Let’s build a future that works for all of us. Join in at mikeforleader.ca
Cassie Smith (she/her)
@cassiesmith.bsky.social
Feminist geographer and cargo bike mom. Volunteer: Bike Ottawa VP, For Our Kids, Kidical Mass championing safe, sustainable, fun, and equitable spaces especially for kids. Work: Transportation strategy and solutions with EnviroCentre. Views my own.
Ottawa police seeking suspect who stole specialty bike for man with Parkinson’s disease
Ottawa police seeking suspect who stole specialty bike for man with Parkinson’s disease
Ottawa police are seeking the public’s assistance in locating a suspect who allegedly stole a specialty bike designed for an elderly man with advanced Parkinson’s disease in Alta Vista.
bit.ly
Land use and transit are safety countermeasures
Got a new paper out today... "Urban areas with lower commute mode share by car and, to a lesser extent, lower VMT are most strongly associated with lower per capita transportation fatality rates." (and it's open access if you are the type of person who wants to read a research paper)
"In the Canadian capital of Ottawa, 14% of vehicles were speeding on Katimavik Road last fall while the cameras were in use, but a whopping 80% did in May following their removal." www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
What Happens When Speed Cameras Get Shut Off
In 2025, Ontario banned automated traffic enforcement. Now the number of drivers exceeding the speed limit has surged, according to traffic data.
bloomberg.com
😭 I was shocked to find this beloved modal filter was removed today. Despite endless (endless!) consultation on most things (especially anything to make cycling safer) I didn't even get a notice that this (making streets less safe) was going to happen. @arieltroster.com I've emailed your office.
Rural Transportation Services and Carleton University 4th-year Civil Engineering Students have been working on a research study to examine transportation preferences among residents of our rural Ottawa communities. The survey at tinyurl.com/ottawaruralt... closes Aug 10.
When I come across Doug Ford’s “Safer Ontario” ad campaign I think of the drug detritus in playgrounds in our neighborhood. I’ve only seen his changes making our community less safe. I didn’t use to see this nearly as often when there was a supervised consumption site open nearby. Thanks Doug.
H/t to @multisolving.bsky.social for sharing Karl's work. Love it!
Another incredibly talented and dedicated #solarpunk #artist, Karl Schulschenk, has just joined the #storySeedLibrary ! https://storyseedlibrary.org/authors/karl-schulschenk/ His works are available under #creativeCommons BY-NC-ND 4.0! #art #illustration #climate #futurism #HopePunk
Fighting for their future while also getting dinner on the table every day. Raising kids right now requires a lot. For some it's the mental gymnastics to ignore (or fuel) the climate emergency and for others it's the determination to face it and do everything we can to reduce its impacts.
“Someday they will ask me what we did about the climate emergency. We tried so hard, I will say. We knew, we organized, we pushed for change. I hope I will be able to say we finally came to our collective senses.” Maggie Knight writes. 🌎 thetyee.ca/Culture/2026...
The NCC's slogan this summer is "cottage vibes without the drive" and I am here for it! Biked to Bates Island Bistro, River House, and the new East Wharf swim dock in the past 24 hours! 🚲🥂🚲🏊♂️🍦🚲🏊♂️. Everything but the food and drink is free. Incredible places for people 💞 @ncc-ccn.gc.ca
Overheard on my street this morning: Driver of Black RAM pickup: This is a beautiful area. Hard for parking though. My neighbour: 🤷♂️ That's a city.
My most millennial trait might be printing off forms, filling them in by hand, and scanning them to send back. Was that PDF meant to be fillable? Then why was it so hard to figure out?!?
Bike bus, but for grown-ups! This would be a great way to meet neighbours, support newbie cyclists, and have fun getting to work. Happy to share my bike bus (to school) tips if helpful! #OttBike @bikeottawa.bsky.social @robattrell.bsky.social
Richmond’s Commuter Bike Bus starts tomorrow 7/29
Ottawa has been a leader in protected intersections. They went from rare pilot to commonplace across the city in the past decade. And not the city, but the NCC has been incredible at improving access to water, placemaking, and adding biodiversity to the city!
Everyone loves to talk about what their city governments are doing wrong. What’s something your city is getting right? (And tell us what city it is!)
This is what I miss most about my brief time in Toronto. So many libraries, so much access.
toronto does libraries right. our current mayor has managed to open every single library branch on all 7 days of the week. i don't believe any other major city has achieved the same in north america, not even nyc. we have the best library system in the world 🤭
The Dutch have been studying bio-resilient cities for the past decade, protect existing trees in paving projects (often taking car lanes to give #trees more room to grow), and have added 1000s of new trees when improving bike lanes. The result in Utrecht is a cooler, more beautiful city to bike in.
There are so many families out riding bikes today in Ottawa! 🚲💙🚲💙🚲 Let them know about Kidical Mass by printing off a stash of our bike tags that you can leave on handlebars or hand out at the park or the beach. Download here: drive.google.com/file/d/1fTm7...
AI is the asbestos we're shoveling into the walls of our civilization and our descendants will be digging it out for generations: pluralistic.net/2026/04/08/p... 36/
Pluralistic: Process knowledge (08 Apr 2026) – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow
pluralistic.net
Bikeshare supports transit beyond the first/last mile - it provides redundancy and options when service is disrupted. See 👇🏼
Commuters in Greater Manchester who have been forced on to replacement buses during a major track overhaul have been offered up to 20 minutes of free travel on rental bikes. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
"It’s a win-win in a lot of ways" - Cassie Smith @envirocentre.bksy.social Read more in Ted Raymond's CTV News article on Ottawa's proposed School Streets pilot. It's an step to creating safer spaces for children to walk, roll +cycle to school while building healthier, more connected communities.
Committee approves ‘school streets’ pilot project at 3 Ottawa schools
The City of Ottawa’s public works and infrastructure committee has approved a pilot project that would close streets in front of three Ottawa schools to vehicle traffic during drop-off and pick-up…
buff.ly
This is a whole new level of removing human agency.
Woman taken to hospital after being assaulted by broken bottle in ByWard Market
It's always reasons why we can't make things better. Somehow the status quo is always more important than making things safer.
Every time I read an email that says "I support safety, but not removing parking spaces" I feel like I'm going insane
This is awesome! A great way to support customers and the kind of creative caring thinking we're going to need to see a lot more of with the aging population (cc @lloydalter.bsky.social).
What a joy to celebrate 35 years of The Good Companion Seniors’ Centre grocery bus! The bus is funded by Massine’s and picks up seniors for a twice-monthly grocery run. Volunteers help the seniors shop and Dave Massine’s team caters snacks. Then the bus drops off the seniors at home.
Cycling with disabled children isn't just "can they ride a bike?" It's whether they can make the actual journey needed. Kate Ball shares her family's story: rear-steer tandems, trikes, e-tandems, and years of trial and error. www.cyclesprog.co.uk/inspiration/... @wheelsforwellbeing.org.uk
The right cycle for the journey: cycling with disabled children
From rear-steer tandems to e-bikes, Kate Ball shares practical advice on cycling with disabled children for everyday journeys.
cyclesprog.co.uk
Municipal politicians talk a lot about meeting "TransformTO" goals. I have made a tool that actually tracks commute mode share in Toronto and measures how close we are to hitting these goals! See what your ward's transportation mode share is and hold candidates to account.
Just thinking about how the babies at Kidical Mass 2023 will all be school-aged now. Time with kids flies by—enjoy it on a bicycle.
Reminds me of one of my favourite vacation photos of all time. I was trying to take the second photo (a Monreal bioswale), but my kid swung around a pole right into it and has the funniest confused look on his face.
I'm back home after 3 weeks travelling, mostly in the Okanagan. We spent a lot of time visiting family so my pictures aren't all about bikes—but a lot of them are 😉. Great safe and inviting stuff happening in the Interior!
I'm back home after 3 weeks travelling, mostly in the Okanagan. We spent a lot of time visiting family so my pictures aren't all about bikes—but a lot of them are 😉. Great safe and inviting stuff happening in the Interior!
Nobody disputes that having access to a car in a car-dominated society is good. It gives one access to jobs, healthcare, food, education, social opportunities and more. All we're asking is for people to go one step deeper and ask why access to such basic rights requires buying and operating a car.
I grew up in Jackson Heights in Queens and we still had a car, and our lives got measurably better when we did.
There's only one real solution... If we continue to burn more #fossilfuels, this will likely be one of the LEAST smoky summers in the rest of our lives...
'Just stop burning fossil fuels.' Scientists stress that our smoky skies only have one true fix | CBC News
Smoky skies in Toronto have led to new scrutiny of government efforts to fight fires and manage forests. But scientists say the realistic way to tackle the smoke is fighting climate change itself.
cbc.ca