Looking for a reason to try out the new Segregated Bike Lanes on Laurier Avenue West? Ride your bike to the 2011 Cisco Ottawa Bluesfest in Lebreton Flats!

Concert-goers and volunteers alike can enjoy the festival knowing their bike is safe in a compound where a volunteer will retrieve it for them – and nobody else – when they return. Citizens for Safe Cycling has parked over 22,000 bicycles for Bluesfest patrons in the five years the service has been offered, with every one accounted for!

New for 2011, the bike park along the pathway has moved to Booth Street at the pathway (across from the Bixi station), and is over twice the size as last year! The bike park along Wellington Street is still there, ready to take your bike so you can go enjoy the show. See them at the top left on the Bluesfest 2011 site map.

The Bike Park service is free to anybody who wants to use it during Bluesfest (even if you're not going to Bluesfest!). Donations are encouraged: they will be split equally between Citizens for Safe Cycling and Bluesfest's Charity, Blues in the Schools. More than $5000 was donated by Bike Park users in 2010 alone, a testament to the efficiency of the 100+ volunteers.

The service also provides useful safety information to cyclists. Visitors to the Bike Park tent can pick up brochures on a variety of cycling subjects, along with cycling maps.

Bluesfest 2011 runs from Tuesday, July 5, to Sunday, July 17 (excluding Monday, July 11). The Bike Park is open during Bluesfest :

• On weekdays from 2:30 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. (Wellington and Lett), and from 3:30 p.m. to 11 p.m. (Ottawa River Pathway at Booth)
  
• On weekends,  from 10 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. (Wellington and Lett), and from 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. (Ottawa River Pathway at Booth)

Unfortunately, heavy electric bicycles that look like scooters cannot be accepted at the Bluesfest Bike Park.

Read more about the Bluesfest bike parking program in 2010.

    – Charles Akben-Marchand

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