Cycling in Winter – A Viable Means of Transportation

Matthieu Gagnon, Vice President

As a community association board member, a big part of our role is to validate claims the city makes when making decisions regarding policy, development and infrastructure. The city’s transportation master plan is looking to shift trips from cars to other modes such as transit, walking and cycling. I highly doubt that, for most of Orléans, the city will invest enough in public transit to make it a viable option for people to get around the community in the short run. The focus for transit will likely remain the commute downtown. The distances required to get to most places in our community make walking very time-consuming and unlikely to be a good alternative to driving for most community members. I do believe that cycling is viable for a lot of people because I have been doing it for over two years now. One common criticism of cycling is that winter is a problem. Over the last two winters, I decided to try it to see if the criticism is valid. 

I started riding a bike in winter using my trusty old beater bike in 2023 mostly to get to the grocery store since we do not have a second car and I occasionally needed to get groceries at Metro. The bike was not set up for winter cycling. It had no fenders, no pogies, and no studded tires. I found that riding on dry roads in winter needed a bit of trial and error to figure out how to dress to not have freezing hands and to protect my face but, once I figured it out, riding was pleasant and only required going a little bit slower and more carefully than in the summer.

Last winter, I decided to invest a little bit. I decided to buy studded tires and poggies for my e-bike. I still mostly did short rides in the neighbourhood since the combination failed to tackle the state of the trail between January and April. However, if it was not for a bout of COVID, I would have been able to commute downtown in early January when snow cover was minimal. The studded tires made it so I could go faster and required me to be less careful. The pogies were a serious game-changer for comfort while riding. I still used transit to get downtown because I did not have a good route to do the bike commute.

For this winter, my commute changed to Vanier. The commute to Vanier is not very viable by transit since it would take well over an hour. The alternative became making the bike commute work, buying a car for the three months a year where cycling is more difficult, or not meeting the arbitrary in-office requirements. Being someone who believes that we should move away from cars for personal transportation, I decided to go all out to make the bike commute work. I got myself a fat tire e-bike and fully equipped it for winter riding. I have successfully done a few trips to and from Vanier in various conditions from shear ice to crunchy snow to fluffy snow and various weather from very cold to freezing rain. I believe that my experience is now sufficient to pronounce myself on the viability of winter cycling.

Once I figured out how to dress for the weather, the cold and precipitation became non-issues. On the coldest days, I have my thin balaclava that goes under the ski helmet and goggles that I use instead of the traditional bike helmet. I wear thin cycling gloves under my poggies that are sufficient to prevent my fingers from getting cold down to -15 °C. The cold is no longer a factor in the enjoyment of winter cycling especially on short trips.

The only factor that is an issue for winter cycling is the lack of adequate winter-maintained infrastructure. Riding on the unmaintained trail is pretty rough. You have to be extremely vigilant since the snow conditions can change. This challenge can be mostly overcome with proper equipment, but it is not reasonable to expect a lot of people to get that equipment and develop the skills to do it. 

Winter cycling is a viable alternative to driving but, just like cycling the rest of the year, we need to develop and maintain the infrastructure needed to make people feel safe. We need to continue to invest in pathways and bike lanes that can be maintained. The community association will continue to work with the city, elected representatives, and community groups such as Bike Ottawa to ensure that we keep improving transportation options in Orléans.

If you are interested in how to get started winter cycling, I recommend this video by Shifter, a great YouTuber from Calgary.