There are many perks to biking to campus. Aside from the obvious health and environmental benefits of biking, the University of Ottawa has a bunch services to help with your commute. Here are a few things every campus biker should know about:   Bike Parking   One of my favorite things about biking to campus is how affordable it is. No need to pay for a parking pass, just roll in and find a bike rack. The University is committed to improving bike amenities on campus namely by providing more racks. If you are having a hard time finding a rack, you can contact to put in a request for a new rack. Biking doesn’t have to happen only when it’s nice out since there are a number of all-season bike racks around. Not keen on leaving your bike outside to face the harsh elements? Not a problem. Protected and indoor parking is available for your wheels (most of which are free but require a deposit). Bike Repair Stations Flat tires happen, we’ve all been there and they are a pa...

So it looks like you landed yourself here at the University of Ottawa. Being new to the space you have probably decided you want to do everything you can to really EXPERIENCE life that Ottawa has to offer. And of course you have a more than noticeable love for the planet. So here is a list of the things that you probably want to cross off your bucket list on campus, in Ottawa, even in the greater National Capital Region. Activities: Rent a kayak at Dow’s lake rentals  Get a community garden plot on campus Ride your bike or take a hike in Gatineau Park Stimulate your brain by renting a documentary at the Sustainable Development Centre Watch a water-related movie in the pool at uOttawa Have a romantic pique-nique at Hogsback Falls Go rock climbing to Vertical Reality and meet new people Frequently check the uOCal we constantly offer amazing activities Rent a bike @ the Bike Share on campus Fix your broken bike at the Bike Coop at 200 Lees or if you need a quick tu...

If Part One was freeing myself from the shackles, Part Two was being blinded by the light. In non-Plato's-Allegory-of-the-Cave terms, this was the hump of the trip. A lot happened over the course of the last 9 days. Over 900 km and the equivalent of two solid days of biking will take a toll on anyone. However, this was not just the biking. There were tears and tantrums, hours spent lost and confused, torrential downpours and wicked winds that cut my speed in half. Quebec was not for the faint of heart. Or lungs. Or abs. Or legs. Taking all that into consideration, Theodore Roosevelt once said: “Nothing in the world is worth having or worth doing unless it means effort, pain, difficulty… I have never in my life envied a human being who led an easy life. I have envied a great many people who led difficult lives and led them well.” So has this venture been worth doing? Most certainly. Has it been sustainable? That is a question that can not be answered so easily. Let's loo...

You may have been busted a couple weeks ago in the “Bike Safety Blitz” conducted by the Ottawa Police in attempt to “to bring awareness to cycling safety and to ensure that all cyclists follow to the rules of the roads set out in both the Ontario Highway Traffic Act and Municipal Bylaws”. If you were one of the 385 persons that were charged over the three day span, then you know that this translates to “the Ottawa Police pulled over a bunch of cyclists in order to dish out tickets for anything from not having a bell and proper lights at night to not fully stopping at stop signs”. I understand the need to enforce good biking behaviours in order to prevent sidewalk cyclers and nighttime collisions but the issue should be a two-way street (if only all one-way streets had counter-flow bike lanes like the ones in front of Marie-Curie at uOttawa, then you wouldn't have been pulled over for cycling the wrong way up a one-way street). Every day cyclists in Ottawa  face-off against ...

As you may have seen from the picture above, I am trying something new this year, winter cycling. Now I am not a rampant winter cyclist; in point of fact I have never done it before. And there is a good chance that I won’t even make it a quarter of the way through this winter. But I want to try. I am not actually going to talk about winter cycling actually, i just thought it would be nice to share this picture. All day i was actually thinking about what i would call this picture. If I had to title the above picture I would call it “Nice try winter” or “Bikers 1, Winter 0”. But I digress, this post is about making easier to do something more environmentally friendly. I don’t think that you need much more of an example beyond the above picture. I am trying out winter cycling and what i need is clean roads and accessible bike racks. Otherwise, I won’t be able to keep this up much longer. In the of Sustainability world we talk about barriers. When we want people to change ...