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It’s a bit embarrassing to admit that it’s taken a visit from a U.S.-based German professor, as well as a Dutch tour guide, to make me appreciate how bicycle-friendly Ottawa really is. But it’s the truth.

You might think that with cooler temperatures and people focusing on the election, concerns over cycling in our fair town would take a break until spring, but no.

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First of all, this early autumn weather is great for cycling. Second of all, some of us believe federal electoral candidates should care a great deal about active transportation. Local voters say the environment is one of their top concerns, and given that transportation is one of the biggest sources of CO2 emissions, finding ways to use the car less often and get around using transit, two wheels or feet would go a long way towards reducing our impact on the environment.

For regular people to ditch the car and travel by other means, we must have infrastructure in place for said other means to be convenient and safe. And not just objectively safe; active transportation has to feel safe or else we’ll keep driving.