Posted by Les Faber in Today is my son Jason’s birthday. He turns 20! To celebrate I decided to take a spin on my bike into Ottawa. I figured that road traffic on Saturday may be a bit less hectic then during the week. I was wrong.
We live in Stonebridge – a suburb of Barrhaven (south end of Ottawa).
This ride was real eye-opener for me. The first thing I noticed is that my subdivison is a “cycling island”. There is no consistent and safe way to get in and out of our community. This makes absolutely no sense to me at all. Our community is filled with active people who probably would really enjoy a weekend ride. Families with children are restricted to cycling within our community. Or, they can load up the car and drive to an appropriate area. Duh!
You will see from the route I took that I was forecd to take a less direct path in the interest of safety and my own sanity. This route is not recommended for the faint of heart. Secondary roads in Ottawa have no designated lane for cyclists. In other words, you are just another vehicle. It is not too bad on a Saturday as in general cars do not crowd you off the road. The same cannot be said for weekdays when motor vehicle drivers seem to be more tense and pushy. Today was a good day as I didn’t find myself searching for somewhere to ride because somebody in a car or truck felt I did not have the right to be on the road (cars are vehicles too).
I made some observations during my ride that are worth mentioning:
- The City of Ottawa’s efforts at making our roads bike-friendly are half-baked at best. Let me explain. There are numerous bike-only lanes on our roads. The problem is that they are inconsistently marked. The paint on the roads indicating same is faded to non-existent. Road-side signs are sometimes there and sometimes not. I cannot even count the times I have been on a road where the bike-only lane simply ends and a cyclist is left to his or her own devices. I cannot even imagine how young people who do not have driver training manage this.
- Many cyclists I observed do not appear to feel that they need to follow the rules of the road or wear a helmet. This comment is age insensitive. I saw so many cyclists riding on sidewalks – hard to count. Of course, this could be a result of what I mentioned previously about “cycling safely” in Ottawa.
- The trails managed by the NCC are great. I love them and recommend them highly. Problem is that they are not everywhere.
- I figured out how to recognize a NCC Bike path versus a City of Ottawa Bike Path. The NCC paths are well-maintained and marked appropriately. The City of Ottawa paths are not marked and maintained to a lesser degree (check out the City of Ottawa path along Greenbank – between Hunt Club & Fallowfiled. You’ll get my drift).
At the tail end of my trip I came down Woodroofe into Barrhaven. The road south of Fallowfield is under construction and has been since last year. The designated bike lane came to an abrupt end and I was forced to co-mingle with motor vehicle traffic. By the time I reached Strandheard, my blood pressure was way up. I had to actually detour around a section of Woodroofe as I found it simply to dangerous to navigate by bicycle. This tells me that the City of Ottawa does not take cyclists into consideration when conducting road construction. It looks like this construction will be finished soon. Let’s hope that City creates (at least) a cycling lane in both directions.
I’ll continue riding around Ottawa and environs. Stay tuned for more Blog posts!
