Councillors, cyclists want more secure bike parking in Ottawa

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Cycling advocates and some city councillors are alarmed that Ottawa’s Public Works Department is planning to cut $100,000 from what it spends on bike parking, a 25 per cent reduction from previous years.

In its 2023 annual report on parking services, presented Thursday to the city’s transportation committee, the department says it intends to spend $300,000 a year on bike parking from 2025 to 2028, down from the current $400,000.

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Somerset Ward Coun. Ariel Troster was among those who said the cut is the wrong move for a city trying to encourage more people to opt for two wheels over four.

“There’s a huge problem in Centretown and there’s a huge demand, not just for parking facilities, but secure parking facilities,” Troster said.

“People are really scared to leave their bike outdoors all day when they’re at work. It really concerns me to see cuts in a program that people are desperately asking for us to expand.”

Troster said she’d recently heard from a resident who’d had his entire family’s bikes stolen from a backyard shed for the second time.

The advocacy group Bike Ottawa added its voice to the issue, in a letter sent to committee members.

“While the city is heading in the right direction, this is not the time to slow down,” the letter said. “We hear from residents on a regular basis that they do not take trips that they want to because they don’t feel safe locking and leaving their bike.”

In his presentation to the committee, Scott Caldwell, manager of parking services, said budget pressures are the reason for the cut. While parking revenue has returned to pre-pandemic levels, rising costs are eating into the department’s resources.

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“The realities of what our capital spending has been and what projected that it could be over the next couple of years, $300,000 is more in line with what’s feasible given our existing resources,” Caldwell said.

“We still remain committed to bike parking, and are excited about it even … but our conclusion is that there is capacity to spend $300,000 a year.”

The city currently has about 5,600 bike parking spots.

The cut to bike parking came at the same time the city decided to end free street parking in the Westboro and Wellington West areas, an irony not lost on Knoxdale-Merivale Coun. Sean Devine.

“Even as we’re saying, ‘Hey Kichissippi, we’re going to change your life here. We’re going to take away your free parking. We want you to come up with new ways to get to work. But we’re not going to put the new bike locker there, the one you need and that we say we want you to have,” Devine said.

Bike cages aren’t cheap. Caldwell said the city spent $100,000 to purchase three cages a couple of years ago. The other difficulty is finding space to place them, he said.

Bay Ward Coun. Theresa Kavanagh said she learned to appreciate bike lockers after she had items stolen from her bike when it was locked up at city hall. There is now a locked cage at city hall for city employees.

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“It’s a necessity. It’s peace of mind. You can lock a car, but a bike is very vulnerable,” Kavanagh said. “If you’re going to use it as transportation, you need to have security.”

She said security is especially needed at LRT stations for commuters who want to bike to the train.

“If I’m going to bike to a station, leaving my bike there all day, I’d like to know that it’s safe,” she said.

Caldwell said the decision to cut $100,000 from bike parking is not final and would be reviewed and assessed during the city’s budget process in the fall.

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