CfSC involvement in Ottawa Cycling Plan

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.

CfSC's involvement

The Plan was approved in July, 2008, with an implementation plan that covers the next 20 years. Because the Plan is a long-term process with far-reaching implications, it must reflect the real needs of cyclists. This is why Citizens for Safe Cycling submitted 40 pages of comments on the plan in 2004, and afterwards continued to inform Councillors not only of the plan's merits but also of pitfalls that needed further improvement and modification.

Now that the plan is improved, CfSC needs to work with staff and politicians in order to

ensure that sufficient funds are budgeted every year for implementation
ensure that projects scheduled for each year are those most needed by cyclists (within the constraints of coordinating with other city construction and projects).

One continuing problem with the plan is that it does not define any cycling network at all in Centretown – even as far south as Gladstone Avenue – because of the continuing debate over the city's Light Rail network. CfSC strongly lobbied against LRT designs that would have removed all cycling access from Albert/Slater Streets and from the Mackenzie-King bridge – the main east-west cycling route across downtown. But there's no protection in the Cycling Plan from such possibilities in the future. Nor does the plan guarantee access to LRT for cyclists and their bicycles (as is now allowed on the O-Train).

Issues included in the Ottawa Cycling Plan

What cycling facilities will be built into roads as they are rebuilt
What roads will form Ottawa's cycling network
How cyclists will be accommodated during road projects
How Ottawa will get more people to cycle
How cycling will fit into zoning laws
How all this will be implemented

Cycling Plan History

2003 - City Staff person Wilf Koppert introduces the Ottawa Cycling Plan project to CfSC members at its 2003 Annual General Meeting on October 24. The original aim was to have a report to City Council by September 2004.
Spring 2004 - Planners hold the first Public Open House for the OCP
Summer 2004 - Draft Network Plan is introduced at a Public Open House at Tom Brown Arena for public comments.
Spring 2005 - Draft plan posted to City website and input solicited from the public
Spring 2005 - June 1, Public meeting held on the plan, jointly sponsored by CfSC and Cycle Ontario, preceded by efforts of both organizations to increase public interest in the plan
November 2005 - CfSC submits its interim response (29 pages) on the plan's main document to the City.
May 2006 - Following a public meeting, CfSC submits a further 26 pages of comments on the plan's Technical Appendix.
March 2008 - City releases executive summary final draft of the cycling plan
March 25, 2008 - CfSC holds meeting to prepare its position on the plan
April 28, 2008 - CfSC holds another meeting to refine its position on the plan (details to be released)

Full Draft of 2008 Ottawa Cycling Plan (200 pages)

May 27, 2008: The Roads and Cycling Advisory Committee recommends that Transportation Committee approve the OCP
June 12, 2008: The Ottawa Cycling Plan is given unanimous support by the Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee
June 18, 2008: The Ottawa Cycling Plan is given unanimous support by the Transportation Committee, which also approves motions to increase funding to fill in missing links.
*See: CfSC's presentation to Transportation Committee and Summary of T.C. meeting results
July 9, 2008: City Council unanimously approves the Ottawa Cycling Plan with two amendments from Councillors Bloess/Jellett and Deans/Hume OCP approval

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