I'm just going to post this picture (from Adam Bentley on SkyscraperPage Forum, via @dbmcclelland) and let everyone dream of how awesome it would be to have such a great rapid transit network. Forget, for the moment, how ridiculously expensive it would be to operate, let alone build in it entirety.
One odd note: Not even this dream-plan uses the Prince of Wales Bridge. Not sure why, but it's an interesting thing to avoid.
9 comments:
It actually looks like it does use it, only for the commuter rail line up to Wakefield, rather than for LRT.
We can indeed dream.
And we should.
Whatever plan(s) we decide on using, let's make sure our dreams are big enough!
Why couldn't we adopt this as the official transit plan and figure out how to start working towards it? Let's make this the 40-50 year plan and get going on it. We need a big vision of what transit could look like that everyone can get behind instead of a short line that doesn't inspire anyone except those living near the line.
Shoot for the moon Ottawa!
Hmm, how does the BRT make it from Holland and Carling over to Merivale between Carling and Baseline? It seems to turn south well before the Westgate Shopping Centre. Is it supposed to be taking a meandering route through the residential streets, like the 14 Carlington? That would make putting the R in BRT kind of challenging. If the goal is to avoid duplicating the Red Line's service from Holland and Carling west to Westgate, it'd be more efficient to go south on Fisher and then west on Shillington to Merivale. Even then, there are plenty of stop signs on Shillington.
Regarding the comment by Mr. Smith, as he author, I can tell you that the map is more mental than geographically accurate. In reality, from Holland, the BRT would go west on Caring, and southwest on Merivale. The Westgate Red Line stop would be close to the west end of the mall to accommodate a long platform and the BRT stop would be on Merivale, just across the street from the mall, near the hotel.
That should read "as the author" and "west on Carling".
A "great rapid transit network" is of no use to Ottawa until the service catches up. In Stittsville they charge us extra on our taxes for poor bus service and in January they have now cut even more buses. If you don't work a regular day job you are out of luck. Both my early 20's kids have jobs that end at 11:00 p.m. downtown but there are no buses to Stittsville leaving Hurdman after 10:10 p.m. That also means no social life for anyone without a car. All the infrastructure shown in the map won't fix the constant problems of late, or too early, buses, drivers who won't stop when there is room on the bus, and buses that don't go where they are scheduled to go.
Shouldn't the Southeast Transitway be LRT? Why is nobody asking for this? Does the demand justify its replacement of busway with LRT? I think this should be LRT anyway.
But seriously, given the success of the Transitway, there will always be Bus Rapid Transit in Ottawa. Ottawa needs an integrated Rapid Transit Network, not endless bickering about which transit mode is better. In fact, I think there should be more BRT in the form of busways with stations and dedicated lanes EVERYWHERE!!! We need more BRT if we want to attract more people to transit. And yes, BRT is cost effective and I won't have to wait 20 years for it to be implemented. The implementation of rail, by contrast, would inevitably take 20 years, given our record.
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