Ottawa’s cycling transportation standards have a long way to go in comparison to other major Canadian cities, according to a new study.
The study, Cycle Cities, was conducted by researchers at the environmental group Pembina Institute and compared bike commuting in Canada’s five largest cities: Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary, Montreal and Ottawa. The results were released Nov. 26, and ranked Ottawa dead last.
Don Grant, executive director of the Ottawa Centre EcoDistrict, also questions the validity of the study due to the fact that researchers took the entire population of each city into consideration with the exception of Ottawa.
The study only looks at the area inside the Greenbelt, where the population is around 333,000, meaning about 61 per cent of Ottawa’s total population is unaccounted for.
But Bob Hicks, the touring events director at the Ottawa Bicycle Club, says he believes that the methodology of the study is flawed.
“In the case of Ottawa, only looking (inside the Greenbelt) eliminates an extraordinary amount of bike paths,” says Hicks. “In my mind it renders that study highly suspect.”
Grant believes that by disregarding these areas, the study overlooks too much cycling infrastructure.
“The NCC has almost 600 kilometres of trails in our region,” says Grant. “We are an integrated city and we have to think about the Quebec side, as well, not just the Ottawa side.”
Mitch Vandenborn, president of the Centretown Citizens Community Association, believes that the Pembina Institute was right to only look at the downtown core. He explains that most of the bike paths outside of the studied area are mostly multi-use trails, and that these trails primarily serve a recreational purpose rather than a commuting one.
“Some people think that (the multi-use trails) are adequate. They’re not,” says Vandenborn. “The goal for dedicating biking infrastructure is to build that minimum viable grid that gets people out of their cars and onto a bike and prioritize cycling as its own method of transportation as opposed to something that you do for recreation.”
In comparison to the other major Canadian cities, Ottawa’s bike paths scored poorly in the Pembina Institute study in every aspect other than rapid transit accessibility in proximity to bike paths. Ottawa tied with Vancouver on that front, with both cities scoring 100 per cent in having bicycle paths within 400 metres of a rapid transit station.
In terms of safety, Vancouver also had the best rating.
Ottawa ranked second best with three crashes per 100,000 trips.
Hicks, who describes himself as a highly competent cyclist with almost 50 years of bike racing experience, says that although some of the other cities included in the study have more paths, the feeling of safety on the roads is not there.
“I would feel much more comfortable cycling in Ottawa than Toronto,” says Hicks. “(Toronto’s) got way too much traffic, the city is in gridlock most of the time, so I would not want to be on one of those roads on a bike.”
The study indicates there are only five kilometres of dedicated bike paths in the downtown area.