I often bike along Prince of Wales Drive on my early morning and weekend rides as it’s a convenient route to areas south of Ottawa. It has wide shoulders most of the way and the traffic is light at those times. Yesterday I went for a ride at noon to cover some short streets off of Prince of Wales between Hog’s Back and Hunt Club Road. Here’s how it went.
The painting within the tympanum over the garage of this house just south of the Hog’s Back intersection always attracts my attention whenever I go by, so this time I paused to take a closer look.
The angel appears to be receiving a violin lesson from an older man. The black wings could be interpreted as a symbol of imperfection as he attempts to master his instrument. The woman embracing the sleeping infant adds to a theme of nurturing.
The first side street I biked down was Rideau Heights Drive. This blunt channel letter sign communicates loud and clearly to travellers heading into town along Prince of Wales. UPDATE Dec.6 – Someone has since changed the sign to a poor shadow of it’s former glory! ‘sniff’
Down the road beyond a whole mess of big new houses is this small campsite with lots of camping trailers.
Not much of a view looking north from the campsite towards a fuel company’s truck parking lot, but they did have this great old steel wheeled model parked out by the street.
Continuing along Prince of Wales, I turned up Hunt Club Road to check out Laser Street and Grudwara Road. Nothing of visual interest to report here, unless you’re a fan of giant inflatable ATV’s.
Heading back into town I ventured down Wellsmere Crescent, Stephanie Ave and Rideau Shore Crescent hoping to catch a glimpse of the Rideau River, but the view is blocked by houses like these.
So, would I recommend riding along this section of Prince of Wales? Early in the morning yes, otherwise no. It is bike-able, thanks to the generous shoulders along most of the way, but the traffic is really aggressive during the day. Lots of trucks too. Prince of Wales and Hunt Club came fifth in the rating of most dangerous intersections in the city last year with 30 accidents. Hunt Club and Riverside just over the bridge was the runaway champ with a whopping 53! UPDATE: Jan 2017 – Still the worst intersection according to the latest statistics – 60 crashes in 2015. Prince of Wales & Hunt Club also tied for 5th once again, up from 0 to 36 crashes.
OttawaVeloOutaouais 
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