Having viewed a previous post on biking to the Costco in Gatineau, a resident of Overbrook was wondering if there was a similar bike route to the Costco off Innes Road. Bike lanes have recently been introduced along Cyrville Road creating huge improvements for cyclists trying to get to destinations south-east of the Queensway/401 highway split, such as the Costco in question. The following route includes the new lanes along Cyrville, pointing out a few challenging spots along its trajectory.
The Adawe bridge spans the Rideau River from Strathcona Park in Sandy Hill and touches down on the opposite shore of the Rideau River at the westernmost tip of Overbrook – a fine spot to begin our adventure.
I turned right and headed south along the Rideau River Pathway for a short distance before turning inland at the little green sign pointing towards Queen Mary Street.
I then turned right along quiet North River Road, then left onto Presland Road West.
An extensively upgraded pedestrian and cycle crossing has been introduced to help traverse busy Vanier Parkway, connecting the two sections of Presland Road.
I continued along Presland, a residential street which morphs into Hardy Street for a couple of blocks at the eastern end. I turned right off Hardy onto a short bike path link to a bidirectional bike path that runs along Coventry Road.
The path ends a short distance east at the lights crossing over to the St Laurent Shopping Centre. A bike lane then continues on the opposite side heading east. Things get a little hairy as the bike lane crosses a long extended merging lane onto St Laurent Boulevard.
Once across St Laurent the path continues along busy Ogilvie Road which I followed for a short distance before turning right onto Cyrville Road.
Cyrville road once cut through the village of Cyrville, the centre of a farming community that supplied the Byward Market with bountiful produce. It gradually succumbed to a series of amalgamations and the land was taken over by heavy industries. You may notice lingering hints of the old community of Cyrville when passing through, the most predominate being the Notre-Dames De Lourdes church.
The bike lane continues up and over the 417 for the first of two occaisions then, just beyond Labrie, it veers away from the edge of the road to become it’s own seggregated lane – always welcome.
The lane eventually snuggles up to the road once again, then gets a little narrower as it passes over the 417 for a second time before easing off again once on the other side. Be aware of a telephone support cable stuck in to the centre of the path just before heading over the 417 again, particularly if you are pulling a trailer. I managed to squeeze my Wike trailer to the right away from traffic.
The least pleasant stretch of Cyrville Road is the approach to Innes Road. After sharing space with a turning lane into the Home Depot parking, the painted bike lane then shares a long curved exit lane as it approaches Innes. Innes is as a multi-lane major road artery that leads to on/off ramps to the 417, so traffic can be pretty frenetic heading through this intersection.
The bike lane dissapears beyond the Innes road intersection requiring one to ride in traffic for 10 yards or so before turning in to the Costco parking lot.
The bike rack is near the south west corner of the building so I stayed to the right while heading around the building, avoiding the usual route cars take, which is to head to the left upon driving on to the lot.
Leaving the site requires carefully negotiating with cars funneling through the same exit. Most are well behaved while leaving the lot as there is often a police officer guiding traffic.
I headed back the way I came with very similar conditions on the return route.
Et voila!
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