April 2025 – Orleans Cycling Newsletter

Hi all, it has been pretty quiet on the cycling front with the city for the last 2 months, but I have a couple of things to share.

Transportation Master Plan Draft

First, the city just dropped a new draft of the transportation master plan with cycling projects listed and mapped for us to comment on. I wanted to highlight one particular map of cycling projects: Transportation Master Plan Update | Engage Ottawa (the ‘Map for prioritized cycling projects’ link) on the plans in Orleans.

Hopefully you all have some time to give feedback via the surveys in the link above, and I also recommend sending a message to your councillor directly letting them know your priorities, especially if they’ve missed something critical on this plan.

Pedal and Play Event(s)

A couple of weeks ago, I finalized plans to host a weekly family-oriented bike ride through the community of Convent Glen North. I’m calling it Pedal and Play, and the idea is to get kids and their parents comfortable biking to destinations (especially parks and playgrounds) around the community. We’re having a kickoff meetup at des Voyageurs school on April 27, and weekly rides will follow (Pedal and Play Kickoff – Convent Glen North – Convent Glen Orleans Wood CA).

If you’re in the area, you’re obviously welcome to join, either with your kids, or just to say hi and meet your neighbours. If you’re *not* in the area, we have put a lot of work into setting up this event to be easily adaptable to any community. If you think your community has a great spot to be able to run a weekly or even occasional event like this, I’d be happy to work with you to promote the event or figure out logistics and best practices.

Stay in Touch

If you’re interested in getting more involved with cycling advocacy in Orleans, please let me know and I will do what I can to help advance projects that are a priority for you. If you know someone in the community who may be interested in joining this cause, please give them my contact info (rob.attrell@bikeottawa.ca) and ask them to reach out or put us in contact, we can always use more people.