Mayor's video, bike rally mark Round 2 in Queen Elizabeth Driveway debate

Time might be running out for bike riders, runners and pedestrians to have the Queen Elizabeth Driveway to themselves this summer, but debate over the long-term future of the "active use" program has entered a spirited new cycle.

On Saturday, about 200 cyclists took part in a "critical mass" bike rally partly fuelled by two social media posts by Mayor Mark Sutcliffe. 

Last week, Sutcliffe shared a video in which he called on the National Capital Commission (NCC) to rethink the QED segment of its summer program, which limits motorists' access to a 2.4-kilometre stretch of the street between May and October.

He cited concerns about emergency vehicle access and congestion on nearby streets and asked that hours be relaxed for cars during morning and afternoon rush hours. 

"Think about the number of cars that are displaced every single minute so that one or two cyclists can use the road instead of the [nearby Rideau Canal] pathway," Sutcliffe said while filming himself on the QED Tuesday afternoon.

Sutcliffe also wrote in his post, which he shared Wednesday, that new data suggests very few cyclists and pedestrians use the QED when it's off-limits to vehicles.

"Not a single pedestrian or cyclist passed me for the entire two and a half minutes," he wrote.

Cue the backlash

The optics and substance of Sutcliffe's messaging quickly came under attack.

"I don't think the mayor realizes just the amount of anger and fury he has unleashed," said Neil Saravanamuttoo, one of the promoters of Saturday's ride.

"When our mayor decided to do that video, we were incentivized to get more people out to speak," said participant Linda Mathies of the ride, a regular summer event. 

In an interview, Sutcliffe said the discussion had "taken on a life of its own" and that critics have unfairly labelled him an opponent of active transportation. 

"I'm totally fine with Queen Elizabeth Driveway north of Pretoria Bridge into downtown being closed at certain times to allow for bicycles and pedestrians," he said, adding he's only concerned about the stretch from Pretoria Bridge to Fifth Avenue.  

"It really is just about where is the best place to create more space for cyclists and pedestrians. And my argument is that this isn't it." 

2nd tweet posted during storm

The debate over the QED previously peaked with a pair of duelling open letters last month from Sutcliffe and NCC CEO Tobi Nussbaum. 

The city then conducted a six-day study that generated some of the data briefly glimpsed at the end of Sutcliffe's video post. 

"Some people didn't see it," Sutcliffe said. "A lot of people were saying, where's the data?"

So Sutcliffe shared the numbers, along with vehicle figures from before the program launched, more prominently in a followup post on Thursday. It published the same afternoon a major storm brought flash flooding and power outages to the city, as well as amid ongoing problems with the city's LRT network.

Saravanamuttoo, deputy director of a non-profit founded by Sutcliffe's main opponent in the 2022 mayoral election, called the timing of the posts "baffling."

"We've got a crisis with our light rail system," Saravanamuttoo said. "We have these extreme weather events that are happening all around us and the mayor wants to focus on a couple of kilometres of closed road."

Saravanamuttoo also criticized Sutcliffe for not including pedestrian usage statistics when citing figures from the study and argued Sutcliffe may have been trying to distract from Ottawa's troubled LRT system — a claim Sutcliffe called "preposterous." 

"The city is capable and my office is capable and I am capable of dealing with more than one issue at a time," Sutcliffe said.

"I cited both pedestrians and cyclists in one of the stats that I provided, pointing out that the total number of pedestrians and cyclists using the pathway in 2019 is greater than the number using both the road and the pathway in 2023."

The reaction to Sutcliffe's QED posts in emails and phone calls and encounters with people affected by Thursday's flooding has been "overwhelmingly positive," Sutcliffe said, adding that social media doesn't accurately reflect public opinion.

"If it were, I wouldn't be the mayor of Ottawa right now," Sutcliffe said.

Future of program in NCC's hands

Maria Somjen, 76, lives half a block away from the QED and said she wants it permanently closed to vehicles because she finds it safer to ride on.

"I'm getting elderly," she said Saturday as the bike rally participants rode by. "It's nice and wide. If I kind of veer a little bit or lose my balance, I really have a lot of space here and I love it."

The NCC, which will ultimately decide the driveway's future, said it's attracted 74,000 "visits" since May. ("Fewer than 1,000 people a day, [which] is in line with, or even smaller than, the City of Ottawa data I cited," Sutcliffe said.) 

So will the program be back next year?

"The NCC is gathering additional data and conducting further public survey during the current season, and the results will help inform future iterations of our active use initiatives," a commission spokesperson said via email.