Local cycling advocates are pushing for clearer, safer bike routes throughout Ottawa’s winter months and took their message and bicycles to downtown streets recently in the city’s first “winter bike parade.”
Almost 50 cyclists participated in the parade last week to give visibility to Ottawa’s winter cycling scene.
A lot of people believe it doesn’t make sense to support bike infrastructure in a winter city such as Ottawa, says Risa Sargent, a Citizens for Safe Cycling board member, who initiated the event.
"We wanted to show that with properly maintained infrastructure, people who are motivated to cycle all year long can do so," she added.
The parade highlighted concerns but also symbolized the gratitude of cyclists for recent upgrades to Ottawa’s cycling infrastructure.
“It’s a thank-you to the city and it’s a celebration that we’re here all year round,” she says.
The city’s commitment to clearing the snow from the segregated bike lanes on Laurier Avenue is a huge help for cyclists, says Sargent.
This year, the city plans to introduce sharrows, road markings of a bicycle with two chevrons to increase cyclists’ visibility, to motorists, on several of Ottawa’s busiest streets.
Lyon Street, Arlington Avenue, St. Patrick Street and Wellington Street will get these markings soon.
Also praising the city for ploughing Laurier Avenue’s bike lanes this winter is parade participant and CfSC member Richard Guy Briggs.
Briggs remembers years ago when the city ran a pilot project to keep Gladstone Avenue clear for winter cycling.
The project worked well but the city did not focus on keeping it the primary route, he says.
Still, sometimes it’s easier for cyclists to use the roads as many of the city’s bike lanes are unusable during the winter, Briggs says.
Cycling could be safer if more cycle routes were cleared in the winter, recommends Sargent.
Currently, snow is piled on a section of the Percy Street bike lane under the Queensway, blocking cyclists who use it as a connecting lane, she says.
Another concern for winter cyclists is being forced onto roads as the number of collisions between cyclists and motorists in Ottawa has increased in recent years, she added.
Local cyclists met at Laurier Avenue and Percy Street and rode to city hall.