Sharing the sidewalk - Lessons from Ibiza

I was reading a blog post from West Side Action on whether or not implementing double-tracking bike and pedestrian paths in Ottawa was a good idea. My first thought: "I don't think so". Based on the example shown from Toronto it seems to me like it's a big waste of money. Besides, it's too controlled. There's a path for people jogging, another one for people biking and another one for people walking. What if you're jogging with a dog and a baby in a stroller? What if you are much faster on your bike then the cyclists in front of you? I don't think people are going to stick to the assigned path. And for that extra money, the paths shown don't even look that nice. I bet it's harder and more expensive to maintain three separate paths as opposed to one.

In any case, this made me think of the sidewalks we saw in Ibiza. I like their approach: share a very wide and very nice sidewalk. You can bike, jog, walk, or run freely and there's enough space for everyone and people can navigate on their own. And look at the pattern on the side walk! Isn't it better? I think that's where the city should spend the extra money! Make it functional and make it look nice.

Never give up! Never surrender!

There is an interesting story in the Ottawa Citizen about this woman who thought it would be nice to add a table and two chairs in front of her coffee shop for people to sit down and enjoy the city on a nice sunny day. She's had her little set up for quite some time now. However, apparently someone recently got coffee spilled on him or her while walking next to the table (aww...poor baby!) so that person complained to the city (are you kidding me !?), so the city made her remove the furniture from the sidewalk. I kid you not!

Then I went on and read that it's because she didn't have a permit and she can have her little eating area if she gets a permit, which should cost her around 250$. So she decided she won't apply for it. I don't get it. Yes, it's petty and it doesn't really do anything for the person who complained, but it seems like it's more about being right than doing the right thing. So even though they both know it's beneficial to have a table and chairs there, the solution is to take away the table and chairs. Am I missing something?

Stories like that are what makes Ottawa boring and somewhat backwards compared popular cities around the world. People are too complaisant. They give up way too easily. You have to work to get what you want. Never give up, never surrender. It's cheesy but appropriate. You can complain about rules all you want, ultimately you need to take action to make things better. Is it really that big a deal to require a permit?

Having an outdoor patio is such an important part of a city, both for the tourists and the people who live there. There were so many of them in Ibiza. Even Pizza Hut and McDonalds had them! Hopefully the owner of that coffee shop in Ottawa changes her mind, gets that permit and gets those chairs and table back there soon. I know it's totally unrelated to the poor baby who got coffee on his/her clothes, but it's worth it.

Here's some inspiration from Ibiza

Outdoor gym - lessons from Ibiza

One of the first things I noticed when I came to Ottawa is that it seems like a lot of people take care of themselves: They jog, walk, cycle, roller skate, etc. I was walking along a bike path next to the Ottawa river a while back and I saw soo many people doing their exercise. I though that was neat.

It seems like staying in shape is something the locals in Ibiza have in common with the locals in Ottawa. While there, I noticed that there was a training circuit,"Circuito en forma", designed near the houses and condos of the town to get people in shape , with 20something stations describing various exercises to do at that station.

There was also an outdoor gym, which I though was a great idea for Ottawa. Of course here in Ottawa, we would not be able to use it the whole year because of winter, but how is that different than kids' playground anyway? There was all sorts of machines with instructions on how to use each of them. People used the machine at various time of the day and night. I think something like this would be a nice and original (at least in Canada) addition to the street furniture in Ottawa.

Street Recycling Bins - Lessons from Ibiza

While away on vacation I noticed that the design of the recycling bins in Ibiza were very well thought out and we could probably take a few pointers from them. Like in many Canadian cities, Ottawa's public recycling bins could use a bit of a redesign. I'm sorry but they are nasty at times: overflowing with garbage juice leaking from the opening and jammed packed with a bit of everything (Ewww). I barely want to use them! Those little doors are so annoying and the bins are not visually appealing. I also think that we could use more of them (at least in the Byward Market).

Photo : Talkgreen

Here's what I saw in Ibiza's old town :


Don't they look much better? Each bin is assigned to a particular category of recyclable items and can be opened wide to fit items of various sizes (no jamming necessary). Each have a few images of icons showing people what goes inside, in case they don't understand or can't read the labels. Also, because of the way the handles are placed, you have to lift them and are more likely to see the icons on the bin, less likely to put an item in the wrong bin (smart design).

What's really neat about their design is that the bins are very deep (approx. 4-6 ft ) below ground so they can take on a lot more recycling and stay clean on the surface. (Unfortunately it's hard to see how deep it was on the photo)


If you look closely at the second picture you see a rectangle line on the ground around the four bins. That's a trap door that opens up, we assume to pick up the recycling. It also looks like the bin themselves could be detached from the ground to pick up the items underneaths. I thought that was pretty clever.

Back from Ibiza

View of the sunset on the Mediterranean Sea from Savannah Beach Club (Ibiza, Spain)

¡Hola! You might have noticed that I haven't posted for a while on MOOT. That's because my hubby and I went for a well deserved and long awaited vacation in Ibiza, Spain. It's a beautiful little island in the Mediterranean sea that is about half the size of the city of Ottawa with about 1/8th of its population. But although small, I found that this little island has a lot of style and great design inspirations and ideas that I think people in Ottawa would enjoy and might inspire Ottawans to use different design approaches. So soon, I'll be posting my findings both on MOOT and on the M2JL :: STUDIO Blog. I'll also eventually post pictures of some of the amazing sites we've discovered on my Flickr page, like the one above here taken from Savannah Beach Club. So stay tuned for more soon. ¡Hasta luego!