The good news is, there’s a gym and shower in a reasonable location, and it’s easy to get in and out quickly.

I found a bike especially useful for those little errands that one likes to run between classes. It’s often possible to find oneself stranded downtown with just enough time to accomplish nothing useful. A bike makes it possible to do nothing useful over a much wider area. 8^)

Here’s a map thingy of Ottawa’s bike paths and routes. From where I am, going down Island Park through the Experimental Farm to Carleton is probably around 6 km or 20 minutes, and probably similarly from downtown along the canal.

Don’t forget that Carleton has an O-Train stop too, which means that it’s pretty accessible from anywhere along the Transitway in the north end of the city. I’m planning on being basically car-free next year since parking downtown or on campus is expensive. Taking the 96 from Westboro station to Campus station is going to take me 18 minutes according to the OCTranspo website, while from Westboro station to Carleton via the 96 and O-Train is 19 minutes.

I ask because I’m very cursorily assessing the plausibility of riding a bike to/from Carleton from some more habitable place in the city. The idea of buying a car has kept me from even considering attending there.