IHollaBack (or not...)

It happened again Sunday night. I don't know how often this happens to anyone else, but for me, at least, it's every few months. A car will be passing me (usually as I'm chugging up Bank Street, somewhere near Ohio, on that hill south of Billings Bridge) and a guy will shout, loudly and suddenly, out the passenger side window as they pass me. Presumably in an attempt to see me jump, flinch, jerk the handlebars, or otherwise look startled. Apparently this sort of thing is a laff riot with a certain demographic of youngish males.

It doesn't bother me that much, I suppose (it's never actually caused me to have an accident, although I guess there is that risk), except that there is no recourse for me. I can't shout back: by the time I can react they've passed. And shouting back would just amuse them more. All I can do is what my mom told me to do back in elementary school: ignore them. But if you ever tried that tactic in elementary school, you know that even if you know you have the moral high ground you also can't help feeling a little foolish, a little powerless, and a little pissed off while you're ignoring the idiots. And there's no way I can have a conversation with them about why it's not a great idea to race past a cyclist and deliberately try to make her fall. For one thing, it would be pointless: for another, they're already a half mile away.

So I shrug, call them names in my head, and continue on my way. The same when someone cuts me off, buzzes too close, or tries to play "chicken" at an intersection when I've got the right of way. Or yells "Get out of the road!"

There's been a lot of news lately about the website IHollaBack.org getting an Ottawa branch... it's a website where people can post incidents of street harassment. I know that sexual harassment can be way more serious than the kinds of things that happen to me on a bike, but you know, there are similarities. In the worst cases, a cyclist can feel very threatened; in some road rage cases people can even get killed. Although in most of the cases I've been aware of, I just felt angry that the person yelling, driving aggressively, chasing, tailgating, or cutting off the cyclist, felt they had the right to do what they did. The video blog Bike View in Ottawa - because he has a camera mounted on his bike - is like a treasure trove of those kinds of incidents for cyclists (and, also, to be fair, of the joys of riding and good things that also happen.)

Not that you want things like this to happen at all. But it is really nice to know you're not the only one. Because as I'm cranking along, I know I, for one, do not hollaback.

Arnie on a Share Bike

Just spotted this as it popped up in the Twitter feed. Arnold Schwartzenegger (he of the multiple Hummers, yes, but also he of the proposed electric car infrastructure) riding along in London, with Mayor Boris Johnson, on "Boris Bikes" - their version of BIXI (actually Barclays Cycle Hire.)

Just saw Arnie and the Mayor of London ride past, on "Boris Bikes" - Imgur

Gotta say the Governator looks pretty good on a bike: wobbles less than His Mayorship at least. And 6000 bikes in London is pretty good. Makes our 100 look kind of sad. (Then again, having watched the Top Gear cross-London race, I don't know if I'd want to take one of these through central London's traffic. Eek!)

Surprising Statistics

I just came across this article: a list of the 15 most bike-friendly cities on the planet. Prepare to be surprised (at least, I was):

According to the article, Ottawa claims the highest percentage of bike commuters in North America, beating out Portland, Boulder and San Francisco. (Come to think of it, why are most of the USA's accepted 'cycling Meccas' in mountainous regions? I know that hills are fun - for the athlete-cyclist - but they're a serious deterrent for some friends of mine trying to take up cycling for fitness. In those initial months when you're not yet in shape to tackle them, hills can really discourage a person from sticking with cycling. At least here in Ottawa, so much of the city is pancake flat that you don't actually have to expend any extra energy to keep rolling, just touch the pedals a bit to keep the momentum going.) 

While the article doesn't give numbers for Ottawa, it does claim that Portland's bike-commuters make up 10% of the population, which is the highest proportion in the USA - so that would mean that Ottawa boasts more than 10%. This in the national capital with the highest temperature extremes in the world.

Seriously? So I decided to do some intensive research on the subject. (That is, I Googled "Ottawa Cycling Statistics.") The page I found on the City of Ottawa's website claims much different numbers. They admit we have more bike commuters than any other Canadian city, but report that only 2% of the population bike to work. On closer examination, though, I found that these numbers came from the 2001 Census. . . 10 years ago. Is it possible that in 10 years, bike commuting has jumped by 8% or more?

So, more poking around the City website ensued. This is the City of Ottawa's Cycling Plan, published in 2008. By then, apparently, Ottawa was already considered to lead the country in cycling, and to have the highest bike share of travel on the continent. In 2004 an article in the Citizen (quoted in the Plan) put the percentage at nearly 3% - 900,000 people. Then I ran into the difficulties of statistics. In the 2008 Cycling Plan, the "modal share during afternoon peak period" for cycling is reported at 1.7%, with a stated goal of getting it to 3% by 2021. "Modal share" is defined as "percentage of person-trips," so I gather than the peak period modal share is different from the percentage of people actually commuting by bike. (Hm, I think to myself: so cyclists are more likely to commute at off-peak hours? Is it that it's often quicker to travel by bike than by bus at odd hours when fewer buses are running?)

Still not more than 10% though. And the survey that the Cycling Plan cites for its statistics dates from 2003. It also has a few fascinating tidbits: 73% of Ottawa households have at least one bicycle; of the 'utilitarian' cyclists, far more use their bike for errands, visiting, and shopping than to go to work (I assume because of the notion that you can't ride in work clothing.) The City's 2010 Cycling Accomplishments Document claims that between 2000 and 2009 160 kilometres were added to the cycling network, and that in 2010 alone, another 115 kilometres were added, including the bike lanes on the Pretoria Bridge and a number of multi-use paths. Which is a pretty impressive leap for one year.

But still, I don't see the number of cyclists quintupling over the last two years. . . over the last eight years, though? I can't find current statistics; the most recent numbers I found were from 2003. Is it possible? I wouldn't think so, but... you never know.

Femme Biking? Femme Attitude!

Just reposting this link from a friend's blog, in which she discusses the connections - the parallels - between cycling boldly, and being boldly feminine. I hadn't made the connection myself but now that she has, I find myself sitting back and applauding. I also know the cyclist she's talking about - the 'femme cyclist' - and I've watched her firmly and confidently take the space she needs to take - riding smack down the right tire track in the middle of a snowstorm, when the roads were buried in snow and even the tire tracks were dodgy.

Femme Biking? Femme Attitude! (AKA: What is Femme – Part II)

It's true, that cyclists shouldn't have to feel like they need to apologize for being there. As long as they're obeying the rules (and really, that just makes sense: that way everyone knows what to expect from everyone else), cyclists shouldn't constantly feel that they're 'inconveniencing' drivers. Yet we do. At least, I do: when I ride in the through lane, not the rightmost, right-turn-only lane; when I have to come out into the street to avoid potholes, drain covers and roadkill; when it takes me longer to make that left turn than it would a car. I feel like I must be annoying and holding up all the drivers around me, and I feel that I should be ... acting more invisible, rather than less. Squeezing over dangerously far to the right. Not taking up my space. This post reminds me not to feel like that.

Look ma, I'm on TV! (Sort of)

So, as promised, here's the CJTV report on potholes that appeared in Centretown News Online. And Mike actually gets his name mentioned! He's very pleased. I can tell by the glint in his googly headlights.

Just for fun

Today I got to head out for the first strictly recreational ride I've done this year. While I do ride through the winter, it's not exactly what you'd call 'fun' most of the time. Enjoyable, yeah, I suppose it can be: that cold air on your face and the way the bike can just swoosh over a thin layer of new snow. But generally, even though I do kind of like the winter rides, I don't go out of my way to go anywhere just for the ride. And, a lot of the recreational routes are buried under snow in the winter, meaning that your winter rides are sort of grimly purposeful at times, clotted with cars and traffic lights.

But then comes the first day of spring, and a nice, bright, above-zero one at that. So I had to go for a quick ride.

One of my favorite short rides is to Mer Bleue Bog. It's basically a massive wetland in the middle of the city, sandwiched in between Anderson Road, the Navan Road, and the Trans-Canada Highway. From my place in the South End it's a fairly short ride down Walkley Road, past the 417, and then into sudden, startling bucolic rural farmland on Russell Road. I can basically decide I want to do this ride on a whim and not need to, say, get an earlier start or pack food and water.

The first bit of it is a bit hairy, down Walkley Road and across a set of off-ramps to the 417 that scare the pants off me. But once past those, you're suddenly on a tame rural road. There are farm houses and barns, pleasant-faced Appaloosas looking over white fences and highway signs warning drivers to watch out for turtles.

You turn on Ridge Road fairly soon after the Walkley/Russell corner, and then that winds along until eventually it's a gravel road (watch out for the erosion dimples, which can be pretty large.) There are a few parking lots along the length of Ridge Road, and trails that lead (purportedly) to the bog, but I found, when I tried using one of them, that they're usually about a half-foot under water in the summer. (That was a long, tiring, fun, but very muddy off-roading experience.) I don't know what they're like in the early spring: I'm guessing they're under a few inches of corn snow and mud.

Ridge Road takes you to the bog, where there's a couple of picnic tables, some "interpretive signage" about the bog, an environmental art installation (new since the last time I was there), and a boardwalk that takes you for about a kilometer through the bog.

So I locked Mike up in the parking lot, walked along the boardwalk, bumped unexpectedly into some friends, walked back with them, and then got the bike unlocked and headed back to the city.

Short, but quite satisfying, for the first 'just for fun' ride of the year. Happy vernal equinox, everyone.

We Are All Brothers/Sisters In Pothole Pain

I got contacted this afternoon to do an interview with some journalists for Centretown News about potholes and cycling. We arranged to meet outside my apartment, where there is a bumper crop of hideous potholes (if you want to see them you'll have to wait for the piece to come out at Centretown News Online, probably before the weekend.)

As I wheeled Mike along the pavement, I saw a van with the hazards flashing, and thought it might be the camera crew's vehicle. But, no - they were piling out of a hatchback just beyond the van. The van, alas, had just broken an axle.

The owner was gracious enough to give an interview. In fact, when the tow truck driver arrived and saw the cameras turning to film as he towed the van away, he also stopped and leapt out of the truck to cross the snowbanks and say, "This is the twelfth car like this I've picked up today!" to the camera. He was blocking the entrance to the parking garage, though, so had to pull the truck up and out of the way. But then came back to do an interview (all the while filming the interview on his own cell phone.)

At least by the end of the whole encounter, the poor driver of the van had a smile on his face from all the journalistic attention.

This isn't very bike related except to say that yowch! potholes affect us all.