The Mackenzie Avenue bike lane might be new but it seems the old habits of some cyclists are hard to change.
Riders can be seen throughout the day using the sidewalk on Mackenzie Avenue instead of the brand new bike lane across the street. Those cyclists say the new bike lane is too complicated and time consuming to access from Sussex Drive or Murray Street.
"You have to take quite a dog's leg to get on it and so there is a real temptation not to use it," said Cathy Rogers, a frequent user.
"You have to take about three different crosswalks to get to it," said her son, David Roger.
The $4 million segregated bi-directional bike lanes were unveiled last month and the city of Ottawa said it could take time to get everyone off the sidewalks.
"We will be working with cyclists and talking to them about it so they can accept this solution and avoid the temptation of taking a little short cut," said Zlatko Krstulic, a Senior Project Manager with the city of Ottawa.
Krstulic said the city looked at all plans for that area, including moving the bike lane to the other side of the road, but decided its spot next to the U.S. Embassy made the most sense.
"You are talking about a few second delay and as they start to see that this (the bike lane) is a place they are welcome and comfortable ... I think we will win them over," he said.
The plan is to eventually connect this bike lane to another bike lane on Wellington Street.
"It doesn't have any areas where there is competing traffic crossing the bike lane ... and people that are heading to the canal have a clear link," he said.
