Wondering why? Some cities are noticed when....

I have started wondering why some cities are listed and noticed as being "cycling friendly" and others not. I see a lot of praise for facilities in various cities. And I see that Ottawa has had them for a while. Back in the 90's we had Contra flow lanes, and we still have one for access to bridge into the city center. Thanks to the NCC we have had multi use recreational paths through out the core. We have had roads built with larger lanes so cars can share. We had campaigns before the web was around calling for vehicles to "share the road". A successful advocacy group the brought Canbike courses to the masses. A sporting group that has weekly rides with some special activity rides for members. We have had very successful valet bike parking at our world class music festival "Bluesfest". Advocacy and education is promoted via Citizens for Safe Cycling, who have been a strong force since the 1970s. We have bike stores who are involved in all aspects of cycling, bike polo, bike racing and even bike riding. We have bike builders who build and ride bikes that the Atomic Zombie would be proud of. The only thing I can think of is we have no custom builders who are local and well known. Does anyone have any other ideas, what are we missing? Do we need famous racers (Gord Fraser, Jim Glover). Fancy night rides, wait we have one the second one is coming this year. Famous ride with lots of riders, how is 2,000 riding from Ottawa to Kingston and back the next day. I have got the ideas started, fill in folks.

Brian

Thoughts on bike parking at Landsdown park

After you had started your blogs on the cycling facilities for the park I started hunting. The best I found is the volunteer staffed San Francisco stadium. It is actually a better idea for volunteers, esp those who want to see the event (for free). The precedent for giving tickets is already in use at the Bank, bus drivers get to see two periods of hockey games (perk with OT). Most of the cyclists who would take advantage of the valet bike park have been well versed at Blues Fest. Both how it is done, and how long after an event it takes to get bikes. And there are members of CFSC who know how big an area is required for close to 700 bikes, and how many volunteers per event. It would have to be done valet style because any other method creates havoc. A good idea would be to utilize the cattle castle or the bldg the farmers market is using for winter. https://picasaweb.google.com/bikeboy999/TripToNAHBS2011#5580266369355491842 This photo is before we figured out the A frame could not take the weight of too many bikes. Here is after we re-enforced the A frames. https://picasaweb.google.com/bikeboy999/TripToNAHBS2011#5580266639771535138 Some of the bikes being stored at the North American Hand made bike show were so unique they were happy with the valet service and did not care about getting their bikes in a quick time. Like this guy's bike, https://picasaweb.google.com/bikeboy999/TripToNAHBS2011#5580267388187045666
I think the most we parked at one time was 300 to 350