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An Ottawa driver went on a bike path and cyclists have many questions

Locals are mystified how the motorist even got on the trail

A car driving on an Ottawa multi-use path Photo by: Veloritas
February 28, 2023
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Another day, another absolutely bizarre action by a motorist. If you ride in cities, you’ve most likely come across the very annoying occurrence when a driver parks in a bike lane. When vehicles are in bike lanes, it creates extremely risky situations for riders. You’ll be forced onto the road and have to navigate around cars.

There’s been plenty of times when cars have done something even worse. Sometimes, motorists decide to use an adjacent bike lane to speed past traffic. But using a multi-use bike path as a shortcut? That’s new.

On Monday, Dan from Ottawa filmed a driver doing just that and tweeted about it.

“An SUV decides to use a dedicated bike (multi-active-use) path in Ottawa. The question is: Where the heck did the driver access the path?”

Locals were trying to figure out how a car would get on such a path. This wasn’t a bike lane on the side of a road.

One person thought it might be a car that was being chased by police. “I believe this is the vehicle I saw being chased by police at approximately 3:35pm at Strathcona and Queen Elizabeth Driveway,” Andrew Smythe replied.

Another person said that this isn’t the first time they’ve seen someone using the path as a shortcut. “Don’t use Trillium that often, but I’ve stopped 2 drivers from trying to drive onto it from the side streets,” Mis Ell added.