Bike commute from Rockcliffe Park to Downtown and Chinatown

I received a couple of requests for commuter routes starting from Rockcliffe Park. One was how to get to Chinatown and the other was how to access the path along the Ottawa River below Parliament Hill. I combined the two since the following recommended routes vary only slightly. Here goes.

Blue line is the route I followed from Rockcliffe to Chinatown. Red line is the slight variation heading home in the opposite direction. Green line is the route towards the path that runs behind Parliament Hill.

Our adventure begins in the Village Green, an intimate and contemplative public space near the centre of Rockliffe Park.

I exited the Village Green at the corner of Mariposa and Springfield, and headed west on Meriposa.

I then turned at the first left down Sir Guy Carleton St and followed it right to the end to the Soeurs de la Charité convent.

Turned right on Maple Lane and followed it to where it met up with Lisgar Road.

Turned left on Lisgar, which skirts around the Governor General’s Residence, delineated by one of the fanciest fence and fence post combinations around.

I turned right on Dufferin and continued all the way down to the river. I got onto the Rideau River Eastern Pathway by turning left and headed up river.

The path goes under St Patrick Street, which, according to the cyclist in the orange shirt up ahead, was covered in water a week ago.

I continued along the path, which is a very beautiful ride along the river, all the way to the Cummings Bridge, and the one messy spot on our tour.

There is a bike lane over the bridge heading west, but it is presently cut short by construction happening on the west side of the bridge like so.

I suggest crossing over to the south side of the bridge back at the lights and walking your bike along the sidewalk. Fortunately it’s a pretty interesting bridge to cross by foot. For example, you can look out onto Cummings Island which was once accessible and had a general store with the only phone service in town.

There isn’t a bike lane heading east over the bridge, and it’s an extremely busy artery with buses and impatient commuter traffic, so I highly recommend walking your bike along the sidewalk heading east as well, construction or no construction.

On the west side of the river there are three very well trodden desire line paths of various steepness that head up to Besserer Park. The path furthest up shore is the least steep, like so. UPDATE– May 2015 There is now a paved bike lane where the desire lane path used to be, as described in this post.

I pushed my bike up to Besserer Park then zig-zagged my way along quiet streets (Besserer, Wurtenburg, Daly, Cobourg) to Stewart St which has a very freshly painted bike lane line.

Stewart is a one way heading west, so on the commute back to Rockcliffe take Wilbrod St which is one way heading east (see red line on above map).

After crossing busy King Edward I headed one more block west and turned left on Cumberland, then right on Wilbrod. I then cut through the Ottawa U campus in front of Tabaret Hall.

I crossed Laurier and continued through the campus on the other side. The road takes a little jog left then right onto a multi use Jean Jacques Lussier with a very wide pedestrian lane, a bike lane heading south and a car lane with a bike sharrow. Ugh, so close. For more on my opinion on sharrows visit this post (click).

It then veers to the left and becomes Marie Curie. Don’t go onto Marie Curie. Instead turn right,which will take you along a mini switch back bike lane and under Nicholas St, to pedestrian lights that get you across Colonel By Drive.

Then it’s up onto the pedestrian bridge over the canal, then right onto the bike path along the canal on the other side. To continue west to Chinatown I cut through Confederation Park to the corner of Elgin and Laurier where I joined the Laurier designated bike lane and followed it all the way to where it ends at Bronson, across Bronson, and down Cambridge St N to the heart of Chinatown.

To get to the path behind Parliament Hill I went straight, versus cutting through Confederation Park (see green line on the above map). The path follows right along the canal. Rather than staying on the path many cyclists choose to ride up the NAC traffic ramp. I find it a bit dangerous because cars do travel quite quickly down the ramp, and there are ‘do not enter’ signs at the bottom of the ramp, so if you were to get hit I’m not sure who they would go after. I also once saw the police give a ticket to a cyclist heading up the down ramp.

As the path approaches Sappers Bridge there are two short flights of steps to climb. This might explain why many cyclists choose the NAC ramp versus the path, however there are bike gutters on the edge of the steps that make it easy to push your bike up.

Continuing under Sappers Bridge takes you out the other side on the path that goes down behind Parliament Hill.

Et voila!