Less Car

Category: Bike

  • In Ontario Transportation Hobby News

    In Ontario Transportation Hobby News

  • Bike Commute and Errands – August 7, 2024

    Bike Commute and Errands – August 7, 2024

    In a single, normal day, I biked over 41 km on my ebike. Starting in Orleans, I went downtown for work, then from downtown to the Ottawa Hospital (main campus), and finally from the hospital home.

    This trip was absolutely made possible (and was much cheaper and less physically demanding) by my ebike. And the trip itself was actually pretty good overall. It would be even better if the city was less concerned with making sure cars have the red carpet rolled out city wide while the rest fight for space off the side of the road.

    I’ve owned an electric cargo bike for about 2-3 months now, and a few things about these trip(s) on Wednesday have stuck with me:

    • Without the electric assist, it would have SUUUUCKED to cover that distance. The battery made it a breeze and my legs still felt it plenty.
    • There is actually a lot of reasonable and even good bike infrastructure in the city, and unfortunately also a lot of “bike infrastructure” that actively makes people who try to use it less safe, despite what are probably good intentions.
    • There are a TON of gaps in safe infrastructure and even in unsafe infrastructure that serve as barriers to people using this network. The most notable one that seems to just be something that is “finished” but is just terrible is the connection between the ‘back’ side of the hospital ring road and the neighbourhood to the north. Looking at the maps after the fact it seems like intentional and proper connections do exist, but Google Maps cycling directions routed me towards dirt and desire paths. This is presumably intended to save time, but often a better route would have been seconds longer. If the city doesn’t want to invest in filling in these dirt and desire paths with actual pathway connections, better signage for wayfinding would go a long way. Right now, people who haven’t done these trips every day will have a really hard time navigating.
    • Having room for storing cargo on a bike is a game changer! Not having to take a backpack and having that backpack limit what you can have with you is incredible and makes sweat much less of an issue (combined of course with the battery which makes hauling cargo much easier as well).
    • Parking safely is a huge liability. When you pull your car into a parking space (especially somewhere with a massive parking garage that is monitored 24/7) you can be reasonably certain in most places that it will be fine while you’re running errands. Nothing happened, but I was very worried about my bike and have invested in a massive chain lock (6′), an AirTag and a motion alarm that will beep obnoxiously loudly.
    • The best part of all this, as someone who really doesn’t enjoy or get anything out of driving, is that it was FUN doing this.
    • It’s really too bad that my round trip from home, office, routine medical care, and back home required over 40 km of travel. We all make choices (like where to live and my place of work) and these are choices I’ve made (before getting orange-pilled, mind you), but honestly doing more to make services and work accessible to people without needing to cross the city (RTO I’m looking at you) will continue to make our cities more sustainable and will push the next marginal trip to one that is more accessible on foot, by bike, or by transit.

    More on the Gaps in Infrastructure

    Also, I had to look it up because it seems criminal, but there is supposed to be an officially sanctioned bike route the whole length of the LRT, to the point that they are currently working on extending a real bike route out to Trim from Blair… Buuuuuut the literal only connection between St. Laurent and Blair on bike includes driving down the middle of Ogilvie Road literal inches away from traffic at 60kph, with major intersections/lights every few minutes at most (every 30 seconds in a car).

    Hilariously (or at least it would be hilarious if it wasn’t so dangerous), every Google Street View image of this road it’s this empty. Rush hour capacity is not long.

    This shouldn’t be a bike route and in fact I’d argue it isn’t one. I can do it, as a person who is willing and experienced with vehicular cycling (out of necessity), but it is a travesty and I mostly see people on Ogilvie by the Gloucester Centre on the sidewalk, and they are 100% making the right choice. The painted lane on the right side of the street on Ogilvie from the St Laurent mall down to den Haag is bad enough, but being stuck in the middle of traffic, completely hung out to dry by the city, is just unforgiveable. It’s a nightmare.

    Now I’m just venting but my route home also includes this beauty at Wellington and Lyon:

    Street View of Wellington and Lyon
    Bird’s Eye View of Wellington and Lyon

    There is accommodation (painted mostly) for bikes on either side of this intersection, but with 2 right turn lanes, if you want to not die you have to somehow safely merge in usually heavy traffic across 2 lanes to get across the intersection safely.

    At this exact stop trying to make this merge last week, I had a bus that was in the left lane drive right up to me honking and needlessly close, while I was just trying to get across here… Pretty much the only way to do it while staying sane is to know it’s coming and get over in to the left lane (fully taking the lane) way before you get to the intersection, which means going up a hill on a bike in a lane fully meant for cars where just EVERYBODY is going to be mad at you.

    By the way, I can’t know for sure, but I feel like that bus fully saw me and only honked and drove too close to me because he was annoyed, there’s no way he didn’t see me trying to get across safely.

    There are maybe 3 places I can think of in the whole city with this double right turn configuration that aren’t on the highway, where Elgin meets Rideau right down the street there is another, and by the post office off Industrial is the third I can think of, and they are all terrible for not-cars.

    Final Thoughts

    Overall, I was very pleased with the way I was able to get around the city on my bike. The city has absolutely made progress in terms of separate and at least sometimes protected infrastructure, but there are very obvious and needless gaps that will hopefully continue to be addressed.

    I will say though, it is actually very easy to see where these gaps are, all you have to do is get on a bike and try to go somewhere, the rough spots and issues jump off the road and try to knock you over all the time.

  • Orleans Blvd Overpass Design

    Orleans Blvd Overpass Design

    I am writing today about the Orleans Blvd overpass design updates (Stage 2 LRT Station Connectivity Enhancement Study | Convent Glen Station (Orléans Boulevard)) which sort of came and went quietly since last year (and I was even trying to pay attention!). I understand that the solution proposed last year had its issues (namely conflict spots between buses letting off passengers and cyclists), and I agree the design clearly needed more thought.

    The last design I saw last year.

    However, it appears that thought was skipped by the planners, and instead the road will be returned basically to its state before the renovation (plus a pair of bus stops and room for people driving to the train stop, and bike parking is a great addition too).

    This seems like a failure of imagination at the very least.

    It’s my understanding that at this point (not sure exactly when this was posted on the City website, but it can’t have been that long ago) the actual design in terms of what’s being built is fully locked in, which is a shame but you literally can’t change the past. However, it does seem like there is at least an opportunity to take what infrastructure is set and mould it to be a little more environmentally friendly (not to mention safer).

    Specifically, what I’m talking about is the possibility of the outer lanes of the overpass being reserved for bus and bike traffic. I have been getting to work on bike via Rideau Street through downtown where the road has the same setup (4 lanes, 2 reserved for buses) and even at rush hour it’s fine.

    The last 2(+?) years with the overpass down to 1 lane has proved (in my opinion) that car traffic volume doesn’t support the need for 4 lanes, even at rush hour this isn’t really a concern that needs to be factored in (and are we really building for the 10-15 minutes a road is the absolute busiest, which is already a choice many drivers make?).

    If the overpass ISN’T given lanes with bus/bike priority, and traffic comes anywhere close to slowing down or stopping over the overpass, I’d argue this is bad for everybody, as it means buses and bikes will get stuck in that, and when buses stop, cars will get annoyed and be unhappy anyways. It’s fairly easy for a bike to wait for a bus if necessary (obviously not ideal, but the space is what it is), and the lanes are wide enough when the bus is stopped that a bike can probably easily pass safely if they feel comfortable.

    The only thing I haven’t really considered above so far is the passenger pickup/dropoff spaces, but I think cars actually dropping off or picking up using the lane would be fine to do that (outside the flow of traffic) and then merge back in.

    All of this obviously only considers the absolute busiest times on this road, the other ~98% of the time it’s just obvious that having dedicated infrastructure like this makes sense in terms of public transit flow and bike safety, there is no way there is enough traffic the rest of the time for 4 lanes to be anywhere close to necessary for cars.

    I feel very strongly that we dedicate far too much road space for cars, I am definitely biased in that direction, but I also feel that it lines up with the priorities of the community and the city to make mobility and transportation network decisions thinking in this way. I’d really be interested to hear if any conversation like this (basically using different paint/signs on this road while keeping the actual built infrastructure as designed) has taken place.

    I really look forward to the day when all of Orleans Blvd is a complete street accessible in this way by all road users, but for now this seems like an easy win, and will make it easier for people north of the highway to access St. Joseph and the Heart of Orleans without getting into their cars.

  • What My Kids See and Do Aboard My Ebike

    What My Kids See and Do Aboard My Ebike

    My older kids are 6 and 3 (coming up on 4 now), and they absolutely love spending time on the back of my cargo ebike. In past years, we would go for rides together, but they were in a trailer behind my hybrid bike, and it wasn’t really a family ride since my wife didn’t have a bike to join us. It was also much less convenient to run errands like groceries with a bike trailer with 2 kids and no additional storage on my bike.

    This year, since I’ve had my ebike for right around 2 months now, my kids are eager and excited to hop on the back of my bike, and we have done excursions and run errands together multiple times, especially since they’ve been off school, and I just wrapped up 4 weeks of parental leave. I love the fact that my kids are so excited to spend time on the bike, and it’s clear to me that they are making all kinds of observations about the world from their vantage point behind me.

    What the Kids See and Do

    The first thing worth mentioning that I observed from them on the back of my bike was that my daughter (6) said unprompted “biking to Metro is more fun than the car” while we were on the way to the grocery store. They both agreed that taking the bike was more fun, and I completely agree. Being out in the open and riding through it on a bike is a completely different experience compared to what feels more like floating through or even overtop of the community when you’re in a car. There is absolutely no connection to the rest of the world, you’re just in a sealed-off little bubble only interacting with the other little bubbles that are the other cars.

    In the Neighbourhood

    We’ve gone for a few longer rides now since that one, including visiting the library and going to Petrie Island (which is about a 15-20km round trip). On the library trip, we had to take a couple of less busy streets to avoid fast-moving cars on the main roads, and so we ended up passing by at least 4-5 different little parks and playgrounds. Since the kids weren’t trapped in the car bubble, and we weren’t floating around at 40-60 kph, they could spend longer actually seeing what the world around them looks like. On the way home, we picked one of the playgrounds to stop and play at for a bit, and this is a playground we never would have even known about without this trip. Now, the kids know where this park is and can even see it from the nearest main road (Jeanne d’Arc Blvd), so they’re even able to get a better sense of direction and context for the layout of their neighbourhood no matter how they’re getting around.

    Being Friendly

    Finally, the kids have started doing an absolutely incredible thing since our trip to Petrie Island. When they were on the back of the bike, every time we would pass someone on the paths, both of them started jubilantly calling ‘Hello!’ to people. It was so cute when they first started doing that and seeing that people were responding, not just saying hi or hello back, but waving, and smiling big smiles back. It’s not typical that you get such a greeting when you’re out walking or biking (people in Orleans will say hi or nod as you pass, but usually not a fun hello like that). I could watch peoples’ neutral faces absolutely light up when they were greeting, and basically everybody responded with a smile and a wave.

    They’ve done this every bike ride or errand trip since, and the most interesting thing I observed was that my son (3) tried to say Hello to an SUV while we were crossing a street, and my daughter (6) reminded him that they couldn’t hear us in the car. The fact that she picked up on that right away and they both agreed wordlessly that saying it to vehicles was useless really struck me, and just makes me want to do more and more with them on bike.

    Cycling and walking in your neighbourhood/community is super important for social development, whether you’re a small child or an adult, and I really think it’s a great way to stay connected to the people around you, not to mention it can make someone’s day.

  • Bike Trip to the Library – July 17, 2024

    Bike Trip to the Library – July 17, 2024

    I’m wrapping up 4 weeks of parental leave from work (going back Monday), and so for the last few month I have been spending all day every day with kids. Since I got the new bike (which can carry the older two on the back), the kids have been wanting to run errands and do things on the bike instead of the car (which I love to hear of course as I feel the same way). This means that I have been thinking a lot about bike routes to certain places I’ve only imagined actually getting to with kids on the bike.

    Getting to the Library

    The library is one of the places I aim to go to more often with my kids, the local library was one of my favorite places to be growing up, and it was especially nice when I could make it there on my own on the bike. In Calgary where I grew up, the library wasn’t particularly easy to get to on a bike, but it wasn’t far and I am very comfortable on a bike, so from an early age I just biked in traffic, and this was the late-90s, early 2000s, so bike infrastructure definitely wasn’t a thing.

    In setting out to do this, I got looking at maps to see that the most efficient several routes to get to the library were all just on the street. Some streets were less busy than others, but the stretch to get across the highway consists of two options, both of which are heavily under construction and each consist of 2-lane roads where you’re asked to ‘share the road’ single file.

    Crossing the highway

    I could only do that short stretch because I feel very comfortable taking the full lane, and because I’ve biked enough that I can travel about 30kph up the hill across the bridge to cross the highway. For those of you who don’t bike on the streets often, when you need to share the lane, every car behind you INSTANTLY feels the need to try to pass you at speed even if there is additional danger for them in doing that. This is obviously exacerbated by a larger speed difference between the speed limit and the speed of your bike, but even if I’m going 30 and the car traffic should be going 40, cars will typically exceed the speed limit temporarily just to get around you, sometimes a lot, because they won’t have to wait 30 seconds behind you.

    I’m happy to note this particular stretch across the highway on the two nearby bridges (Jeanne d’Arc and Orleans Blvds) are being improved, and so both are partly under construction right now. There will be a pair of multi-use paths going in to cross these two bridges, which I expect will greatly improve the comfort and safety of getting across the highway. It has been under construction for over a year now, and cycling even alone hasn’t felt particularly safe for me at any point during that time, nor did it feel safe at any time before construction began.

    Once we got across the highway, the road opens back up to 4 total lanes again, which for such a low volume route (with sections at both ends that bottleneck to 1 lane, by the way) basically means the outer two lanes function as bike lanes outside of the very short morning and afternoon rush (I’ve never witnessed this busy period to be honest, but there are people who swear traffic volume requires 2 lanes each way).

    The Rest of the Way

    Once I made it across the highway, I got some advice from a fellow bike parent that you could avoid some car traffic to do the last stretch of the route following basically back roads through the adjacent neighbourhoods. I had the map (below) in my head as an approximate route plan, but it basically involves winding through local streets and on to and off pathways. It’s kind of a maze but it does work, and with kids on the bike it does feel way safer than the alternative.

    When I tried to bike to the library on my own in preparation for this trip (imagine ‘trying’ a trip alone in a car to make sure it’s safe to take a family later 😢), I attempted to use the logical efficient route (and the one suggested for bikes by Google Maps) and essentially follow Orleans Blvd for the entire last half of the route. On the map that would basically be replacing the whole last section weaving through the community with just following the obvious straight line path across the highway all the way up the hill to the library. It’s actually a very simple route in a car where you’re not worrying about these things.

    Orleans Blvd

    Orleans Blvd has TONS of space for wider sidewalks and cycle tracks (see this post for an example of the space there is in this right-of-way), but in its current form, it’s a 4-lane road with a speed limit of 60, and it is designed for cars to feel totally comfortable going MUCH faster than that. Even on an ebike going full tilt without passengers on my test run, I was going low 30s kph and being passed in the other lane by cars going 60-70. Again, the road volume doesn’t require 2 lanes each way, so cars typically wouldn’t need to close pass you in your lane, but they certainly would try if it came to saving a few seconds and there was another car next to them. Going up a hill in traffic is the worst, because as I said before it all comes down to the speed difference, I think cycle tracks on this route would probably be the most beneficial because it will enable less confident riders to feel comfortable taking this route, where I wouldn’t recommend its use today at all.

    The one nice thing about the route we were required to take to feel safe (not to say this wouldn’t be possible if there was safe bike infrastructure) is that while taking back roads through the neighbourhood, we passed by at least 4-5 little parks and playgrounds, each of which the kids absolutely would have stopped and played at. On the way home, we did pick one of them to stop at, which really capped off the experience for the kiddos.

    Conclusions

    In summary, I think this ride is absolutely doable if you feel up for being hassled by cars as you cross the highway (it is literally 1-2 blocks of the whole trip), but with some consideration of this kind of bike traffic, this route could be SO MUCH BETTER. Given traffic volumes in the area, having this bridge be one lane is not a big deal (it’s been like this for a year!), and it would enable so many more people to get around outside of their cars.

  • My First Ebike (~2 months in)

    My First Ebike (~2 months in)

    Before I get too far into specific ideas and thoughts on this site, I wanted to spend a little time talking about my current thoughts and feelings about ebikes, about two months in to owning my first one. My thoughts will almost certainly evolve on this topic as time goes on, but here’s how I feel summer 2024.

    Back in May of this year, I finally made the commitment to purchasing an electric bike. This is something I had wanted to do for years, but starting a family and living through the early days of the pandemic, I wasn’t realistically biking anywhere. There was no strong incentive to buy any bike, much less a more expensive electric one.

    My Ebike

    The bike I ended up landing on is by Rad Power Bikes, and I went for versatility above all else. My other bike is a minivan (the Honda Odyssey), and so it shouldn’t surprise anybody who knows me that I went for the bike equivalent of that, the RadWagon 4. I would describe the aesthetics of this bike to be similar in feeling to a minivan, in that it’s not universally loved, but I have a deep appreciation for its function over form. This is true to the point that both the Odyssey and the RadWagon have rewired my brain to find their particular visual qualities attractive.

    Slight tangent here, I REALLY hate the way SUVs look and their overall design, inside and out. I’ve always preferred the design of minivans, which are much better suited to families and for almost any trip you’d use such a vehicle for. I wish minivans caught on more in North America rather than SUVs, which are basically big and heavy for no reason. It’s almost impossible to get a ‘deal’ on a minivan, they’re never on sale, but the plus side of that is that they keep their value REALLY well. I’m pretty convinced we could sell our 5-year-old 2019 Odyssey for basically the same as we paid for it new.

    Anyhow, back to the RadWagon, so we’re all on the same page, context-wise, here is a photo of the stock configuration of my bike:

    For those of you who are less familiar (as I was when I first started shopping) with the language and structure of cargo bikes, this is called a longtail bike, for reasons that should be fairly obvious. This bike rides fairly low to the ground, and it has tons of places where accessories can be bolted on to achieve various extra uses and functions. My favourite feature of this bike is the cargo space on the rear rack, which is incredibly versatile and just massive for a bike.

    Accessories

    The other great thing (which I won’t call my favourite feature since I just said that about the rear rack), is the infinite configurability of the bike. I have added several customizations and accessories to really make this a tool I can use to do almost anything and get anywhere. My accessories include:

    • A ‘Caboose’, an aluminum ‘cage’ to enable kids to ride on the rear rack without worrying about them falling off (you can also get a formal mounted bike seat for really young kids). This hardware also serves as a handy set of mounting points for securing bigger cargo pieces with tie-downs.
    • A set of cheap deck pads, cushions to make it a little more comfy to sit on the rear rack (visible in the image above, Amazon sells many varieties of these, and Rad sells their own that are probably better quality and more comfortable, but they are at least 4x the price).
    • Running boards, these are an optional (but pretty important) accessory to allow passengers on the back to rest their feet and stay balanced (also in the picture above).
    • A massive front basket with a liner inside to keep things like groceries from bouncing around too much.
    • A couple of ratcheting tie-downs to secure cargo
    • A water bottle and holder
    • A top tube storage bag with a phone holder so you can see and use your screen inside
    • A motion sensor/alarm that will sound a VERY loud series of beeps if the bike is moved, and if that movement doesn’t stop quickly, it will start again and continue to beep for 90 seconds. I also have a hidden AirPod on the frame so if someone makes it past the alarm I’ll see where the bike went if it’s taken.
    • A tall metal wire, fabric-lined basket (technically a laundry basket) that I can tie down to the rear rack to store extra groceries or taller cargo when I need it
    • A duffel bag/backpack that can easily fit in the basket or on the back rack
    • Finally, I am a couple of days away from having a large (16 inch long, 6 inch tall, 12 inch wide) basket made of thick metal that I can strap down to the rear rack to carry extra cargo or extra stuff for my work commute when I need it.

    The really nice thing about this bike is that it can accommodate 2 extra riders (plus an extra 2 kids if I want to hitch the trailer), or at least 100 pounds of cargo (plus more in the trailer if I need it, OR some combination of both, depending on what I’ve got going on on a particular day. And because I am a pretty strong bike rider on my own, with the aid of the 500 W motor, it doesn’t really matter how much the bike (and me) and cargo weighs, I can bike around at will pretty much as fast as I want without being substantially slowed down.

    My Future with Ebikes

    I do feel as though I’m just scratching the surface of the uses for this bike, I’ve commuted to work 2-3 times on it so far, plus one trip most of the way across the city for a staff BBQ, and it has performed magnificently in every task I’ve given it. I’m sure I’ll have more and more to say about this bike as I use it more and for more things.

    I have no regrets about this purchase, and not only will I replace lots of car trips with this transportation, but I have already started choosing trips to closer destinations because it means I can bike instead of needing to drive. Add to this that I love basically everything about biking, including the exercise I do still get maxing out the speed of the bike. All this while avoiding sweating almost all of the time even if I have a long way to go and it’s very hot out.

    It’s clear to me that the future of transportation is small, flexible purpose electric vehicles like this, and the biggest thing holding back this revolution in places like Ottawa is the transportation network is designed around cars, which rightfully scares off lots of people who are currently in cars from considering any other mode of transport.