Marie Lemay says she hopes that "people would turn to us and say: How is it done in Ottawa? How is it done in our capital?"

For this to happen, Ottawa and Gatineau must work closely with the NCC, as each own interconnecting parts of the infrastructure in the core, Lemay said.

The head of the National Capital Commission says she hopes Ottawa Mayor Larry O'Brien will join her and Gatineau Mayor Marc Bureau as they travel to a major bicycling conference in Copenhagen in June to pick up tips on how to turn the national capital into a cycling role-model for Canada.

"If it is him, I'll be thrilled and, if it's not, and it's a councillor, I'll be very happy. The important thing is that we do have a political champion with us," said the NCC's CEO.

The City of Ottawa is already sending a staffer.

Travelling in China with a trade delegation from Ottawa, O'Brien said it's unlikely he will attend the conference, but he believes someone on council should.

He said the Copenhagen summit is "an important initiative," but there are "people on council who have more experience than me looking at these issues."

"(The conference) will give us a shared platform of knowledge. When you talk about common vision, that's how it starts," Lemay said.

The Velo-city Global 2010 conference will feature four days of presentations and discussions by cycling experts and policy-makers from around the world. Topics include cycling in mega-cities; cycling in cold, hilly cities; suburban cycling; and lifting the social status of the bicycle, among many others.

The sheer fact of being in Copenhagen and observing the cycling culture there is also an important aspect of the trip, Lemay said.

"They definitely do put cyclists and pedestrians first. Even the signage at street lights. The priority is not to the car," said Lemay.

"To see that and be immersed in a totally different way of thinking, then you can see that it can actually be done. I'm hoping from there, you move backwards, and say, 'what do we like about this, and how can we get there?' "

Although the NCC has maintained recreational biking paths in the national capital region for 40 years, Lemay said she realized last summer the importance of moving beyond those paths to create a safe, integrated network of cycling lanes and pathways across the downtown cores of Ottawa and Gatineau.

Her eureka moment came when the NCC was trying to decide where to install bike racks for last year's downtown bike-sharing pilot project.

"First you look at a map, and you say: 'OK, one there, one there, one there, one there.'

"And then the staff came back and said: 'Hello. You can't put stations there. People are just going to kill themselves'," Lemay recalled.

"So we started realizing it's not just putting stations up. You've got to provide the safe cycling. And that's when we started the discussions with the two mayors."

Over the next three years, the NCC will create a "Plan for Canada's Capital," and cycling will be a hot topic in those discussions, Lemay said. If there is enough enthusiasm for the idea, Ottawa could become a model for other Canadian cities, she said.

Lemay, who lives in Chelsea, said she owns a bike but is not an "avid cyclist." She said she'd like to commute by bike to Ottawa, but she's deterred by the fact that part of her route would take her along Highway 105. The other deterrent is the amount of paperwork she lugs to and from the office every day.

She said she'd love to bike around downtown Ottawa, but she's concerned about safety on city streets. She believes this gives her something in common with other people who would like to use their bikes more, but don't feel comfortable cycling in traffic.

"This is not about accommodating the avid cyclist. This is about integrating cycling into a sustainable mode of transportation," Lemay said.

"It's not about just one segment of the population. It's everybody. It's me. It's all the other people that could be using their bikes if it was safer. If it was easier."

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