Projects

Will your city councilor and mayor be cycling supporters after the October 25, 2010 municpal election ?

In October, 2010, you have the chance to change Ottawa City Council and Ottawa-area school boards to be more aware of and friendly to cyclists.

Now is your chance to work with CfSC to encourage candidates in the election to support cycling programs and facilities throughout the city. This has been done successfully in previous elections: for example, see the story about the 1988 campaign here.

We will be posting further details of our election work here as the board determines them.

Interested? Contact CfSC.

What is the Ottawa Cycling Plan?

The Ottawa Cycling Plan (OCP) is an important planning document of the City of Ottawa that directs the way cycling will fit into Ottawa's transportation network over the next 20 years.

CfSC was involved since the start of work on the Plan, and continues to be involved to ensure the plan's continued and effective implementation with sufficient funding allocated in the city budget each year.

The Plan identifies how the city will increase the number of residents who cycle and increase the number of trips made by bicycle, in order to increase cycling's share of all trips made in the city.

To reach this goal will require a whole series of interdependent programs: education, enforcement, promotion of cycling, road maintenance, bike parking, and improvements and extensions to the cycling network, as well as setting standards for safe and convenient facilities. It will also include policies for financing cycling infrastructure and activities that put existing facilities to good use.

Read more: CfSC involvement in Ottawa Cycling Plan

Citizens for Safe Cycling has run the supervised valet bike parking at the Cisco Ottawa Bluesfest for four years. in 2009 we parked over 6,300 bikes, up from 4,250 bikes in 2008. That's over 10,000 concert-goers who have benefitted from our secure bicycle parking service! In 2009, a second park on the west side of the site was added, which filled up almost every night.

$3,700 in donations was received in donations from appreciative cyclists in 2009. It was split between Citizens for Safe Cycling and Blues in the Schools.

We've also sold red (rear) and white (front) MEC “turtle” lights to unlit cyclists so they could cycle home in the dark safely and legally.

Of course, all this was possible thanks to the team of 80 hardworking volunteers who kept Bike Park running as the well-oiled machine that we’ve come to be known as. Special thanks are due to the Bike Park Super Visor Team members: Sheila, Brian, Fred and Rob, and former CfSC president and project coordinator Charles Akben-Marchand. They volunteered ‘oodles of hours to help make it through the 12-day festival, and kept everything going.

If you would like to volunteer with Bike Park in July 2010 or would like to inquire about similar parking for your event please email us at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

by Charles Akben-Marchand, CfSC Past President

At Paul Dewar's Cycling Summit last Saturday, a lot of people came out to voice their vision of what Ottawa needs to do to improve cycling. I noticed that CfSC has had campaigns on many of the things people said they wanted at the Summit. What is needed is people willing to step forward to press even further to get these ideas turned into reality.

I've prepared a list of "Problem Briefs" outlining many of the issues people listed, what's been done, and what obstacles are in the way to those problems getting fixed. This is just a small amount of the work, research, and policy that has been learned through CfSC's 25 years of operation.

I encourage all cyclists to get involved with CfSC to build on our existing resources to amplify the issues you want to see fixed.

Most importantly, we need you, your friends, and your colleagues to Join Citizens for Safe Cycling Now to give Ottawa's grassroots cycling advocacy movement strength in numbers.

Read the Problem Briefs document (PDF, 146 KB)