5 Comments

I agree very, very strongly with all of this. I would bike far more in Ottawa if we had bike infrastructure along these lines. As it is, I try to bike somewhere but am so freaked out by biking in unfriendly traffic that I give up. I’d also like a way to figure out the best and safest bike route to get somewhere. The mapping apps (google maps etc) happily send one through horrible intersections and along dangerous streets.

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Great stuff. I would add a simple guideline for choosing the type of bicycle infrastructure by road speed limit that Mikael Colville-Andersen from Copenhagenize outlines in his book by the same name.

< 20 km/h - cars and bikes can safely share space

20- 40 km/h - painted bike lane is often sufficient, but maybe add markers

40 - 60 km/h - physically protected bike lane on road surface

> 60 km/h - completely separate bike path on different level.

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This is really good, and so sensible. I might be able to get these guidelines into our next article

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Please contact him for more details or I can lend you his book.

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Agree strongly, but I would add clearly signposted. I have a good sense of direction and cycle enough that I can find my way around Ottawa, but there are very few signs indicating where routes go, particularly those which are not on major roads. A modest investment in signage would increase utilization of the paths we already have

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