30 Days of Biking is a great big borderless global event whereby participants pledge to cycle every day throughout the month of April. With this years pledge I’m going to try and scope out safe bike routes around town to run errands.
This morning my daughter rushed off to school without her lunch, setting up my first of 30 Days of Biking adventures – mid day meal delivery to Lisgar Collegiate!
To get to the school I rode along Nepean Street, a quiet one way heading east, as indicated by the blue line on the attached map. But first I had to bike along Bronson for a short distance to get from where Primrose ends to where Nepean Street begins. Bronson is four lanes with cars and trucks rushing north/south. If you cross just as the light at Primrose and Bronson turn green, you should have enough time to ride the short distance along Bronson to Nepean St before the light switches. If this is at all nerve wracking, pushing your bike along the sidewalk in front of the Bronson Centre works too.
Nepean St is truncated just east of Percy St, but you can ride through the elementary school parking lot and down a short lane way to rejoin Nepean St a block over at Bay. Stay left of the chain that is sometimes strung across the lane way.
Nepean St is narrow and filled with speed bumps which keeps traffic safe and civilized. Continue all the way down Nepean to and across Elgin St. On the other side of Elgin St there’s a path you can follow right to the eastern side of City Hall. Turn right when you reach the wall with the big Ottawa logo and continue along the path over to Lisgar Street.
Turn left on Lisgar and ride to the end where you’ll arrive at the school. What a fabulous heritage building. Last spring it was one of the Doors Open Ottawa tours, which I highly recommend if it is on the list for this years event.
Lunch box delivered, I headed back along Lisgar Street which is a narrow one way heading west with traffic calming speed bumps similar to Nepean Street. Ride down Lisgar all the way to Bronson. Once at Bronson I usually dismount and walk the few yards north along the sidewalk to the traffic light which takes you back across to Primrose. Et voila!
OttawaVeloOutaouais 
Why not take Laurier? That would also allow you to avoid riding on Bronson because you’d only have to cross it. When I leave City Hall for a meeting in Chinatown, I tend to take Laurier even though it’s a couple of blocks out of the way.
When I commuted to Lisgar as a student from the west end, I didn’t have the SBL so I generally took Scott, Albert and Slater, then cutting through Confederation Park, City Hall, and Cartier Square.
The LBL is indeed another fine option, however I find the section of Laurier east of Elgin to city hall plaza (as described in the previous post: https://ottawavelooutaouais.wordpress.com/2014/03/31/early-morning-bike-loop-through-ottawas-winter-wonderland/) more dangerous than travelling the half block along Bronson, albeit only slightly. If one chooses to walk their bike along either of those nasty links the sidewalk in front of the Bronson Centre has less pedestrian traffic as well.
Thanks for the pre-LBL anecdote. If you had the guts to ride along Albert I salute you. I consider the stretch from Bayview to Bronson to be one of the most harrowing to ride along in the city.