Ottawa bike paths are great for recreational biking. Not so much for actually getting where you need to go. I used to bike regularly for my commute from downtown to Kanata. The most harrowing part of the ride is the Carling Avenue bridge under the railway just west of the 19th Tee golf range. This is supposedly one of Ottawa's paved shoulder bike routes, but at the bridge there is barely room for the 2 lanes of car traffic, let alone bikes. There is a sign telling drivers not to pass bikes when passing under the bridge, but drivers don't seem to heed the sign.

Also, once past the bridge, the "paved shoulder" is in such bad condition that bikes are forced to ride on the road.

There is a dedicated bike path, which passes behind the 19th Tee, that I could take to avoid the bridge and the bad shoulder, but it drops me on the wrong side of Carling and I would have to bike half a kilometre the *wrong way* down Carling to get to a traffic light. I'd rather tackle the bridge.

It is frustrating to have a very nice 25km commute ruined by having to put your life on the line for the last 2km.