Citizens for Safe Cycling (CfSC) promotes cycling as fun, healthy, safe, economical, and environmentally-friendly transportation and recreation. We've been helping cyclists in the Ottawa area improve their cycling skills and their cycling environment for 26 years, from 1984 to 2010. We welcome your participation!
Kim was named CfSC's June 2010 volunteer of the month. She was a key participant in the CTAP launch event during Bike to Work Week. She helped to staff the roll-in booth we staged on the Ottawa River Pathway to gather input from passing cyclists and to distribute information. She even documented the activities for an upcoming article. CfSC thanks Kim for her efforts and her enthusiasm.
Citizens for Safe Cycling regrets to announce the resignation of its President and one of its directors.
Zlatko Krstulich resigned as President because he has taken a position in the cycling staff at the City of Ottawa, effective June 21. The Board wishes him all the best in his new position.
Peter Mason has resigned from the Board due to press of work, but will remain as a volunteer on specific CfSC projects. CfSC will thus continue to benefit from his skills and knowledge. The Board recognizes with gratitude Peter's service as a Director.
CfSC Vice-President Hans Moor will now become President, with the full support of the Board, to continue until the 2010 Annual General Meeting (AGM) this fall.
At its meeting on June 15, the Board also appointed Alex deVries as a Director of CfSC, to continue until the 2010 AGM.
A tandem effort is underway to put facts and figures behind the love of cycling in Canada's Capital Region. With the support of the National Capital Commission, the City of Ottawa and corporate partner TELUS, Citizens for Safe Cycling is collecting detailed data on current cycling trends to pave the way for smart cycling investments for the future.
"Having detailed, year-over-year data from key cycling corridors helps us to advocatefor and justify continuous improvements in support of area cyclists.' -- Z. Krstulich, President, Citizens for Safe Cycling
The Cycling Trends Analysis Project (CTAP) sees electronic counters installed at key cycling corridors to collect data on cycling patterns into and out of downtown Ottawa. Three sites are now active, following a pilot project on the Alexandra Bridge from June to December 2009.
The results of CTAP could inform future decisions on cycling investments on the Capital Pathway network on both sides of the Ottawa River.
Cycling is a key component in the overall transportation mix for several reasons. Gathering '24/7' count data will provide a first good view of cycling in the shoulder seasons (spring/fall) and will allow for cycling trend data to be extrapolated into total trips/year. The first phase of this project will run for three years with three counter sites. Citizens for Safe Cycling hopes to expand the project to eight bike counter sites across the region.
Representatives of Citizens for Safe Cycling will be at the Bike to Work Week Celebration Station on the NCC pathway near the War Museum on Tuesday, June 8 between 7:30 and 9 am. The stop point for cyclists will have free coffee, tea, water and resources. Cyclists will also be invited to share information pertaining to their bicycle commute to work. For more information on Bike to Work Week events please visit www.ottawa.ca/b2ww.
Quick Facts:
- A total of 200,000 cyclists crossed the Alexandra Bridge between mid-June and December of 2009, with an average of 1,750 cyclists crossing each (summer) weekday.
- This spring, over 75,000 cyclists have already been counted across the three operational CTAP sites.
- The CTAP counters can determine average cycling levels along a particular route to within +/-3%. By comparison, once-per-season sampling can only track trends to within +/-50%.
Want to see the results so far?
The Spring/Summer 2010 edition of Chain Mail, CfSC's newsletter, is now available.
You can download it from CfSC-Chain_Mail-Vol26_No02-2010_SpringSummer.pdf
Or go to our Resources/Our Publications/Chain Mail menu item to see our past newsletters.
CfSC sent the following letter to Mayor Larry O'Brien and members of City Council on November 13, 2009:
We are now seeing a welcome change in thinking about the role that cycling can play throughout Ottawa, with an approved master plan for cycling, increased public awareness of cycling issues, concern for cyclist safety, and a greater number of cyclists visible on our roads and pathways (for example, over 180,000 cyclists have crossed the Alexandra bridge alone since June of this year).
The recent inclusion of $16.7M within the preliminary budget for the 2010 cycling plan implementation by the Transportation Committee is a key breakthrough toward increasing active transportation in Ottawa. Citizens for Safe Cycling (“CfSC”) wishes to commend and support the Transportation Committee, chair M. McRae and vice-chair C. Leadman for sending such a clear message in this first step of the budget process.
Read more: Cycling in the 2010 City of Ottawa Budget: Arguing for Transformational Change