Federal return-to-office driving commuter bike demand, mechanics say
City traffic counter data shows downtown bike trips rebounding post-pandemic
By Ben Andrews, Ottawa Citizen
Published Jul 09, 2026 | Last updated 30 minutes ago
Grant Burke left the federal public service a month ago, but still his former employer is putting him to work.
Over the last few years with Natural Resources Canada, Burke noticed an increasing number of his co-workers locking their bikes alongside his in the storage pen outside their office building near Dow’s Lake.
Now, as the front store manager at Full Cycle bike shop in Hintonburg, Burke said he’s seeing the trend continue, with brisk demand for buying or servicing commuter-style bikes lasting well into the typically slow summer months.
“Normally we’re like, ‘OK, it’s going to start to get a little bit chill,’ right?” he said.
“It has not been chill.”
Burke, who used to co-own Tall Tree Cycles, couldn’t say for sure whether federal public servants were responsible for the surge in traffic at the shop.
But as many rank-and-file government employees shift from three to four in-office days per week, lots of Burke’s recent customers are looking for the same, specific type of bike: functional, unpretentious, something “to get around” on.
“This is going to be a daily driver,” he said. “Think of it like a Honda Civic of bikes.”
Outside government office buildings downtown, plenty of bikes matching that description crowd the racks.
Public servants who spoke to the Ottawa Citizen said storage facilities are only getting fuller, and traffic counter data from the City of Ottawa appears to back that up.
The city operates 28 permanent and four temporary counters to track cycling and pedestrian activity across Ottawa.
Bike traffic in and out of the downtown core is captured at three locations: Laurier Avenue at Metcalfe Street, O’Connor Street at Somerset Street and Nanny Goat Hill, near Bronson Avenue and Slater Street.
Since 2019, the data “appear to reflect the impacts of COVID-19,” according to Kalle Hakala, a program manager in active transportation planning with the city.
Declines in daily and weekday averages between 2019 and 2020 are “likely linked to reduced commuting,” he added. But after a steep plunge at the start of the pandemic, the numbers have been steadily climbing.
Bike Ottawa’s Florence Lehmann has the photos to prove it.
Lehmann, a former public servant, used to take the Laurier Avenue bike lane into the office.
This week, shortly after the federal four-day return-to-office policy went into effect, she walked around downtown Ottawa photographing bike racks jammed to the brim with commuter bicycles.
The available infrastructure, she said, is a “mix and match.”
Some buildings follow the gold standard: sheltered bike parking accessible only with a key card. Other government workers are left to fend for themselves, locking their bikes wherever they can find a space on the street.
Multiple public servants in the latter camp told the Citizen they’ve had bikes stolen at work in the past.
Alongside “missing links,” or stretches of road where no bike lane is available, the fear of theft due to a lack of secure parking is a major deterrent to commuting by bike, Lehmann said.
Conversely, routes in Ottawa with separated pathways or protected bike lanes are the busiest in the city, according to Samuel Benoit, executive director for Vélo Canada Bikes.
Benoit’s data is based on a “community science project” by the advocacy group that saw volunteers conduct two-hour traffic counts at various spots across the city. Of the sites surveyed in Ottawa, Laurier was the busiest on-street spot.
Ruth Lau Macdonald, regional executive vice-president for the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC), said, with the state of public transit in the city, she’s not surprised to see some commuters turn to two wheels.
“We’re seeing these systems failures, especially in public transit, but also in the infrastructure that’s meant to support that commute into the office, whether it’s with vehicles or bikes,” she said.
“The simplest way to remove any barrier around commuting is to reduce unnecessary commuting.”
At Full Cycle, Burke is wondering whether demand for commuter bicycles will continue to rise — or prove to be a “fair weather” phenomenon.
“It’s really easy to ride in Ottawa in July,” he said. “Ask the same question in January.”
https://ottawacitizen.com/public-service/return-to-office-bike-demand
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