For Orléans resident and cyclist Rob Attrell, the scenic Sir George-Étienne Cartier Parkway is crucial for getting around.
As one of three parkways that the National Capital Commission closes for their Weekend Bikedays program, this east-end road is where the bulk of Attrell’s pedal-powered trips take place.
Significant hour cuts made to last season’s bikedays sparked divided views amongst Ottawans and, with hours remaining the same this year, the NCC’s decision is grinding some gears.
“I’m pretty disappointed, (but) I can’t necessarily say it was unexpected,” Attrell said.
“This sort of seems to be the trend. During COVID, they opened up a bunch of the parkways,” he said. “It seems like they’ve been slowly rolling that back.”
Starting Saturday, May 9, Kichi Zībī Mīkan will be open from 8 a.m. to noon, Sir George-Étienne Cartier Parkway from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., and Queen Elizabeth Driveway from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.
“The 2026 Weekend Bikedays schedule remains consistent with last year,” the NCC wrote in a statement to the Ottawa Citizen. “The decision was guided by user comments, surveys and usage data gathered throughout previous seasons.”
“Ongoing and planned construction on the Kichi Zībī Mīkan continues to influence scheduling to ensure safety and coordinate with essential infrastructure work.”
In 2024, Kichi Zībī Mīkan was open until 4 p.m. and the Queen Elizabeth Driveway had a period in which it was open 24 hours a day.
Attrell, who is also a board member at Bike Ottawa, said he often took advantage of Weekend Bikedays. He recalled one occasion two summers ago when he needed an alternative mode of transportation for himself and his children.
“One of them had a birthday party that happened to be a little west. The bike days turned out to be the perfect way to get her there,” he said. “If you want something quiet, but still gives you access to different parts of the city. I find it a perfect way to do that.”
Attrell said he’d noticed two cycling groups that benefited from any bike day in the city: those looking for space to train and those simply trying to get from point A to B.
For Attrell, this year’s reduced hours are a “missed opportunity.” He said that he had previously spoken to the NCC to propose open parkways on a weekday.
“I would love to see them pilot a Wednesday bikeday to encourage people to commute downtown on bike because it’s beautiful,” he said. “I think that it’s important to look at this and try to objectively balance as opposed to subjectively balance.”
“There’s clearly an imbalance. A lot more time and space is set aside for what basically ends up being almost exclusive car traffic use.”
But for the Champlain Park neighbourhood — directly adjacent to Kichi Zībī Mīkan — the traffic the closure pushed onto residential streets is the very reason why most residents support the reduced hours.
“On the weekends, when they had bikedays full day, people weren’t able to get out of their cars or out of their driveways,” said Bill Baggs, chair of the Champlain Park Traffic Safety Committee.
Last year, the Champlain Park community put out a blog post following NCC’s announcement about revised hours along Kichi Zībī Mīkan. The traffic committee wrote that they were “pleased” about the parkway’s shortened schedule, and hoped that congestion problems would lessen.
Baggs said the improvement in congestion was “quite notable” after the changes, but said traffic was still a problem for their neighbourhood whenever the parkway closed for any event.
“(Drivers) are angry so they’re travelling at high rates of speed. It continues to be a top priority to calm the traffic in our neighbourhood,” he said. “For events, (the NCC) need to see what the impact is.”
“I’ve always said, I don’t have a problem with people going through our neighbourhood as long as they’re obeying the rules.”
For Baggs, when it comes to Weekend Bikedays, he thinks the NCC needs to help ensure that surrounding neighbourhoods are safe.
“At least send out law enforcement so that the communities are protected against people who are going through our stop signs or going through our neighbourhoods at a high rate of speed,” he said. “The posted speed limit is there for a reason. We have stop signs strategically planned to calm traffic.”
Baggs said the Champlain Park Traffic Committee tended to prepare for the disagreement that came with the NCC parkway closures.
“You’re always going to have that,” Baggs said. “It doesn’t matter what you do.”
“You’re always going to have two sides at the fence.”
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