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Sunday, May 10, 2026

Are you on the wrong Communauto plan? This free tool helps you find out!

After a lot of number crunching in January, I learned that I could have saved $546.01 on my Communauto bills in 2025 if I had been on a different plan! I built a free tool, Communauto Cruncher, so you can check your plan too. I built out most of it in January and February, then sat on it. Communauto recently sent out some communications requesting feedback, so I'm releasing it now.

The tool is built in Google sheets. If you just want to use it, click the Communauto Cruncher link and follow the instructions to open the latest version and make your own copy. Otherwise, stick around for the story of why and how I built it.

Screenshot of the Communauto Cruncher tool's Dashboard, with a message that says You could have saved $563.31 (16.3%) if you had been on the VALUE EXTRA plan instead of the VALUE plan between February and December 2025! See the Damage Protection Plan section below for more potential savings.

Sunday, May 3, 2026

When car parking becomes bike parking

A couple weeks ago, I was asked on Mastodon (the only social media where I'm active any more) for photos of car parking spaces converted to bike parking corrals. I figured I'd compile them into a blog post, as it's the kind of thing I used to blog about.

Post by @ellie@ellieayla.net
View on Mastodon

As it turns out, most of the examples I know of in Ottawa are actually onstreet car parking space conversions, and most of the photos I have of them will be in a large unsorted digital pile of photos. But I have two examples that fit the bill closely, and a bunch of other interesting examples: