Ottawa has a bunch of bike trails that are also used by pedestrians (which is stupid), so there’s a speed limit around 20 kph. Cyclists regularly do over 30, which is risky for pedestrians, but they generally segment by time of day so it’s fine.
Add people doing 50kph on e-bikes and other cyclists will be at risk - the paths are not wide so passing will become dangerous.
The obvious solution is to have real bike lanes on roads, with enough room for passing, but society isn’t there yet.
IIRC e-bikes are limited to 32 km/h in Canada, and are programmed to stop pedal assist beyond that speed.
The real solution is to not mix people walking with people biking on the few, narrow paths that Ottawa does have, the same way you don’t want to mix people biking with cars. I think a widening of the River Pathway would be enjoyed by basically everyone, for example.
Also, the roads that run parallel to some of these mixed use pathways would suck to bike on, even with a physically separated lane since these roads have drivers doing 70-90 km/h
I think segregation is right in some circumstances but disagree that it’s the “real solution”.
Perhaps this is completely unrealistic but IMO the solution is for all path users to share the path with other users. This doesn’t just mean faster users slowing down to avoid slower users, but slower users also being aware of their surroundings and some of the potential dangers.
Risk to other trail users.
Ottawa has a bunch of bike trails that are also used by pedestrians (which is stupid), so there’s a speed limit around 20 kph. Cyclists regularly do over 30, which is risky for pedestrians, but they generally segment by time of day so it’s fine.
Add people doing 50kph on e-bikes and other cyclists will be at risk - the paths are not wide so passing will become dangerous.
The obvious solution is to have real bike lanes on roads, with enough room for passing, but society isn’t there yet.
IIRC e-bikes are limited to 32 km/h in Canada, and are programmed to stop pedal assist beyond that speed.
The real solution is to not mix people walking with people biking on the few, narrow paths that Ottawa does have, the same way you don’t want to mix people biking with cars. I think a widening of the River Pathway would be enjoyed by basically everyone, for example.
Also, the roads that run parallel to some of these mixed use pathways would suck to bike on, even with a physically separated lane since these roads have drivers doing 70-90 km/h
I think segregation is right in some circumstances but disagree that it’s the “real solution”.
Perhaps this is completely unrealistic but IMO the solution is for all path users to share the path with other users. This doesn’t just mean faster users slowing down to avoid slower users, but slower users also being aware of their surroundings and some of the potential dangers.
Agreed.