Unboxing Scott and Bronson's bike infrastructure

Reading Time: 7 minutes

Many of you have likely cycled here already, but for those who haven’t, or live out of town, I wanted to cover the long stretch of cycling infrastructure running on Scott St, from Churchill on the west side all the way to Bayview. And while we are there, why not continue to Bronson?

The construction of the Scott Street bike tracks started several years ago and has gradually moved eastbound to where Scott St. meets Bayswater (near the Tom Brown arena). Just east of Bayswater you will be cycling on a bike lane on the road, sharing the road with a bus and even half a block of zero bike infra, until you pass Perkins where you’ll be following a separate bike track again towards Bronson. The length we mostly explore today from Churchill to Bronson is 4.5 km long.

Protected intersections

There are ten new protected intersections, probably the densest area of protected intersections in North America. If you don’t know what they are, they are intersections with bike signals and a bike track that usually veers away from the car lanes, in order to create a safer angle for drivers to see you on your bike when they turn. That is not some Ottawa folly, but a generally accepted and applied design implemented in countries with high numbers of residents who move around by bike. I am told Ottawa is the leader in North America in implementing protected intersections. You can find the City of Ottawa design guide for protected intersections (2021) here.

Blue = protected bike tracks, Red = east bound painted bike lanes (there is a bidirectional MUP on the north side). Green circles are the protected intersections. There are two on the big intersection on Bronson where Albert, Slater and Bronson meet at the far right of the line. (OpenStreetMap contributors)

After Bronson, the bike track continues on Slater, where you can choose to bike through a small park to connect with the Laurier bike lanes or stay on Slater’s bike track to Bay St.

Starting at Churchill

But back to Churchill in the west end, where it starts. Slightly further east of Churchill is a lot of LRT construction (2026), so I am going to skip that for now.

a library bus crosses a road in an urban environment — I crossed paths with a library! Scott at Churchill protected intersection, looking towards downtown, 4.5 kilometers away. Note the knocked over sign on the left, a very common sight in Ottawa

Scott St. has had a multi use pathway on the north side already for years, but that has been converted to a one way westbound cycling track/footpath now. Not everyone is happy with that because the MUP had far less side streets than the new eastbound cycle track, plus bidirectional MUPs are much wider and pleasant to bike on.

a separate bike track has been built behind bus shelters. A bus is just loading and unloading passengers — For the longest time, our transportation folks didn’t believe in bike lanes behind bus stops, despite decades of experience in other countries. Now it is becoming more common

However, in urban environments, one way tracks have a preference, because drivers generally don’t expect cyclists coming from behind them on their left side going the same direction if they turn left. “But, O’Connor”, you mumble. O’Connor was a compromise (bad – you should not compromise safety), to keep one lane for parking.

I couldn’t perfectly align the two photos of the same location this time, but the left image of McRae is taken in 2014: Transit Oriented Development (TOD) happening right in front of your eyes

Island Park Drive

After a few smaller and bigger side streets we arrive at Island Park Drive, where for some reason, unknown to me, the city swapped the cross walk and the cross ride, resulting in some cyclists just using the more logical desire line on the cross walk to cross the road. In winter, the cross ride is often blocked by stored Island Park snow. You can see a snow remnant in the picture below.

A protected intersection on a large intersection. A green bike lane is painted across the road, a man waits at the cross walk — At Island Park Drive, contrary to logic, the city in this particular place decided to swap the cross ride and cross walk. Note the sign leaning against the fence on the far left. The tactile rusty dotted metal plates are designed for people with vision issues and are casually called Twizzies (from: TWSI, meaning Tactile Walking Surface Indicator)

Some of the corner radii are large to accommodate large trucks, but unfortunately this also allows drivers to go around the corner quite fast without looking over their right shoulder for pedestrian and bike traffic.

A modern structure is a station for light rail. A person bikes in front of it on a separate bike track. In the background a large 1960's office tower is visible — Tunney’s Pasture’s LRT station. The train runs in a trench that used to be a railway track and then in the 1970’s a Rapid Bus Way, the Transitway. The area behind the station on the left will eventually be built up. It is now a parkland like area with a number of federal government buildings, like Stats Canada, Health Canada and Measurement Canada

A protected intersection is shown in the picture, with separate cycling and walking crossings. the crossing for cycling ar painted green. Small concrete islands create extra buffers between drivers and cyclists — Yet another protected intersection, this time at Parkdale. I wonder how long the concrete little islands will withstand snowplows in winter

You’ll pass by Braumeister Bierhalle (home of the Strong Towns Ottawa monthly Fridays get togethers) and the Epic Cycles bike shop in the block between Carruthers and Sterling.

On your way, you will notice some car oriented businesses like garages and some high rise construction. Many of the one storey buildings will eventually disappear to make space for high density transport oriented development (TOD) because light rail with several stations runs parallel to Scott.

Bayview area

At the intersection with Bayswater, you have several route choices: you can continue east on a doable but less pleasant route towards Bronson Ave, or turn north towards the Ottawa River pathways or continue on a pathway to Pimisi station and beyond.

A protected intersection is shown in the picture, with separate cycling and walking crossings. the crossing for cycling and painted green. Small concrete islands create extra buffers between drivers and cyclists On the right is an elevated railway line visible — The protected intersection at the south end of Bayswater. The Tom Brown arena is right behind me. That triangle concrete island was initially not there, it was all asphalt. When I saw the marks where the asphalt was going to be cut out again, I had hoped for some greenspace, but no, concrete it was

A separate bike track is going up a bridge and in front of a bus shelter — After Bayswater, this is the last bit of protected bike track, in front (!) of a bus shelter no less. This is the eastbound bus stop that connects with Bayview station, the roof of which you can see on the left behind the trees

After crossing over the LRT tracks on what is now Albert St, you can keep cycling east. There is a buffered (paint only) bike lane with a lane on your left and sharrows in a right turning lane. Then there’s half a block of nothing before you enter a separate bike track again. This is where you used to bike up towards Slater St, but that part has been removed.

Albert street

A painted bike lane shown on a wide road. the lane is buffered with paint from other traffic — While it is only paint, it is nice not to fear for a bus passing two feet away from you

a right turning lane has a bike and arrows (sharrows) for drivers and cyclists to share the road — But it soon becomes a shared lane, a turning lane no less. Yet, on Google Streetview you’ll see October 2024 images of delineator posts reserving the right lane for cycling for most of the stretch on Albert St

Two large buildings are being erected on the left of the photo along an arterial road. There is no bike lane on the right side of th eimage — Half a block of missing bike lane (No cycling network is complete without a missing link – 😀). More TOD coming up next to Pimisi Station on your left

Halfway, you can (soon – 2027?) cross towards the $344 million new library. You will also see cyclists coming towards you from downtown all of a sudden. This is because there is a MUP coming from Slater. Rather than sending cyclists from Laurier via Slater and Bronson to Albert and then cross Bronson, the city designed this more direct connection to the library.

A separate bike track is visible in the photo with some grass on the right of it and a new library under construction on the left — The path gradually climbs towards Bronson from here. On the left the new municipal library and the federal Library & Archives under construction, known as Ādisōke (The name Ādisōke means “*storytelling*” in Anishinābemowin Algonquin language). For now, I can only remember the name as Artichoke as a memory aid.

the library under construction with an unfinished sidewalk and bike track. In the image centre are preparations for a cross walk and cross ride visible. — There will be another crossride and crosswalk halfway the library here. From there you can eventually bike behind the library and connect to the pathways that lead you to LeBreton Flats pathways or the Portage bridge into Quebec. The 5 feet tall posts are place holders for future traffic signals

a run down and now closed part of Slater street leading up to Bronson. There is lot of graffity and several large waste containers parked on the side of the space. It appears to be used for skate boarding with several obstacles in place — The stretch of Slater that is not being used anymore. It is now temporarily transformed into a skatepark. Eventually housing will (might?) be built on this spot too

I have read complaints about the new design, specifically puddles, cars parked in the lane at car dealers, narrow stretches, the construction of new housing and the loss of the MUP on the north side. Part of it is temporary, part of it is societal change or updated urban design.

Some sinkhole having been patched several times. One may hope this cold patch will properly be repaired soon. Photo: Laskinator on Bluesky

Overall, I think though it is a great improvement. We should not forget this was a four lane road and now it isn’t. And with the new Conservative Party anti bike lane law in place, this couldn’t have been done at all had the city wanted to do it now. It even adds some greenspace. I wish that had been seeded with native flowers but the city chose for grass. One thing I just can’t get over is the eye sore of the atrocious number of new traffic signs.