22 June 2008 / #bike #city hall Cycling in Ottawa: What are the trouble spots?In the past year, Ottawa Citizen blogger David Reevely has asked readers to identify Ottawa’s worst bus route and the worst intersection . Now he wants to know about cycling trouble spots : “what are the dangerous problem spots you encounter all the damn time? Missing links between paths, dangerous connections, other foolishness?” **** There are lots of comments already on the blog, with complaints about bridges, traffic calming, road maintenance, badly-timed signals, narrow roads, bad signage, and more. **** I have two pet peeves about cycling routes in Ottawa: 1. The lack of a continuous paved bike path between Dow's Lake and the Ottawa River Pathway. There's a partial path that runs just west of Preston, next to the O-Train tracks. It runs from Carling to Gladstone -- with part of it paved and part of it rough trail. You could easily extend a fully paved path all the way through to Scott Street to the Ottawa River. You'd have a great pathway connecting Dow's Lake to Lebreton Flats. 2. For the past year, the pathway tunnel under the Queensway just west of Moodie has been closed due to Queensway construction . There's no detour route indicated, just a sign that says the underpass is closed, which is disappointing considering that this is busy connecting route between Kanata South / Bells Corners and the pathway network north of the Queensway. ** ** ** Related: ** Ottawa Bike Guide