Ottawa's bike lanes a problem for cyclists

It was a deadly weekend for cyclists in central Canada, after four cyclists in Quebec and one in Ottawa were killed in collisions with motorists.

The death of a 16-year-old cyclist after a Sunday-night collision with a motorcycle at the intersection of Carling Ave. and Woodroffe Ave. in Ottawa came a day after a 57-year-old man in the Laurentians died in a collision on a Quebec road.

And on Friday, three cyclists were killed and another three injured on a highway southeast of Montreal after a collision that bore a chilling resemblance to similar accident last summer on Ottawa.

It was on a Sunday morning in July last year when five cyclists were riding on March Road in Kanata, near Solandt Road, when a van struck them. None of the cyclists died, but one spent months recovering in hospital.

The teen's death last night was the first cycling death in Ottawa since Melanie Harris was killed on Sept.16 last year after she was struck by a Socit de Transport de l'Outaouais bus on Sussex Drive.

Another cyclist was struck on Sussex Drive in April of this year but suffered only minor injuries.

In December Harris's father Jim urged the city to improve safety for cyclists on Sussex Drive, echoing a concerns of cyclists across the city: that many of Ottawa's bike lanes are either insufficient or improperly signed.

Meanwhile, the city's designated paths are often shared by pedestrians and subject to speed limits, making it difficult for cyclists to use them for training or getting anywhere at all but at the most leisurely pace.

The Google Map below shows nine intersections or roads we've identified as trouble spots across the city. Click on the pointers to see photos of potential trouble spots.