Hundreds of cyclists fill Queen Street to mourn Danielle Naçu.
The City of Ottawa is moving ahead with plans for more bike lanes and other initiatives to improve safety for cyclists, while, at the same time, encouraging residents not to put their bikes away this winter.
Cycling safety is an ongoing concern at city hall. Since last year, several city streets have been marked with painted chevrons (arrows) to improve safety for cyclists.
Chevrons and symbols of bikes alert drivers that cyclists share the road. The next chevrons will be constructed on Wellington Street early next year.
“We plan to include bike lanes in many of the main roads in the city in the future, but on streets where a bike lane isn’t a possibility, chevrons works as a good reminder to drivers to be aware of the cyclists,” says transportation planner Zlatko Krstulich.
“The chevrons are being constructed to encourage cyclists to move away from the parked car zone.”
Public interest in cycling safety has increased since the death of cyclist Danielle Naçu earlier this month and the trial of Sommit Luangpakham.
Luangpakham was found guilty on Oct. 20 of dangerous driving and failing to stop at an accident, after a 2009 crash in Kanata that severely injured five cyclists.
In the hours and days after Naçu’s accident, social forums such as Twitter, Facebook and discussion threads online were full of comments from citizens demanding more awareness of cyclists’ concerns and more bike lanes – a demand shared by the Citizens for Safe Cycling Coalition.
“Dedicated cycling facilities can greatly encourage new people to pick up cycling, and in most cases they improve the safety for cyclists,” says vice-president Alex deVries.
“Obviously, we would like to see a faster growth of bike lanes. The city isn’t funding it to the extent it should be, but we do see various bits of growth.”
Luis Miranda-Moreno, a professor of civil engineering at McGill University, monitored the traffic flow before and after the construction of the new bike lane on Laurier Avenue last summer and says he doesn’t doubt that bike lanes improve the safety for cyclists.
“Our studies show that there has been an increase in volume of about 50 per cent after the bike lane was completed.
Cycle tracks not only help attract cyclists, but also cyclists are safer. They are basically biking in a safer way. We need more bike lanes in Ottawa,” Miranda-Moreno says.
Construction began this week on a new bike lane on Wellington Street, west of the Parliament buildings.
In the meantime, organizations concerned with cycling safety are looking toward the city’s plans for winter cycling this year, an activity officials made a point of heavily promoting last winter.
Hans Moor, president of the advocacy group, Citizens for Safe Cycling, says winter cycling isn’t as dangerous as people think, but it’s not safe either.
“It’s safe when conditions are right, but they’re not right all the time,” he says.
While the city’s policy is to encourage cycling year round, it is not specifically promoting cycling as a winter activity, he says. It is primarily trying to get people who are already cycling in other seasons to continue through the winter, he says.
“People aren’t coming out in the winter who aren’t cycling already. The city isn’t trying to get people to go out in snowstorms or freezing rain,” he says.
Cold temperatures and weather conditions deter winter cyclists more than safety concerns, says Michael Powell, roads and cycling advisory committee chairman.
“It can be done with appropriate tires, warm clothing and good lighting. Roads are salted and cleared well downtown, ultimately, it’s not so different from other parts of the year,” he says.
Weather conditions such as slush, black ice, strong winds and heavy snow are the most dangerous, Moor adds.
The city maintains certain multi-use pathways under its winter maintenance policy, said Krstulich in an email. The new segregated bike lanes on Laurier Avenue will be also maintained all winter, but Citizens for Safe Cycling is lobbying the city to maintain more winter routes, Moor says..
Although this maintenance is a step in the right direction, says Powell, it’s hard to get there if the routes leading to them are not maintained.
His committee is working on a white network, a system of maintained bike paths around the city, but it won’t be ready for this year.
After a snow storm, the city should post online when a road with cycling infrastructure is clear, says Powell. Having this information allows people to make informed decisions about the conditions they are cycling in, he adds.
The city plans to increase cycling safety messaging and provide opportunities for cycling safety training, Krstulich says.
People who don’t feel confident cycling in the winter should take courses such as the CAN-BIKE program, Moor says.