Three on a bike

Recently there appeared a comment in the local paper pointing out the disadvantages of a bike vs a car. The anti-bike author expressed a very North American bias about bikes. Basically he said you can't do that much with them. They can't carry groceries (mine does) or they can't transport children. He specifically said two children so I thought of his comments when I saw this cyclist last week with two children on board. Nicely done too!

New Scott Street bike lanes

For many years Scott Street has been one of the worst streets to drive on in Ottawa. In fact, I don't recall it ever being in anything but terrible shape. The right-hand lane eastbound in particular had a strong camber and was horribly rutted and pot-holed. Well, Scott Street finally had some resurfacing work and with that came an added surprise. Bike lanes! They're not segregated lanes and they don't run the length of Scott Street but it's still a small step towards making Ottawa a better cycling city. The new lanes run between Holland Avenue and Island Park Drive and I think they'll come in handy for many. Here's a view of the freshly painted lanes looking east down Scott Street.

Some thoughts on the Queen Street bike tragedy

The "Ghost bike" memorial on Queen Street

For the family and friends of Danielle Naçu, the recent deadly accident on Queen Street will forever be a part of their lives. As sad as I feel about it, my sadness cannot compare to that of those who knew her. So, the rest of us look for answers.

Following various twitter feeds and chats about this incident yesterday I was left with a feeling that most people feel an accident like this is a singular event and not really part of any pattern. I'm not so sure.

"Dooring", they call it. It happens so often it has a name. When I was in my teens I rode my bike everywhere. My favourite route from the west end of Ottawa to the downtown was along Richmond Road until it turns into Wellington Street. This was where my only dooring incident took place. I was travelling pretty fast on my road bike and I probably had my head down. Suddenly a car door opened. I slammed on my brakes. I hit the door straight on and left some tire tracks on the inside of the door. The driver was not apologetic. In fact, he swore up and down that it was my fault. I suggested he needed to get his head examined and that I was pretty sure you're supposed to look before opening your door. Well, he wasn't taking any lip from a 17 year old and continued to harangue me as I rode off. I imagine I threw in a few colourful words as I rode off. As disturbing as the incident was it taught me a valuable lesson. That lesson has stayed with me and I've never been in a dooring incident since.

I learned then to never trust that a car door won't open. I always scan inside cars as I'm coming along and if someone is in the car I'm expecting a door to open. I don't ride so close to stopped or parked cars either. It's not for everybody, I know, but I take my share of the road and that means moving out from the danger zone and into the other lane if required. You might get honked at (though I don't recall this happening often), but it's your right.

Having said that, I'm not placing blame on the victim. She was in her rights to be riding where she was. A stupid, momentary lapse in judgement (and a Highway Traffic Act infraction) by the car driver and her life was lost. As soon as the details of this accident became known I heard so many comments about what can be done to stop it from happening again. Some were very anti-bike (suggestion: no bikes downtown!) or that the cyclist should have ridden in the segregated lane three blocks further south. At the end of all the discussions and ideas I'm left with only a few thoughts about how to avoid such accidents.

The first thing I would suggest is that we continue to encourage the use of bikes for everyday transportation. I think we had a few decades go by where bikes were mostly used by road racers and mountain bikers. I remember trading in my road bike for a mountain bike and all that really did was lead me to ride less. I know many others who did the same. The result, I believe, was fewer bikes on the road and less awareness of the ones that remained. Now, however, many people are dusting off old vintage bikes and putting away or trading in their mountain bikes. In Ottawa over the last three years we've seen a noticeable increase in the use of upright or so-called city bikes. People are using the bike again for transportation and not just recreation. This needs to continue. The more cyclists become part of the transportation scene the more car drivers will be alert to them.

A second thought, and it amazes me this isn't being done already, is to include dealing with cyclists in the driver training of Canadians.
It's not done in Ontario and it should be.

Lastly, education and awareness for both drivers and cyclists is important but we also need physical separation of cyclists and cars. We need more than one segregated bike lane in this city. Painted lanes on roads are fine to some extent, but physical segregation is very successful in other cities in the world and we need more of it - now.

The Ottawa Citizen has some information on the accident and a link to a memorial ride for Danielle Naçu. You can find that information at the following link:

http://cycle.ottawacitizen.com/

Look both ways before you cross the street!

One of the first rules you learn as a child is how to safely cross a street. Look both ways! How many times do we hear this as children? And yet, as adults, we often forget to do this. Last week I spoke to a cyclist who had been involved in a collision with a salad toting pedestrian (that red line in the photo is the salad trail). According to the cyclist and another passerby, the pedestrian just entered the bike lane without looking. I hope that had they made it safely through the bike lane that they may have looked both ways before crossing the avenue. Perhaps not though. The cyclist involved in this collision said he had a number of close calls with other pedestrians. It seems they are ignoring this simple rule that they learned as children. For myself, if I am not making eye contact with a pedestrian near the bike lane I am going to assume they are not going to look. A good place for the bell as well. The Laurier segregated bike lanes are only a month old. The police and paramedics were called to this scene but it seemed precautionary rather than necessary. According to the City of Ottawa there have been no major incidents along the SBL. Let's hope it stays that way.



Looking east down the Laurier segregated bike lane.

Laurier Avenue segregated bike lanes officially open

Today the Laurier Avenue segregated bike lanes officially opened. A large and diverse group of cyclists gathered as well as a small group of protesters. After a series of small speeches it was time to try out the lanes. The initial ride was lead by Mayor Jim Watson. This project has been very controversial in Ottawa, a city that always resists change. Now that the lanes are here for the next two years perhaps we can put all the acrimony behind and just see how things work. Personally, I suspect the Laurier SBLs will be a big success and the first of many that we will see.



Alex deVries, vice-president of Citizen's for Safe Cycling (SFSC), discusses the Laurier SBL with Mayor Jim Watson. I overheard the mayor say how important it is to write to your local papers. Very true! Don't let the complainers make the most noise.



I did say a diverse group. Charles Akben-Marchand, president of the Centretown Citizen Community Association had a rather interesting swing bike. He's also part of the team that runs the very successful bike parking at Bluesfest.



One of the many volunteers doing some bike lane outreach.



A pair of Dutch cyclists happy to have a segregated bike lane.

The cycling vote

Cycling is a hot topic in Ottawa at the moment.  Danish urban architect Jan Gehl held a talk at the Museum of Nature a few weeks ago and it attracted a standing room only crowd of urban cycling enthusiasts. His ideas on making cities cycling friendly should have been mandatory listening for our local municipal candidates. So where do all the mayoral and council candidates stand on the issue of cycling and cycling infrastructure?  Well, the Citizens For Safe Cycling put the question to them and the response and non-responses can be found here.

It is not hard to discern who will take cycling seriously when you read their comments.