How to Get Better Biking in Ottawa

Critical mass rides, Queen Elizabeth National Urban Park, Ottawa bike map

Spring is here. Which means …

Critical Mass rides return this Saturday

If you believe that people should have the option to safely bike around town, make your voice heard by joining the Critical Mass rides happening this year in Ottawa.

Critical Mass is a worldwide movement started in San Francisco in 1992. Its basic concept is safe streets through a critical mass of riders. It involves hundreds of riders taking over the street. Critical mass rides have turned into family-friendly events, with music, good vibes and lots of people who care about building a better city.

Critical Mass Ottawa departs from the Canadian War Museum at 10am every second Saturday of the month from April to October. It’s usually a slow 10km ride around the city.

I’ll be there, with my speaker and a new playlist. This Saturday, April 13th at 10am.

(Note that critical mass rides are self-organizing community events. Everyone participates at their own risk.)

Queen Elizabeth National Urban Park

Coming someday to a Canal near you.

In the meantime, you can pick up the LIMITED EDITION t-shirt for $20. Available at the 13 April Critical Mass ride, from about 9:30am onwards at the Canadian War Museum.

Ottawa bike map

I’ve written previously about the different bike maps available for Ottawa, and the fact that there is not a map that you can easily use on your phone while out riding around town.

Here is the mobile-friendly Ottawa Bike Map that I use when out and about.

Open it in any browser. Zoom in and out.

Dark green indicates the All Ages and Abilities bike network. Light green is a painted lane. Orange is future bike infrastructure, although not necessarily scheduled for construction at this point.

If you do use the map, please send me feedback. It’s free to use, although the mapping provider (ArcGIS) does levy a small charge whenever the map is accessed. For this reason, I’m going to approach a few Councillors and ask them to have the City produce something similar for wider consumption. The map is mostly based on data feeds provided at open.ottawa.ca and lives in the mapping software used by the City of Ottawa and the NCC — so it could be recreated by the authorities in about half an hour.