Short ride today. Work related. Middle of the day. Almost got smushed on Laurier by a car cutting me off as it turned south onto Elgin. I was going straight. Didn’t give chase as I had an appointment. Couldn’t report it either as I managed to avoid getting hit, so it won’t show up on any heat map intended to give bicyclists an idea of where most accidents occur. Shook it off and made it to my meeting on time. Then I headed South on King Edward for a bit.
These sculptures along King Edward are by Karl Ciesluk.
Some great historical before and after shots of King Edward can be found here.
OttawaVeloOutaouais 
I never go on King Edward, but the second “sidewalk” bit next to the street parking is curious. Is that for when passengers are getting out of their vehicles?
I’m not sure what the second sidewalk is for. Good question. There aren’t any bike lanes along King Edward, however the outside lanes north of Rideau are quite generous in width for road sharing. That said, you are wise to avoid this stretch of King Edward. It has lots of trucks transferring from the Queensway to Quebec over the MacDonald Cartier bridge, and all vehicles seem to like to go really fast heading towards or just getting off the bridge. So, until they’ve implemented some form of traffic calming, and built another bridge for trucks to use, which seems to be a ways away (see http://www.canada.com/Public+input+proposed+Ottawa+River+bridge+slated+June/6674459/story.html), I’d recommend continuing to avoid King Edward. Unless of course you have a personal mission to bike down every street in Ottawa/Gatineau at least once. Then proceed with caution.