Another argument for bike lanes

This is just so sad:

An 18-year-old woman is in serious but stable condition in hospital after she was hit by a taxi while cycling in Ottawa's west end Wednesday morning.

The cyclist's head hit the windshield of the taxi and she was thrown about the length of a parking space before landing on the road near Robertson Road and Vanier Street in the Bells Corners neighbourhood at about 9:30 a.m., said an Ottawa paramedic service news release.

Vanier is the entrance to the trailer park. I don't understand how there's room for 5 lanes of traffic along the strip, but no room for bike lanes. The strip connects two important cycling corridors in the west end: to the west there's the trans-Canada trail and other NCC trails near Nortel. To the east there's the trail system starting at Shouldice Farms, leading down to Andrew Haydon Park, and ultimately connecting to downtown and points beyond. The strip is a bike-lane-free zone between them. How many cyclists have to bounce of windshields before we get better biking infrastructure in Bells Corners?

If you fail to plan you plan to fail

So my old swim coach would remind us, and we had no frickin' idea what he was talking about. But in the case of transportation, it's actually true. The City of Ottawa is updating its Transportation Master Plan , and we're invited to contribute . There are two open houses near Bells Corners: OPEN HOUSE – WEST Thursday, September 18 Glen Cairn Community Centre, Upper Hall, 190 Morrena Drive OPEN HOUSE – SOUTH/WEST Monday, September 22 Nepean Sportsplex, Salon A, 1701 Woodroffe Avenue You need to sign up to attend.

Road Moratorium

As seen on the excellent Miss Vicky's: Ecology Ottawa is getting a petition together asking for a moratorium on new road construction in Ottawa. Particularly interesting is their concept of a "cap and trade" system for roads: if a new road absolutely must be built, another road of similar size is taken out of commission, and converted into a pedestrian walkway (a la Sparks Street), bicycle throughfare or transitway. What a great idea!