I have decided to stop maintaining this News Blog because it has become redundant as a result of the recent opening of the Ottawa Citizen’s blog (Citizencycle). This became obvious when I was travelling during my vacation this summer. No internet access, slow internet access, and the difference in time zones made it difficult to post material on my news blog in a timely manner. When I did get a chance to update the blog, I noticed that much of what I was going to post was already on the Ottawa Citizen Blog. Hence, my postings were going to be old news.

The Citizencycle website and blog have gotten off to a good start, and I hope the Ottawa Citizen continues to support what they started. Despite the good job they are doing, the Ottawa Citizen site cannot be relied on for all news and information about cycling. For example, they may be reluctant to point out interesting material about cycling that may appear on the Ottawa Sun website (especially the excellent blog that is being maintained by Kris Westwood). As a result, I have included links to several news sources and blogs about local cycling on the main page of the GoBiking.ca website.

I have also decided to resurrect the old “Discussion Forum” that used to appear on the Gobiking website. Although it was never well used, it may be of service to people who wish to post announcements and other messages. I will also post material on it from time to time.

Note that there is no need to register to post material on this Discussion Forum. However, this could change if the forum starts picking up too much spam or inappropriate material.

Click here to return to the main page of the GoBiking.ca website.

Click here for the GoBiking News & Discussion Forum.

I had heard somewhere that cancer patients who cycle regularly do better than those who don't. I can't remember exactly where I picked up this information, but a report on the BBC seems to confirm it. Research now shows that cancer patients who exercise regularly have a better chance to recover and live longer. It seems that being advised to rest and take it easy after cancer treatment is an outdated view.

Click here for the BBC report.

Los Angeles City Council passed an ordinance yesterday designed to protect cyclists from being harassed by motorists. The ordinance makes it an infarction to verbally or physically threaten cyclists. The ordinance is being described as a "pioneering new law", and the "toughest of its kind" in the United States.

This is quite different from the situation locally. Here in Ottawa, if a motorist harasses a cyclist, hits the cyclist with his car, and then physically attacks the cyclist, there is a very good chance that the police will treat the cyclist as the source of the problem.

Click here for the story in the LA Times.

Click here for an example of what sometimes happens in Ottawa.

Click for anther example in Ottawa.

If you have never taken a vacation on your bike, this may be the year to start. It's called bicycle touring, and it can be one of the most enjoyable and rewarding aspects of cycling. You depart from your front doorstep and simply head out for a few days.

A lot of people may think bicycle touring is only for hard core cyclists. In reality, anyone who is capable of riding 40 to 50 kilometres a day is a candidate for taking a vacation on their bike. In Ottawa, we are blessed with a number of nearby destinations for people who would like to try a short bicycle trip for the first time. One of these is Carleton place. It is possible to cycle all the way there on paths and trails, and the entire ride takes place over flat terrain. Carleton Place has an interesting downtown area, an old inn, several B&Bs, and a good assortment of restaurants.

There are also services that make it easy for people to plan extensive trips on their bicycle. One of the best examples is VIA’s “bike” trains. On these trains it is possible to check your bike without any special preparation. When you arrive at your destination, your bike rolls off the train and is ready for use. Another service is Ontario’s recently inaugurated "Welcome Cyclists" network which identifies bicycle friendly hotels, B&Bs, restaurants, etc. This service has been around for a number of years in Quebec under the name "Bienvenue cyclistes".

When it comes to planning bicycle trips, don’t forget about Quebec's renowned "Route Verte" network that allows cyclists to ride 4000 kilometres on bike paths, bicycle lanes, paved shoulders, or quiet country roads. In Ontario, cyclists will find much the same thing with the 900 kilometre "Waterfront Trail" which runs from the Quebec/Ontario border to the Niagara Peninsula.

So what are you waiting for?

Click here for more detail about bicycle touring.

Click here for more information about cycling to Carleton Place.

Click here for more about VIA’s "bike trains".

Click here for more information about Ontario's "Welcome Cyclists" network.

Click here for more information about Quebec's "Bienvenue cyclistes" program.

Click here for more information about Ontario’s "Waterfront Trail".

Click here for more information about Quebec’s "Route Verte".

If you are thinking of going out for a ride on Sunday Bikeday, why not take a detour through the downtown area to check out the new segregated bike lane on Laurier Avenue? The official opening ceremony will be taking place this Sunday (July 10) at 10 am in front of the Main Public Library on Laurier Avenue (at the corner of Metcalfe Street). The people behind the bike lane project are hoping to get thousands of cyclists to come out for this event.

Although the opening ceremony will take place on Sunday, the Laurier bike lane will first be used during a weekday rush-hour on Monday morning, July 11.

It has to be emphasized that the segregated bike lane on Laurier Avenue is a two-year pilot project. At the end of this period, it will be evaluated for its impact on the downtown area and to see how well it has been used by cyclists. If successful, it could be used as a model for the creation of additional segregated bike lanes in Ottawa’s downtown core. If you believe that the project is a valuable addition to the city’s bicycle infrastructure, show your support for the bike lane by using it and by coming out for the opening ceremony.

Click here for a City of Ottawa video about the bike lane.

Click here for the bike lane signs and symbols.

"Welcome Cyclists" is a network of hotels, B&Bs, restaurants, and other establishments which cater to people travelling on their bicycles in Ontario. To becomes part of the network, businesses have to guarantee to provide a certain level of services for cyclists (e.g. hotels or B&Bs have to provide a covered and secure bike storage area).

“Welcome Cyclists” only recently started to operate as a province-wide network. There is no charge for businesses to join the network, or for cyclists to use the service to identify bicycle friendly hotels, B&Bs, restaurants, or other establishments. It appears to be modelled after Quebec’s "Bienvenue cyclistes" program, which has been around for a number of years and proven to be very popular with people travelling on their bicycles.

Click here for more information about Ontario's "Welcome Cyclists" network.

Click here for more information about Quebec's "Bienvenue cyclistes" program.

With its official opening only a few weeks away, many people are extolling all the virtues of the Laurier segregated bike lane. Here’s one they may have missed. A study at the University of Massachusetts has discovered that proportionally, bike lane projects create more jobs than road construction.

The study found that bicycle projects created 11.4 jobs while road-only projects created 7.8 jobs for every $1 million spent. The main reason for this is that bike lane projects tend to be more labour intensive, with a larger proportion of money being spent on construction workers, engineers, and planners. By comparison, spending on road-only projects tends to go more for materials such as asphalt and cement.

The author of the study, Heidi Gerrett-Peltier, had originally come to this conclusion by examining the cost associated with construction of bike lanes and paths in Baltimore. Since then, she has expanded the study to include 58 projects in 11 different cities. The results remain the same.

Click here for a report on the study.

Businesses in Marshfield, Wisconsin, have established a program to encourage people to use their bike more by offering incentives such as discounts at participating stores. In order to be eligible to benefit from the program, cyclists have to get a special sticker which they can affix to their bicycle helmets.

"This is a fun way to get people thinking about riding their bikes," according to one business owner.

This is in stark contrast to the efforts that many Ottawa businesses have devoted trying to keep segregated bike lanes off numerous downtown streets. Now that the Laurier segregated bike lane will be opening in a few weeks, it may be time for them to finally put aside their old mindsets and start thinking about the Laurier bike lane as a new business opportunity. For example, they could target cyclists as potential customers with events and sales during the opening week of the new bike lane. Some businesses may want to attract cyclists by ensuring there is a safe and convenient place to park and lock bicycles in front of their establishments.

Click here for a news story about what businesses in Marshfield are doing to promote cycling.

Ottawa has been given a "Silver Designation" for being a bicycle friendly community by the League of American Bicyclists, it was recently announced at the Ontario Bike Summit.

On the surface, a "Silver Designation" may sound pretty good for Ottawa. However, in the larger scheme of things, it demonstrates that Ottawa has fallen behind many other cities in terms of being a bicycle friendly community.

The Washington-based League of American Bicyclists has been rating US communities for bicycle friendliness for the better part of a decade. It now has a list of approximately 80 cities and towns which is divided into four categories: platinum - gold - silver - bronze. (Ontario cities became eligible to be rated under the system last year through an arrangement with the Share the Road Cycling Coalition.)

When looking at the list, we see that there are two categories ahead of the “Silver Designation”, and that cities such as Portland, Minneapolis, San Francisco, and Seattle are all rated as being more bicycle friendly than Ottawa. We also see that Ottawa shares its category with cities such as Denver, Chicago, Boston, and New York.

To put all this in context, it be should remembered that 10 or 15 years ago, Ottawa would have probably rated as being the most bicycle friendly city in all of North America. Relative to everyone else, it might have received a "Platinum Designation". Back in those days, cities like Denver, Chicago, Boston, and New York were considered hostile to cycling, and it would have been heresy to even compare them to Ottawa. The bottom line is that in the past decade, many cities have caught up or passed Ottawa.

Fortunately, it’s not all bad news. At least Ottawa has its "Silver Designation". More importantly, the mayors of Ottawa and Gatineau, and the CEO of the NCC, recognize that the region can no longer live off its old reputation as being bicycle friendly, and they are prepared to take action (however haltingly) to promote cycling.

Click here for the League of American Bicyclists' list of bicycle friendly communities.

Click here for story in the Ottawa Citizen about Ottawa's "Silver Designation".

The 2011 Tour de France starts next Saturday, but it seems that I won't be getting a chance to watch much of it on television. I suspect there may be quite a few other people in my situation.

Last February, TSN announced with great fanfare that it had acquired multi-year English-language broadcast rights in Canada for the Tour de France. At first I thought this was a step in the right direction because OLN had been slacking in its coverage of this race (it was no longer carrying the enhanced presentation of the race in the evening). However, it turns out that TSN has relegated its television coverage of Tour de France to an obscure corner of the cable channel universe called TSN2.

My current cable channel package includes OLN and TSN, but not TSN2. Over the pass two decades there has been a trend in the cable industry where content has been slowly migrating to more expensive cable packages. For years I was getting televised coverage of the Tour de France, now I will have to pay more if I to want watch the same thing. I also wonder why TSN couldn't put live coverage of the cycling's most important race on its main channel. The live feed for Tour de France comes in during the morning hours, hardly prime time.

What's frustrating with all of this is that access to televison coverage of the Tour de France is being reduced at a time when cycling is more popular than ever, there are more Canadians involved in the highest levels of the sport, and there is a good possibility that a Canadian (Ryder Hesjedal) could win a stage or even wear the coveted Yellow Jersey in the Tour de France.

The long awaited segregated bike lane on Laurier Avenue will be opening July 10th. The official opening ceremony will be taking place at 10 am in front of the Main Public Library on Laurier Avenue (at the corner of Metcalfe Street). Colin Simpson, Segregated Bike Lane Project Manager for the City of Ottawa, says they are hoping to get thousands of cyclists to come out for this event.

In addition to the official opening, there are plans to have 50 volunteers inform cyclists, pedestrians and motorists on how to use the segregated bike lane during the first two days of operation. They will be stationed at the 8 major intersections along Laurier Avenue during peak periods in the morning, lunch hour, and evening rush hour. .

It should be noted that the July 10 opening is quite a bit earlier than what had been expected. It was originally suggested that Ontario's first segregated (separated) bike lane would only be ready for use towards the end of the summer or later in the fall.

It should be remembered that the segregated bike lane on Laurier Avenue is a two-year pilot project. At the end of this period, it will be evaluated for its impact on the downtown area and to see how well it has been used by cyclists. If successful, it could be used as a model for the creation of additional segregated bike lanes in Ottawa’s downtown core. So don’t be shy, get on your bike, head downtown, and check out the new bike lane on July 10.

Mountain Equipment Co-op will be holding its annual Bikefest this Sunday at Brittania Park from 9:00 am to 2 pm. It's a free event featuring clinics and seminars, the opportunity to learn how to repair your bike, free bike tune-ups, safety and helmet safety checks, groups rides, live entertainment, and a kid’s corner (crafts, cycling safety, etc). There will also be a bike swap for people wanting to buy or sell used equipment. In addition there will be food vendors onsite as well as businesses selling bicycle related merchandise.

Click here for more information about the MEC Bikefest.

According to CFRA Radio a report to the city's Transportation Committee is recommending that Ottawa hire a staff member to help make its roads safer for cyclists. This position would be part of the "Cycling Safety Improvement Program" which would be supported by a $200,000 a year budget. The objective would be to establish a process and capacity for acting on improving cycling safety in Ottawa.

Click here for the report on the CFRA website.

Yesterday, Mayor Jim Watson and several city Councillors participated in a ground breaking ceremony for the construction of a new pedestrian and cycling bridge over the Airport Parkway.

This bridge will provide people in the Hunt Club Community area a safe and convenient way to cross the busy Airport Parkway. It is expected that the bridge will be operational in Fall 2011 and fully completed in Spring 2012. City Council approved the $5 million for the construction of the cable-stayed bridge over the Airport Parkway in 2010.

Click here for the News Release from the City of Ottawa.

Its looks like the "war on the bike" in Toronto may have begun. A recent meeting of the city’s Public Works Committee voted to get rid of established bicycle lanes on Jarvis Street, Pharmacy Avenue, and Birchmount Road. Ironically, these last minute decisions came at a meeting where the committee recommended going ahead with a series of separated (segregated) bike lanes in downtown Toronto.

The "war on the bike" is not altogether unexpected ever since Rob Ford was elected Mayor of Toronto last fall. His first major declaration after taking office was that "the war on the car is over".

Rob Ford's position on cycling is well known. During the 2007 Toronto city budget debate, he said, "Roads are built for buses, cars, and trucks. Not for people on bikes. My heart bleeds when someone gets killed, but it's their own fault at the end of the day." At a city council meeting in 2009, Ford also said that cyclists are "a pain in the ass" for motorists. People also noted that as a special guest at Ford’s inauguration, Don Cherry called cyclists "pinkos".

For a while, it looked like Mayor Ford was starting to back down on some of his anti-bike positions. However, he told reporters that the Jarvis Street bike lanes had to go only hours before the committee made its decision on the matter.

Click here for the story in the Globe and Mail.

Here's a great idea for cyclist who would like to try something a little different - a self guided bicycle tour where you can visit up to a dozen farms and food producers to see their operations, taste some samples, and purchase locally produced food. The event is called the "Slow Food Farm Gate Tour" and is being put together as part of Mississippi Mills Bicycle Month.

This tour will be taking place this Saturday (1 to 4 pm, June 25, 2011), and will be centered around Almonte, an attractive town located just outside of the Ottawa’s western boundary. Routes for the tour will be marked with coloured arrows, and organizers have mapped out three suggested loops ranging in length from 15 to 30 kilometres. There will also be a short 3 km route for children. The tour is supported by a website which features a printable map and route descriptions.

Click here for the "Slow Food Farm Gate Tour" website.

Click here for the printable map and route & farm descriptions.

On Friday the NCC announced the creation of a "Park and Cycle" project for commuters in the Ottawa-Gatineau region. The idea is that people would drive part way to work, park their cars, and cycle the remaining distance. Initially, the project will operate with 10 parking lots with a total of 360 spaces. (see the link below for a map with the parking lots).

This sounds like a great idea for people living in Ottawa and Gatineau’s far-flung suburbs. It means that commuters who live in the region’s outer edges will now be able to cycle to work without having the pedal long distances that may be impractical for many individuals. If the idea catches on, it could eventually reduce the number of cars in the downtown core. It would also help commuters avoid heavy traffic and save money that would otherwise be spent on gas and parking fees. On top of all this, it would provide them with a daily dose of physical activity.

The problem with the project is that it only has a total 360 parking spaces, and some of the parking lots are close enough to downtown that it would be necessary to drive through a lot of heavy traffic just to get to them. However, the "Park and Cycle" scheme is currently a pilot project. If it is successful, presumably it will be expanded with additional parking lots and spaces.

Click here for a map with the location of the 10 parking lots.

Click here for the NCC news release about the project.

Anyone who does a fair amount of cycling should have a good idea of how to maintain their bike and make some basic repairs. If your knowledge is lacking in this area, you'll be happy to know that euro-sports bike shop will be offering bicycle maintenance clinics throughout the summer (on June 25, July 16, July 25 and August 13).

The clinics will cover the basics, including fixing a broken chain, adjusting the shifting and brakes, and changing a flat. Each clinic will last for 2 hours, have room for 20 people, and cost $20 per person. People attending the clinics will get to keep the tire levers and a spare tube. The rest of the money raised through the clinics will go to an Ironman event in support of Multiple Sclerosis Research.

Click here for details on the euro-sports website.

So many people are now cycling in Montreal that some of its main bicycle lanes and paths are starting to get congested, according to experts. They say it is time for Montreal to expand its bicycle lanes and paths and to establish "bike boulevards" (where an entire street is used primarily for cyclists). Maybe there's also a message in this for the NCC and the cities of Ottawa and Gatineau, as in "If you build it, they will come".

Click here for a report about the situation in the Montreal Gazette.

More silliness from the police in New York City. This time they stopped a women for cycling in a skirt. The police officer was actually going to give her a ticket but backed down when the woman explained she was Dutch and didn't know about any dress code for cycling in New York.

Click here for the story in the Globe and Mail.

Here's a video that is showing up on lots of cycling blogs and even some mainstream media outlets. It's about a cyclist (& filmmaker) who gets a $50 ticket for not riding in a bike lane in New York City. As result, he makes a very funny video about the issue. In the end, it's not even clear if it is an infraction to not ride in bicycle lane in New York.

Click here for the YouTube video about riding in bike lanes in New York.

It seems that the mainstream clothing industry is starting to respond to the needs of bicycle commuters. The idea is to come up with regular-everyday clothes that are suitable for cycling. Such clothing tend to be a little more stretchy and is made of fabrics that help move perspiration away from the body. The best example of this is Levi's new line of jeans and jackets designed specifically for bicycle commuters.

Click here a Press Release about Levi's new line of clothes for cycling.

Click here for an article in the LA Times about clothing options for cyclists.

These "bike trains" have nothing to do with railroads and locomotives. Rather, they are scheduled group rides intended to make it easier for adults to commute to work or for kids to bike to school.

The whole idea behind these "bike trains" is safety in numbers. For example, in England, they organize twice daily “bike trains” for bicycle commuters who have to ride along a very busy stretch of highway between Brighton and Sussex University. The group takes up an entire lane on the highway and the last bike carries a large sign which indicates the existence of the "bike train". This bike-train operation has scheduled departure times and is supported by its own website.

In the States, some schools have started organizing “bike trains” as a way to allow children to safely bicycle to school. Under adult supervision, the group will ride around a neighbourhood picking up kids who want to bicycle to school. It’s a great way for kids to get to school on their own and it encourages them to be more physically active.

Click here for a news report about the "bike train" for commuters in England.

Click here for the "bike train" website in England.

Click here for more about using "bike trains" to get kids to school in the US.

It looks like the theme of the 2011 Ontario Bike Summit has changed since I first posted about the event last April. The theme will now be "Building Bicycle Friendly Communities". It had originally been reported that the theme was going to be about reducing childhood obesity through cycling programs and safer routes for biking to school.

This year’s Ontario Bike Summit will be held in Ottawa at the Canadian Museum of Nature on June 27 & 28, 2011. This annual conference is organized by the Share the Road Cycling Coalition, and it brings together experts and policy makers to discuss ways of promoting cycling and improving safety. This will be the third such conference. Previous summits were held in Burlington and Waterloo.

Apparently, National Capital Commission CEO Marie Lemay was instrumental in getting the organizers to hold the Summit in Ottawa.

It should be noted that these summits seem to be aimed more at organizations than individual cyclists. For example, the cost of attending the 2 day event for Corporations, Governments, Institutions is $325/$375 (early/late registration). Non-profit organizations will get a bit of a break. The cost for them will be $220/$275.

Click here for more information about the 2011 Ontario Bike Summit.

Here's an interesting idea - a bike helmet with a built-in 360-degree light. This particular helmet looks a bit odd, but the idea seems to be a good one.

Click here for more about the this helmet.