Bikes everywhere or are my eyes deceiving me?

Recently there's been some ratcheting up of the complaints about the Laurier Avenue Segregated Bike Lanes (LSBL) in the local media. A recently formed coalition of citizens opposing the lanes claim that the city is fiddling with the number of users for the bike lanes and that these numbers are exaggerated. Today in the Ottawa Citizen one letter writer, incredibly, stated that only about 25 people use the lanes per day. I probably shouldn't have mentioned this comment because it's beyond ludicrous but this is the sort of thing being tossed around by bike lane opponents. Interestingly, a recent comment to this blog complained about having to deal with the "thousands of cyclists". Too many, too little...I guess they can't decide. On my way down Laurier West today I did a rack by rack count from Kent Street to Elgin Street. Every single rack, without exception, had a bike attached and most had two or more. In total, I counted 220 bikes. This does not include any bikes on any of the north or south running streets that were visible to me. Now imagine if all these cyclists were to drive instead! Where would they find the parking?

The Laurier SBL is clear but how do you get to it?

I was surprised by the number of cyclists I saw today in the snow and messy conditions. The Laurier Avenue segregated bike lanes SBL) were in good shape today as the city had their little machines keeping them clear and salted during the day. However, it was very annoying (to say the least) to see the shape of both the Lyon and Bay Street bike lanes. Just like last year they were completely covered in snow and unusable as bike lanes. The multi-use pathway along the canal was snow-covered as well. Bike lanes are the responsibility of the city and the multi-use pathways (MUP) are maintained by the National Capital Commission. Both bodies seem interested in encouraging cycling in Ottawa. The city is making an effort to keep the Laurier SBL clear, but if you can't get to it on a reasonably well-maintained route is the effort worth it in the end? The lanes on Lyon and Bay, and the MUP, are all well-used bike pathways and it would have been nice to see them maintained as part of a network along with the Laurier SBL.




The Laurier SBL looking east from Bay Street. Well salted and plowed but can you get to it?



Lyon Street bike lane...yes, it's there under the snow and slush.



Bay Street bike lane...what is the sign pointing at? A bike lane?



The snow-covered MUP along the Queen Elizabeth Driveway and a dedicated cyclist.

More new bike lanes

It's enough to make a CFRA show host have a stroke or cause a state of apoplexy in an Ottawa Sun reader, but here we go again: another segregated bike lane! This one is just a shorty, but a goody. Running along the north side of Wellington (starting at Bay Street) to the raised bike lane along the Portage Bridge it will be easy to make the connection here from the Laurier SBL coming up Bay Street. Another piece of the puzzle comes together.

Construction began today on the Wellington Street segregated bike lane.

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.

Laurier Avenue segregated bike lane week #1

It’s been a week since the Laurier Avenue segregated (or dedicated) bike lanes opened and despite the warnings of critics, cars and cyclists are not colliding at record levels and a general state of havoc has not happened yet. One of the concerns I heard expressed was that parking would become very difficult. Well, the photo below was taken on Thursday at 11:30 A.M. which is a fairly busy time downtown. As you can see though, there are quite a few parking spots available here. This is on Gloucester between Metcalfe and O’Connor. A parking crush? Hardly.



Parking problems?


Another concern was with delivery vehicles. I had not seen any vehicles parked in the bike lane until today (Saturday July 16). In pedestrian mode, we noticed a cyclist having a talk with the driver of this white van. The driver would not move. The cyclist then approached a passing police car. The officer appeared to exchange words with the van’s driver yet the van remained there as the police car disappeared. Obviously, enforcement of the law is going to be important for the bike lanes to function. I was very surprised that the officer allowed the driver of this van to finish off his business rather than instructing him to move out of the lane.





Annoyed cyclist and the van remains!


Lastly, the number of cyclists downtown continues to grow. Looking at the various bike racks around town, it's pretty easy to see.



Bike racks on O'Connor Street