By Don Grant, Ottawa Citizen, August 8, 2014
Riding my bike into work along our lovely Rideau Canal on a sunny August
morning, I was contemplating the point of that letter penned by the two European
tourists. As I recall, the letter suggested that Canada’s cities, including
Ottawa, were smog-ridden and car-focussed places that left little room for
cyclists and pedestrians. But riding my bike along a UNESCO world heritage
waterway – basked in sun and sheltered from time-to-time by the shade of
beautiful trees – the only thought that kept popping up was “Wow, what a perfect
place for a bike ride. ”Every day, thousands of people in this city ride their
bikes to work, to school, to go shopping, or just for fun. When we look at the
city-wide “modal split” – the fancy word for how we make our transportation
choices – cycling made up 2.4 per cent of trips in Ottawa in 2011. This doesn’t
seem like much but according to the Ottawa Cycling Plan this adds up to 43,600
trips per day, an increase of 41 per cent since 2005. The goal, recently
increased because of Ottawa’s improving cycling numbers, is to double the
percentage to five per cent city-wide and eight per cent of trips taken within
the Greenbelt by 2031. via
Don Grant: Ottawa is becoming a bike-friendly city | Ottawa Citizen.