April 23, 2008 (Ottawa, ON) – Officials from Ottawa’s City Hall yesterday released details of its Ottawa Cycling Plan (OCP), a document that prescribes local cycling initiatives through 2021 designed to encourages local citizens to triple their use of bicycles. One of the plan objectives is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by up to 20 per cent by 2012. The local Citizens for Safe Cycling (CfSC) group categorizes the plan – slated to cost $26 million over 10 years – as “unambitious.”

Ottawa currently has a total network of 540.8km of various categories of bike routes, including bike paths, bike routes on paved shoulders and separate pathways such as those of the National Capital Commission (NCC). The OCP calls for increasing this total to 2,508.1km through 2021. Other OCP objectives are:

– To build upon existing cycling initiatives by linking, connecting and expanding existing cycling facilities in the City to establish a complete, integrated and readily accessible city-wide network serving both urban and rural Ottawa

– To make cycling safer for cyclists of all skill and age levels by providing designated on and off-road cycling facilities, while promoting cycling as an active, healthy lifestyle and also educating cyclists and motorists on safe operating practices;

– To triple the number of person-trips made by bicycle in the City from 4,500 (2001) to 12,000 by 2021.

An executive summary of the OCP is also available at the CSC website at www.safecycling.ca/ocp.html

“CfSC thinks that the OCP’s goal to increase the modal share of cyclists from 1.7 per cent to 3% is very unambitious. With society’s focus on the environment, we think that there is an opportunity to influence a major shift which the City of Ottawa is missing out on. We hope that cyclists from across Ottawa join CfSC and let their councillor know that they want the Ottawa Cycling Plan passed and implemented,” Charles Akben-Marchand, President of Citizens for Safe Cycling (CfSC), told Pedal.

Ottawa has a population of 848,000 and the estimated $26 million OCP price tag works out to merely $3.67 per citizen over the ten-year period. The metropolitan area – including adjacent Gatineau, Quebec – has a population of some 1.17 million.

While there are some detractors Canada’s capital earns well-deserved kudos for its Alcatel-Lucent Sunday Bikedays where major parkways are closed to motorized traffic every Sunday morning from Victoria Day weekend to Labour Day (May 18 to August 31, 2008). This provides more than 50 kilometres of safe cycling in Ottawa and 30km in Gatineau.

For more info on Bikedays.