On Wednesday, November 12th, 2014, representatives from C.U. Cycling attended a Bronson Avenue Safety Review Advisory Group meeting with the City of Ottawa, their consulting engineer and other interested parties. The focus was on the addition of a crosswalk/crossride across Bronson Avenue between the canal and Sunnyside Avenue, as was shown in the public open house in December 2012.

There was some very good ideas for improving Bronson Avenue in the area of the proposed crossing. Notably, the proposed changes were solutions and not short-term bandaid fixes. To praise the meeting itself, everyone in attendance thought critically about how the changes would impact all road users and the consulting firm took a lot of our suggestions quite well. The revised changes will be presented at a public open house. We’re very interested to see how they revise their proposals and what the new concepts will look like.

The proposals were excellent, but they were limited in scope to the area around the crossing. C.U. Cycling looks forwards to working with Councilor Chernushenko’s office and the City of Ottawa as they work on developing plans for these areas further. It is worth noting that more changes are to come to Bronson Ave.

In particular, we look forward to improvements to better link Bronson Avenue north of the canal to better connect to Holmwood Ave, as improvements to the intersection of Sunnyside and Bronson, as well as changes further south.

Three conceptual designs were presented, with consideration to the Ministry of Transportation of Ontario’s (MTO) Ontario Traffic Manual (OTM) Book 18, which was released in March 2014, and gives updates guidelines for how to plan for cycling infrastructure in the province of Ontario. Book 18 has caught up to the planning goals of cities and lays out rules on how to use new infrastructure, such as bike-specific lights and crossrides. This is particularly useful for Ottawa, since the city is home to bike boxes, cross rides, cycle tracks, and more. Book 18 will allow Ottawa to develop better bike-specific infrastructure, in harmony with the rest of the province.

Public Open House

TWO public open houses are scheduled:

Tuesday, December 2, 2014

7:00 pm to 9:00 pm

River Building – RB 2220-2228 (bike parking is available north of University Drive)

Carleton University

1125 Colonel By Drive, Ottawa, ON K1S 5B6

Monday, December 15, 2014

7:00 pm to 9:00 pm

Room A-B, Greenboro Community Centre

363 Lorry Greenberg Drive (sheltered bike parking is available)

Ottawa, ON K1T 3P8

Proposed changes will be presented at these open houses.

Active Transportation Audit

If you want to get a better feel for what Bronson Ave is like today and start thinking of how it can be improved, the Glebe Community Association and Ecology Ottawa are hosting an Active Transportation Audit on November 22 at 10am.

Find out more on the Ecology Ottawa website and RSVP if you can make it.