My goal was to sort through City of Ottawa data found here, http://data.ottawa.ca/dataset/outdoor-rinks/resource/9ad7c75a-4b53-4e17-a8e1-601419f8a659 and try to determine which of Ottawa’s 264 Outdoor rinks or ODR’s are the best available. My reasoning behind this was while in school at Toronto, I looked up odr;s and found one open on the opposite side of the city, after commuting an hour on subway and 30 more on bus, after a short walk I found out it was just a puddle frozen over half of a tennis court.

The criteria I was looking for was, whether or not it was maintained, if there were; toilets/changing areas available, if it had boards and if there was lighting for playing after dark.

Some of the words were cut off, the 54 value is other types of ice surfaces, excluding rinks that qualify as a yes, while only 24 rinks of the 264 meet the specific standard, while 78 ice surfaces in total meet the criteria I had set.  Of the 264 rinks, only one is open; Rink of Dreams, which has a refrigerated ice surface.

Looking into the specific areas if you perhaps don’t need a toilet on site, or boards to enjoy your time on the rink, here is the data I sorted through to reach the results.

Of the 264, 169 had boards, meaning that games of shinny and not just free skate would be more likely on these surfaces.

This time of year when it is getting dark early, most of us don’t have time to hit the ice during daylight hours. It is important so see how many are lit, and interesting to see how each is set up, 123 claimed to have permanent lights, with 54 having temporary. 71 of the rinks did not meaning that it would be unlikely you could play after 4:30 pm this time of year. The Both and Lights values, were in the data columns and I can only assume the data was lacking on the specifics but if factored into having lights, 193 have lighting of some kind while 71 have none of any kind.

An interesting one was considering ice maintenance, of the 264 rinks only 17 do not receive maintenance. What is interesting is that the city only operates and maintains 33 of the 264 which is only 12.5 percent of the rinks, while 214 rinks are community operated.

While, important to some, the value of toilets or a change area, is a must for some people. Less than half of the rinks(94) have toilets, assuming that since most are community owned they would not have facilities at the ready leading to the gaudy 170 rinks that do not have restrooms.

Finally the last source, was relating to the ice surfaces specifically. Only one was artificial, leading to why it could be open so early, since on is open as of my knowledge despite the warm weather. 56 are your traditional ice rinks that you see hockey games on, 38 have double ice surfaces, and 52 are the “puddle” ice surfaces I have began to despise. Lastly 13 sported a combination of rink and puddle on site.