SLOE has been advocating with the City and the National Capital Commission to improve conditions for pedestrians and cyclists. The NCC’s response to concerns about the challenges for pedestrians and cyclists crossing Colonel By at Clegg has so far been very modest (formalizing the path on the south side of Clegg at Colonel By), but we will continue to pursue this issue. We are also hopeful that the City will respond favourably to our interest in bicycle lanes on Pretoria Bridge. Lanes on McIlraith Bridge (the bridge over the Rideau River that links Main and Smyth) would be a next step.

A pedestrian bridge crossing the canal in the vicinity of Clegg is an idea that has been floated numerous times by various residents and by our councilor. Along with other members of the Ottawa East Community Association, we think it is worth putting our oar in on this one (so maybe we’ll at least get a boat for the crossing). SLOE has posted a couple of research projects with Ottawa University, to engage students in helping us move this initiative forward by investigating costs, benefits and approaches for bridges in other similar situations, and by conducting survey work to determine potential usage levels from Ottawa East and Glebe residents. We have also begun to establish links with the Glebel Community Association on this project. The beauty and tremendous success of  the Corkstown bridge between University of Ottawa and Somerset Street gives us hope.
   
Though they are still just a twinkle in our eye, SLOE members have been cooking up some other ideas to manage transportation demand in and through Old Ottawa East. If this is a topic of interest to you, there is a lot of room to play!

The Rideau River Nature Trail is another SLOE initiative with pedestrian and cycling dimensions.

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