Create Real Plans, Spend Real Money For Bikes
I have no problem with encouraging cycling as a form of moving about the city. However, I prefer grade separated cycling lanes for the safety of all concerned.
I prefer actual plans, ones that involves dollars and time lines to deliver physical results in contrast to the constant rhetoric about the virtues and the poor behaviour of various ‘classes’. Suffice it to say that to date we have more of the latter than the former, most notably from those who are tasked with producing actual results.
We tend to refer European cities in comparison. The older, larger cities in Europe evolved over the centuries, from a collection of villages that physically merged into each other in an unplanned manner. Urban settings with vastly different physical structures, such as narrow passageways designed to accommodate a horse-drawn wagon rather than motor vehicles with residences and businesses that were long built before the first motor vehicle was steered down a cobblestone lane. For those cities on waterways, a feature that drew populations in the first place, they have many older, small bridges that were not designed to bear the weight of a motor vehicle. In short, their existing infrastructure was and remains more adapted to cyclists than motor vehicles. And yes, I have over simplified the description.
In contrast Ottawa is a newer city, not yet qualifying as multiple centuries old. Growth has been for the most part planned. Not necessarily well planned, but planned nevertheless. Ottawa is smaller in size than many of the European cities that get cited for their cycling culture. It is a city with much wider passageways, designed around the motor vehicle. That has led to the motor vehicle being the dominant form of moving about the city. Whether you, I or selected councillors like it is moot.
Comparing the size of the cycling community (and underlying culture) that evolved over the decades in Copenhagen or Amsterdam to the several orders of magnitude smaller cycling community in Ottawa is not comparing apples to oranges. It is comparing apples to stones.
Those who constantly muse along the lines of “wouldn’t it be wonderful if” or “we must change’ to imitate the positive attributes of a distant culture” are preaching primarily to their own choir. Consideration should be given to changing the message to capture the attention of the non-believer.
Ron Benn, a finance executive, has been a member of the Centrepointe Community Association for the better part of three decades.
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Well done, Ron. As a project management professional (PMP), I realized long ago that in order for a project to have any chance of succeeding, 80 to 85% of the effort has to go into planning and then reviewing the plan. In many cases Ottawa takes of a slapdash approach to project management and, well, we’ve all seen the results. I think the biggest threat to cycling in Ottawa is the bicycle lobby. I met with one of these people one time and they made their pitch to me. It was interesting but I felt it required more thinking and explained my concerns. The person never met with me again. And herein lies the root cause of the bicycling conundrum, effective communication is composed of two activities, speaking and listening. The addition of a mediator into the process would probably ensure that progress was being made. Otherwise, this will be an ongoing topic in The Bulldog for many years to come.
Good post. I don’t agree with the theory that every road should have segregated bike lanes, but there should be some roads parallel to main thoroughfares that have these segregated bike lanes. For example bikes should be forbidden on Bank Street for safety reasons as there are separated bike lanes on O’Connor and along the Canada
Maybe I’m too picky, but I wonder about Ron’s sentence “Ottawa is smaller in size than many of the European cities that get cited for their cycling culture.”
Ottawa is vast. Perhaps the comparison was not size but population. If so, Google tells me that Copenhagen’s population is 1.39 million – almost exactly the population of Ottawa/Gatineau.
Brocklebank:
So what does that prove? How does your information push the issue forward?
cheers
kgray
Brocklebank, a quick Google search presented three populations for greater/metropolitan Copenhagen: 1.4MM, 2.0MM and 2.4MM. Which is correct? Or all three correct, depending on where the demographer drew the outer boundary?
I can’t comment on the Nordic countries but, in Holland, at every train station, there are racks with hundreds of bikes in them. People cycle to the train and then get to work, school, shopping and so on with a combination of the train, trams and buses. I’m not sure how common it is but I know one person who keeps a bike at each end of his train journey so he can go door-to-door.
Students can often stay at home while attending college or university which reduces their costs and relieves pressure on housing in the city.
This requires, of course, a fast, efficient and reliable train service at a reasonable price that takes you from point B to point C plus accommodations for the bikes, none of which we have here. It’s also the result of careful planning which, again, we don’t have here.