The founder of Copenhagen Cycle Chic speaking in Ottawa

Mikael Colville-Andersen, founder of the international cycle chic movement and author of the fabulous Copenhagen Cycle Chic blog is speaking tomorrow in Ottawa. Though often criticized as being about pretty girls in heels, cycle chic is really about getting more people cycling. By depicting cyclists going about their business in normal clothing...that is to say, not spandex bike shorts and clip-on shoes, cycle chic attempts to show that cycling is available to the masses. And it's succeeding!

http://www.cycling-vision.ca/events/index.html

An easy winter for cycling?

The winter of 2010–11 has certainly been a bike-friendly winter so far. I don’t recall a winter when I’ve seen so many cyclists. I counted over a dozen on my way home from work yesterday and I didn’t go home via the canal pathway where bikes are a common sight. I have noticed that most of the bikes I’m seeing are not as fine as the summer bikes. Perhaps, like me, people have stored their number one bike. I’ve put away my good bike and have been using my old mountain bike this winter. I find it great in the snow and it’s ideal for short trips. Some favour a thin tire in the winter and I would probably change to thin tires myself if I rode my bike in the sloppy slush of the roads. But I can get to most of my destinations on bike paths and I find the wide, knobbly tires great on packed down snow or even in several inches of snow…but  not slush!

Winter cycling?

Most people, including avid cyclists, seem to think cycling is impossible in Ottawa in the winter. I agree, but not because of the weather. Poor winter maintenance of what little cycling infrastructure we do have is the reason. Several years ago the NCC bike path along the canal was a treacherous place to be a pedestrian. As a long distance runner with little choice but to run in the winter, the canal pathway was usually a reasonably safe alternative to running on sidewalks, or worse, the road. However, it usually ended up as a single narrow goat path. The last few years have seen a huge improvement and the pathway is plowed fairly well and, indeed, cyclists have started using it frequently. So the real reason, aside from storms and ice, is the lack of maintenance on the cycle paths. As excited as I am to hear about the proposed (and promised by the new mayor) east/west route down Somerset Street it will be for nothing if it is not maintained in the winter. It needs to be completely segregated and plowed and not be at the bottom of the city's priority list...as even pedestrians are these days. 
So can we cycle in winter if we have the infrastructure and the maintenance? Well, interestingly, Finnish cycling advocate Timo Perälä will be in Ottawa on November 2nd to talk about cycling in the winter in Finland. If they can do it in Finland then surely we can here as well. The talk starts at 7:00 p.m. at the Tom Brown Arena. It is presented by the Ottawa chapter of Citizens for Safe Cycling.

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.

Bike lane violations

It seems both the City of Ottawa and the National Capital Commission are doing their homework with a goal to make Ottawa more bike friendly. An integrated bike lane plan is apparently in the works. However, it will only work if cars stay out of the bike lanes. There is an interesting website called My Bike Lane which shows car after car parked in the bike lanes here in Ottawa. In particular, the bike lane on the Laurier Bridge seems to attract alot of violators. Obviously, without education and ticketing campaigns, the use of bike lanes will still be problematic.

Trying to break the car habit

 I have wanted to break my dependency on cars for years. Rising gas prices and terrible oil slicks fouling the planet were reasons. But also the laziness of driving. I am ashamed to say that I would often make trips of less than one kilometre by car. Ok, when it is pouring or the weather is generally inclement then this may be understandable but it is not really something I want to see myself doing on a sunny summer day. So things had to change.

Part of the problem for me was my choice of bikes. I have had numerous racing bikes and then gravitated to the mountain bike, somehow thinking the mountain bike would be more suitable to city biking. I guess I envisioned myself hopping over curbs and down stairways.  Not really. What I mostly ended up doing was getting a sore back and a crick in my neck. Making matters worse, I would ride alongside my partner Marie, she riding tall on her classic upright bike, me appearing like some forlorn sidekick looking up at her. The inevitable sore back would lead to the obvious question: when are you going to get a real bike?

Now let me say that I have nothing against the spandexed, helmeted, team jersey wearing road bike crowd.  As a dedicated marathon runner, I too put on the coolmax and spandex from time to time. But for simple commuting and recreational cycling I think this trend is coming to an end.  You may have noticed the increasing number of people riding classic uprights or modern takes on the theme.  Some of them have new bikes and others have clearly dragged their old 70’s and 80’s bikes out of some storage room.  Many of them are squeeking down the bike paths on cycles that have not seen a tune-up in a long time.  But they are out there, in “regular” clothes getting around town without sore backs and cricks in their necks.  It was my turn.

It was not easy finding just the right bike in Ottawa. I searched and searched, expanded my search to Toronto, and then Canada, but nothing grabbed my fancy until I saw MY BIKE. The answer was the Swedish Skeppshult.  That is me astride my beautiful green Natur model.  What a wonderful bike it is!  Now I can look Marie in the eye as we cycle together.