Kelly Ebbels

[These are some but not all of the things I wrote for the Montreal Gazette's On Two Wheels blog, organized into Routes; News, investigations, and analysis; Photo features; Miscellaneous; and Beyond Montreal.]

–Routes—

Bike touring season: to Vermont’s Champlain islands (Jul. 18 2009)

As I alluded to in my last post, we pointed our pedals south this week. Our destination: the northern islands of Lake Champlain, in big old Vermont. A solid 120-kilometres each way. …

Route 11: Ste. Anne de Bellevue, Morgan Arboretum, tales of St. Jean bike rides? (Jun. 24 2009)

 

–News, investigations, and analysis—

A peek into Montreal’s fixie culture (Jul. 9 2009)

If you passed by Park Avenue and St. Viateur last night, you were probably surprised, amused, or even offended by the bike-barbecue party on the sidewalk outside Brakeless, the so-hip-it-hurts specialty bike shop on the west side of the street. …

Number of missing Bixis climbs to 50 (Jun. 27 2009)

“So a friend was looking out his window the other night, and he saw near the Bixi racks [at Mt-Royal and Parc] a group of six kids. He said they looked up to no good. Sure enough, they ran up to the racks, pulled each of the six bikes up and out, and rode away on them laughing.” …

Bixi network to grow by 2000 bikes (Jul. 2 2009)

Next month our fair city will see the addition of a whopping 2000 new Bixi bikes at 100 new stations, adding service to Mercier/ Hochelaga Maisonneuve, Côte des Neiges/Notre Dame de Grâce, Villeray/St. Michel/ Park Extension and Southwest boroughs. The new grand total: 5000 bikes at 400 locations. …

G-V Circuit update: park officials to meet with cyclists (Jun. 11 2009)

I talked to Nathalie Lessard, the spokesperson for the Parc Jean-Drapeau and the director of sustainable development, about the Gilles-Villeneuve circuit situation (two posts down). …

On Bixi’s PR hangups: “citizens” bike blog is a hoax (May 15 2009)

I hadn’t seen À Vélo Citoyens before this week, and I’ve clearly been missing out. …

Bixi rolls today (May 11 2009)

As of this posting, 60 Bixi stations are now up and running around Montreal’s downtown, Old Port, and Plateau. The city will be installing more stations over the coming weeks, to finish the installation in early June with 3000 bikes at 300 stations. …

Réseau Blanc: lots of blanc, less of réseau (Dec. 28 2008)

Last weekend, Jack and I set off to do a semi-formal test of the Réseau Blanc. In the process we lost daylight, camera battery life, and the feeling in our toes, but we did get around to some of the main tracks of the winter bike network to see exactly what the city has been doing to keep the paths clear. …

City shuts down Mile End bike garage (Nov. 24 2008)

This weekend the Mile-End Bike Garage sent out very sad news to its members: that the City is forcing the shop to close its doors, immediately. To continue to operate they must relocate to a commercially-zoned area or some other institution. …

Behind bikeshare mania, Clear Channel (Nov. 14 2008)

I never though I’d be writing so much about this, but the truth is I can’t help it. In worldwide bike-related news, bikeshare mania is spreading like wildfire – especially since last week’s news that Montreal’s Bixi made the Time list of 2008′s best inventions. There were plenty of news stories in the wake of that story, but bloggers are even more keen to discuss it. From Riverwired: “It’s time for this to take hold in other cities around the world”; Design Planning: “well planned, thoughtful;” Burg42: “it’s still just a bloody bicycle folks, not a cure for the common cold!” …

TIME likes Bixi (Nov. 5 2008)

So BIXI is continuing to spread the good news of our Montrealais bike paradise, with the nascent public bike-share system clocking in at #19 on Time magazine’s list of 50 best inventions of 2008. …

Côte Ste-Catherine bike route: happening (Oct. 7 2008)

This road work here. is *actually* the beginning of the fabled Côte-Ste-Catherine bike path. (And yes, I double-checked with a construction worker.) …

Cyclists defy McGill’s new traffic regulations (Sept. 16 2008)

Last Wednesday, Montreal cyclists defied McGill’s new bike restrictions through its downtown campus by riding en masse past the school’s orange signs and traffic guards. …

Montreal’s many bicycle co-ops (May 21, 2008)

I used to think that cycling was a solitary pastime. But lately I’ve come to realize, through taking long bike trips with roommates, watching gaggles of bike racers on TV, or working on my bike at a local bike co-op – that the best cycling experiences tend to be with others. And it’s the more gregarious cyclists in Montreal who have figured out that a collective, community-based model is ideal for bike repairs. Combine DIY maintenance with collective tool-sharing and teaching, and you have a great way to save money, get more out of your bike, and learn to love cycling even more. …

–Photo features—

Tour de l’île, in photo splendor (Jun. 9 2009)

Et on commence! True, I was a bit late to the gate; it was one of those rough Sunday mornings. For some great photos of the Cirque de Soleil send-off, the Gazette paid a real photographer to follow the action, which is more than can be said for this junior bloggist with a Kodak. Still, I happily snapped away as we rode along. Here is a montage. …

The Montreal Die-in, and other car-free fun (Sept. 22 2008)

In case you missed Jonathan’s post or the flyers around town, cyclists topped off a day of car freedom Monday with the third annual Montreal Die-In, a street theatre project where hundreds gathered to feign death on the asphalt. …

–& etc.—

In defence of toe clips (Jul. 24 2009)

I sometimes take it for granted that most people in my cycling life ride with toe clips. …

Montreal: not so sustainable? (Feb. 8 2009)

Corporate Knights, Canada’s independent magazine for ‘responsible business’, has just released its third-annual Sustainability Review of Canadian cities. By its count, Montreal is not doing so well; it came in last of all big cities, far behind Edmonton, Ottawa, Toronto, and even Calgary. Vancouver, a medium-size city, also came in ahead of Montreal, as did Halifax, Quebec, Yellowknife, and Saskatoon. …

Culture-jamming, urban planning (Oct. 16 2008)

A friend alerted me to news about the launch of an innovative bike signage experiment in L.A., where local cyclists have teamed up with graphic designers to create high-impact signs for the city’s bike paths and roads. The philosophy behind the 4th Street Bikeway Project: that “comprehensive wide-spread signage can be a powerful tool in convincing people to take up cycling as a mode of transportation.” …

Getting doored (Oct. 9 2008)

Doored: v. to crash into and/or over a driver’s side door (of a vehicle) while riding your bike. A painful biking experience where two conflicting world-views collide. …

–Beyond Montreal—-

Bike travels: the ups and downs of San Francisco (Sept. 22 2009)

San Francisco might be one of the most densely populated cities in the U.S., but it certainly doesn’t feel cramped. Count the 42 hills, steepest street pitch: 31.5 percent, and you realise people here have a lot of ground to cover, a lot of places to stick their neck up for some of the endless cool breeze that blows across the bay. During my five days in San Francisco I did my best to get around, but I didn’t even scratch the surface. I didn’t have a bike, either, and it might have been better that way. …

Bike travels: the view from Washington, D.C. (Sept. 2 2009)

On a mid-day weekday in the heat of summer, Washington, D.C. feels a little eerie. The bike paths are there, the parks are nice, the waterfront is accessible. So where is everyone? …