers.org

Another Google update

Padraic — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 12:49:47 +0000

There is good news for Google Maps users like myself – those tired of its “Get Directions” feature being primarily designed for cars, making you respect one-way streets and incorporating speed limits into the calculations: Google has announced it will now offer walking directions. I discovered, for example, that apparently I spent 3 years taking a sub-optimal route to school:

Unfortunately for Ottawa, off-road pedestrian paths haven’t been incorporated into the dataset yet – so walking directions will ignore the entire NCC path system. Hopefully, they’ll be incorporated in the future. For those curious about the time estimates Google Maps serves up, apparently is 3 miles / 5.1km per hour – so adjust according to your own speed.

The answer to our g-prayers

Padraic — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 17:18:34 +0000

You can now plan your OC Transpo trips with the slick, user-friendly and efficient Google Transit.