Some bike enthusiasts believe Ottawa is doing a good job building up its biking infrastructure, while others say it’s not enough
With the biking community in Ottawa growing, bike lanes are increasing in the Ottawa area, but some are still demanding more.
Since 2013, the City of Ottawa’s Transportation Planning and Infrastructure Services teams have added 260 kilometres of cycling facilities, including 22 kilometres of physically separated bike lanes and 70 kilometres of off-road pathways.
However, many avid bikers in the Ottawa community still feel that Ottawa should be placing more bike lanes.
“We’ve seen an increase in biking commuters because there are nicer bikes out there,” Stanley Li said, a bike mechanic for Quick Cranks bike shop, “And they last longer, and also OC Transpo has just been a letdown.”
Due to the increase in commuters on bikes, the Ottawa downtown region has seen an increase in bike lanes. In 2008, the City Council approved the Ottawa Cycling Plan, whose goal was to triple the number of person-trips made by bicycle, make cycling safer, and link, connect, and expand already existing cycling facilities.
Donald Clysdale, a bike mechanic at Retro-Rides bike shop, says, “the bike industry had a big boom kind of as we were coming into the pandemic and then the pandemic itself really got people outside.
According to the City of Ottawa, compared to 2011, the share of transit trips in Ottawa has decreased, similar to post-pandemic transit trends across North America.
The share of active transportation trips (walking and cycling) has increased significantly, while driving has remained relatively stable.
However, director of Quick Cranks and cyclist Mustafa Isnail believes the city could be placing more bike lanes across Ottawa.
“More bike lanes would be better and especially during the wintertime the city could be plowing more frequently the bike lanes in the downtown core,” Isnail said.
Last October, Mayor Mark Sutcliffe said the city intends to keep investing in cycling infrastructure even as the provincial government brings in new rules to restrict bicycle lanes in what Ontario municipalities complain is a “significant overreach” of provincial power, according to the Ottawa Citizen.
For Clysdale, he believes the city is doing a good job at creating new infrastructure for bikers. “We have got a lot of new bike lanes, we’ve got two new bridges last year, and I think we are getting more this year,” Clysdale said.
The Ottawa Citizen states Mayor Sutcliffe said that motorists are complaining about the growing number of bike lanes in the downtown core and are getting frustrated over roads being closed or lanes being closed to support active transportation.
“I think it’s all about striking the right balance and serving the needs of everyone (so that) everybody can get to where they want to be by their method of choice,” Sutcliffe said.