City and NCC come to agreement on Western Corridor alignment

In a joint press conference this morning, the National Capital Commission and the City of Ottawa announced that they have come to a mutually acceptable agreement on the alignment of the Western Corridor of the city's LRT project, stretching from Dominion to Cleary stations.

The agreement, which came out of the much-ballyhooed 100-day truce mayor Jim Watson and outgoing MP John Baird agreed to, will see a fully-buried tunnel connecting the two stations. The tunnel, as illustrated above, will run underneath a re-aligned Sir John A. Macdonald Parkway from just after Dominion Station to Cleary Avenue, at which point it will turn south towards Richmond Road. The section underneath the Parkway will be a "stacked" transportation corridor, where the roadway will run on top of the underground rail line. There are a lot of other details in the memorandum of understanding, which you can read on the NCC website if you'd like.

From there, it seems to proceed as envisioned in the Richmond Underground proposal, hitting the new Cleary and New Orchard stations before emerging from the tunnel nearer to Lincoln Fields station. The only real difference between this one and the Richmond Underground alignment is the fully-buried tunnel under the Parkway, the NCC's major sticking point. UPDATE: According to more detailed information on the city's website, the alignment will transition from under Richmond Road to under [the] western portion of Byron Linear Park," where it will presumably continue toward New Orchard station.

There remain several key groups, including the First Unitarian Congregation and Neighbours for Smart Western Rail, who will likely be opposed to this alignment, but it generally meets the broad needs of most stakeholders:

• It won't affect sightlines along the Sir John A. Macdonald Parkway: In fact, it should improve them, with a realigned roadway that increases potential greenspace as well as two proposed cycling/pedestrian connections from the residential area to the riverside (illustrated above, connecting Dominion and Cleary stations to the riverside).
• Parkway buffer is retained: There will still be a 30-metre tree buffer between the roadway/rail tunnel and the residence bordering the affected areas of the Parkway.
• It won't affect the Byron Linear Park.
• It adds stations where people are: The addition of Cleary and New Orchard stations to this stretch of train corrects a longstanding flaw of the existing Transitway, increasing access to areas that weren't served by high-speed transit previously. It won't increase access as much as a Carling alignment might have, but it's still pretty good (especially if trams are one day added to Carling, as is proposed).
• It won't increase cost: Apparently the work done here can be done for the same $980M budget as the previous alignment.

There are still a lot of details to work out, of course, but it is promising that both sides were able to come to some sort of agreement. The City will host an information session on March 30 at City Hall to gather feedback on this proposed alignment.

Burying transit, and the people who use it

In its shotgun announcement yesterday, the National Capital Commission laid down the law on Ottawa’s light-rail extension plans from Dominion to Bayview stations: A deep tunnel within the current alignment, or a path across Rochester Field leading Richmond Road—where it would, presumably, also head into a deep tunnel. The obvious commonality here is the complete burial of the light-rail line.

Here is one image the NCC is proposing, in which LRT expansion would traverse Rochester Field. #ottnews #ottpoli pic.twitter.com/0sXwc0Suoe
— Matthew Pearson (@mpearson78) November 21, 2014

These options, which the NCC “invited” the city to consider, brought to mind an interesting point made to me during the 2013 Car-Free Day street party. A woman there discussed the city’s preferred alignment with me, and expressed her dismay that the beautiful scenery of the Sir John A. MacDonald Parkway was being taken away from transit users. Her point was that the users of transit, many of whom are lower-income residents of our city, were being buried underground in order to preserve the “experience” of private automobile drivers who use the Parkway.

The woman pointed out the fact that as buses today drive along the Parkway, riders are often visibly relieved by the vistas of trees, greenery, and the Ottawa River. Many look up from their phones, books, or magazines and out towards the Gatineau Hills, breathing more deeply and seemingly releasing tension from their daily activities. As a user of the line, this is an experience I can testify to; I often prefer to take an inside seat on the right side of the buses, where I can get a better view out the window.

The city’s preferred plan involves a partially buried line along the Parkway, and it takes our transit vehicles—and the people within then—and pushes them underground. The NCC’s two options would take it one step further, forcing them even deeper underground and out of sight.

One of the NCC’s conditions was that the city achieve “minimal visual impact” and maintain the “user experience” of the Parkway corridor. Their recommendations fail to acknowledge that OC Transpo riders are also users of the corridor, and they should be allowed to enjoy it as well. Although it’s easy to forget, there are people inside the OC Transpo vehicles. They are at least as entitled to the Parkway’s scenery as private automobiles that also use it—and perhaps more entitled, since drivers must remain focused on the road while riders are free to take in the sights.

Ottawa’s western light-rail extension needs to take ecological and community considerations into account. But it also needs to consider the desires of the riders of our transit system.

Canadians want to live, work, and play near public transit

Building on my post yesterday about Ottawa's $72M investment in transit-oriented development, it's interesting to see that more and more Canadians are choosing proximity to transit--and especially rail-based transit--as a key factor in deciding where they'd like to live.

As documented in a Globe and Mail article, consultancy firm PwC (formerly PricewaterhouseCoopers) recently published a report entitled "Emerging Trends in Real Estate 2014." A partner at PwC told the Globe that more and more Canadians are seeing access to transit as a legitimate and foremost consideration when house-shopping:

"With challenging infrastructure in all major Canadian centres coupled with the urbanization trend, there will be a continued demand for retail, office and residential space in our urban centres where there is easy access to mass transit."

In fact, Ottawa's investment in transit and cycling infrastructure also falls in line with the lifestyle preferences of generation Y residents, according to the report:

"Gen Y takes transit, walks, and bikes. Of all the generations, generation Y is the most likely to use transit daily, or at least once per week."

Although Ottawa's decision to move towards rail-based high speed transit is overdue, the city's well-placed to take advantage of these demographics and lifestyle preferences. There's ample room for intensification within Ottawa's Greenbelt, including around the rail stations that will be found along the Confederation Line and, in the future, near the further-out stations along the Stage 2 phase of the light-rail system.

In an ideal world, these preferences will lead to a reinvigoration of those parts of downtown near the Central Business District, including Sparks Street Mall, which seem like dead zones outside of the business hours. Hopefully PWGSC and the NCC are able to recognize the opportunities presented by a more lively downtown and invest some resources to enable a transition towards multi-use development in the core.

Does bike-sharing work?

National Post columnist Jesse Kline penned an intriguing article a couple weeks ago questioning the wisdom of municipalities investing in Bixi or Bixi-like bike-sharing systems. Although they've long been seen as a potentially valuable component of urban transit, it's hard to deny Kline's points throughout the article:

The best that can be said about the bureaucrats behind Bixi is that they’ve done a good job of selling the bike-sharing service to other cities. Indeed, the only profitable part of the company, which was later sold off in order to comply with Quebec law, was tasked with marketing the program abroad. Unfortunately, Montreal also has managed to export many of the problems that go along with the Bixi model.
[...]
Examples from other countries also provide cautionary tales. The Washington, D.C., bike-share system received $16-million in federal, state and local subsidies. This money was supposed to give disadvantaged people access to a low-cost mode of transportation, but one user survey found that it was almost exclusively used by affluent, well-educated people — hardly the demographic that needs taxpayer subsidies to get around town.

Although the City of Ottawa's prudent fiscal managers have so far resisted to give money to the system, the NCC has put forward a good deal of money (according to Kline, about $600k). It might be sensible to them, as it provides tourists with a low-cost way of travelling between local attractions, but little is known about adoption or usage rates.

On the surface, a large-scale Bixi system in partnership with OC Transpo could offer a good solution to the "last mile" conundrum of getting commuters to and from transit stations, but at what cost? It would certainly be more expensive than the current solution of having riders walk (or get a drive) to and fro.

Stage 2 Details: Connaught Park Tunnel

Among the many interesting facets of the City of Ottawa's proposed Transportation Master Plan and its $2.5B worth of public transit projects (that "Stage 2" thing) is the acceleration of a light-rail extension to Bayshore Station. This is likely interesting to many in the city's west end, but particularly to me from a personal perspective since I live right near the proposed Connaught tunnel in the Queensway Terrace North community.

As some background: The proposed Connaught tunnel is nothing is nothing new. It was initially proposed back in 1994 (and approved in 1996) when the city was looking for a more efficient way of getting buses to Bayshore Station. Without room beside the Queensway, it seemed like cutting through the community north of the Queensway--appropriately known as Queensway Terrace North--like so:

In 2007, though, that plan was changed to the less costly (by an estimated $30M) option of expropriating 25 houses on the south side of Roman Avenue in order to run a Transitway parallel to the Queensway towards Pinecrest Station. This plan resulted in a huge campaign to "save Roman Avenue," and in 2011 the city reversed its prior decision and went back to the Connaught Park bus tunnel idea at an estimated cost of $138M.

As the map above indicates, the tunnel as proposed will branch off the Southwest Transitway north of the Queensway into NCC land, taking a bridge over Pinecrest Creek before descending into a tunnel under Connaught Park, Connaught Avenue, and the Queensview bus garage before coming to the surface around a brand new Queensview Station and then proceeding to Pinecrest Station and onto Bayshore.

Of course, there's an elephant in this room: This proposal will definitely require the support of the National Capital Commission, and will definitely impact the Pinecrest Creek corridor. We're all in for at least a few more years of discussions between the NCC and the City, with the Richmond Underground still awaiting approval from the NCC as well as this request. The City will also have to go through a complete environmental assessment (EA) process, since the EA that had been completed in 1996 was specifically for a bus tunnel.

The big development for this project in the Stage 2 plan (aside from the acceleration of the tunnel's construction) is the decision to bypass the BRT set-up and move straight to LRT. The extension from Lincoln Fields Station to Bayshore Station via the Connaught Park tunnel has been estimated at $400M, although it's unclear exactly how much of that is for the tunnel directly.

This spur to Bayshore is something that Kanata North councillor Marianne Wilkinson has been pushing for since January of 2011. It's a component of the plan that would hugely improve the transit experience for commuters from Kanata, allowing them to transfer to trains at Bayshore and continue on their trip much more quickly, in my estimation. With the huge renovations being done to Bayshore, it's becoming a major attraction, as well; connecting it to the main network is a sensible (if, at $400M, expensive) addition to the revised plan.

It's been clear for quite some time that the city needed a new way to connect Pinecrest and Bayshore to the main Transitway corridor; merging with the Queensway (as express buses and the 96 do) is unnecessarily complicated for riders and drivers, while the 97's route along Richmond Road and Carling Avenue can be exceptionally slow at times. The Connaught Tunnel is the city's chosen solution to the bottleneck right now, but it'll be interesting to see how the plan moves forward from here.

Proposed transportation plan features light rail extensions to be completed by 2023

Mayor Jim Watson announced the City of Ottawa's proposed Transportation Master Plan this morning, and the ambitious plan includes light-rail extensions to Baseline, Bayshore, and Place D'Orleans, plus conversion of the O-Train to light-rail before adding in new stations on the current line and then extending the whole thing to Bowesville -- all happening concurrently, all finished before 2023, at a price tag of about $2.5B.

Here are the details of the mayor's speech from various city hall reporters and the mayor himself:

"We did not change the balance of investments towards transit and away from roads." That's maintained in the new TMP.
— David Reevely live (@ReevelyLive) October 9, 2013

Plan is to connect La Cite to the rail network. NOT waiting for provincial or federal contributions.
— David Reevely live (@ReevelyLive) October 9, 2013

Not sure what that entails. It could mean better bus service connecting to the Confederation Line, since the college is not considered within walking distance from either Cyrville or Blair Station.

New Transitway from Bayshore to Moodie and from March to Terry Fox. New bus measures in the east along Blair as well. #ottcity
— Jim Watson (@JimWatsonOttawa) October 9, 2013

The new busways in the west are nothing new. Kanata North will likely see more reliable and less travel times for route 93 once the busway opens.

These "new bus measures in the east along Blair" are probably for route 94. Innes was mentioned as one of the "transit priority" roads in the city's media release. The others are Montreal Road, Hunt Club Road, Carling Avenue, and Bank Street. Transit priority usually means an adjustment of the traffic lights to minimize delays to transit vehicles.

Q about the Airport Parkway. I think JW said it’ll be twinned, but new lanes for HOV and cabs.
— David Reevely (@davidreevely) October 9, 2013

The Airport Parkway will be expanded to four lanes total. The HOV lane will certainly improve service on the 97 route. Creating dedicated lanes act as an alternative to extending the O-Train to the airport. (As you'll see later, the O-Train line extends south of the airport, but doesn't connect to it.)

For pedestrians, there'll be funding for pedestrian bridges, including the Somerset-Donald bridge.
— David Reevely live (@ReevelyLive) October 9, 2013

This benefits transit users in that area too because they'll now have access to either routes 16 or 18.

So the western extension from Tunneys to Baseline, we've heard lots about. NCC still not completely on board, last I heard.
— Joanne Chianello (@jchianello) October 9, 2013

Plenty of discussion about the Richmond Underground already.


One of the proposed light-rail extensions is from Lincoln Fields to Bayshore Shopping Centre and here's how it's supposed to look:

Plan is to skip the Transitway planned there. Go straight to rail on the planned route, including in the little tunnel.
— David Reevely live (@ReevelyLive) October 9, 2013

Line runs north along the Queensway past Leon's, etc. New ped overpass to Ikea (and, er, the Citizen).
— David Reevely live (@ReevelyLive) October 9, 2013

So, it appears the Pinecrest-Bayshore busway, where routes 93 and 96 travel, will be converted into light-rail.


The O-Train south extension:

LRT South: Further enhancements to O-Train: New stations at Gladstone, Walkley and South Keys, extend line to Leitrim and Bowsville #cbcott
— Alistair Steele (@alistairsteele) October 9, 2013

Interesting how there's an LRT extension to a rural area, but not to the airport. The additional ridership from the added stations and line extension can't be supported from the existing single track sections of the line. It would have to be expanded entirely to double-tracking eventually.

The new stations in the south will take some pressure off buses on the south-east Transitway, which is likely the goal here. To the north, the Gladstone O-Train station is a welcome addition.


Orleans LRT extension:

And now to the east: new LRT stations at St-Joseph, Jeanne d'Arc, Orleans Drive, Place d'Orleans along the 174.
— David Reevely live (@ReevelyLive) October 9, 2013

Most of the 95 bus line will be replaced in the east end and Orleans Boulevard Station will be a new station since there isn't an existing BRT one at the moment. One thing to note is the rail line will extend through the Greenbelt on NCC land, which is not something the crown corporation will easily give up.


This is supposed to be one large project, both physically and financially:

Mayor says will expand rail to east, west and south "together."
— Joanne Chianello (@jchianello) October 9, 2013

All this can be done for less than $2.5B, JW says. Rattles off numbers quickly. $500M to get to Orleans, for one thing. $100M for O-Train.
— David Reevely live (@ReevelyLive) October 9, 2013

$2.5B in rail extensions east, west and south can be done by 2023 if feds, province provide money, Mayor Watson says. #OTTPoli
— Jon Willing (@JonathanWilling) October 9, 2013

Hard to imagine all rail extensions would be constructed simultaneously within ten years, given that both federal and provincial governments are experiencing enormous budget deficits.


The new bold LRT plan is called "Stage 2":

Stage 2: 35 kilometres of new rail and 19 new stations. Not multiple phases. One project. East, west, south. Together pic.twitter.com/KnFNOdBLTa
— Jim Watson (@JimWatsonOttawa) October 9, 2013

The draft outline of the Transportation Master Plan can be seen on the city's website and further details are to be released later this afternoon by the city. The plan will be debated at a Transit Commission meeting next week, and at a Transportation Commission and City Council meetings in November.

Better pedestrian access coming to Lincoln Fields Station

Lincoln Fields Station is a huge hub of Ottawa's western Transitway through which nearly all buses headed west travel. But it's also kind of isolated by roadways, hemmed in to the north by the Transitway, the west by the Sir John A. MacDonald Parkway, the east by a big field, and the south by Carling Avenue. It was never designed with pedestrians or cyclists in mind, and has used obstacles (mostly fences and barricades) to try and shepherd people along major detours in order to get anywhere.

For example: Someone headed westbound who wanted to go to the shopping centre would be forced to climb a set of stairs on the westbound platform, cross over the Transitway to the eastbound platform, cross over again to the local platform into the main station and then along to Carling Avenue--after which they're finally on an actual street, but no closer to the shopping centre itself than when they initially got off the bus. (Of course, many people simply take their chances running across the Parkway,  a pretty treacherous crossing during rush hour.)

Thankfully, though, that's changing, and the station will get slightly better from a walking perspective, as was confirmed earlier in the week by Bay Ward councillor Mark Taylor:

@rymkrs Yes you are! Took me a year to convince NCC. Also paved and plowed pathways down embankment to access new crosswalk.
— Mark Taylor (@Go_Taylor) July 24, 2013

As you can see in the image at the top of this post (thanks to Taylor for sending it), the NCC finally agreed to install a crosswalk on the Parkway where there's already a traffic light (installed for buses turning into the station) in order to provide a pedestrian crossing where people had been forced to make one themselves. (Note the sections where sod is to be placed in the image, which will cover the well-worn footpaths jaywalkers have established over years of crossing.) It's an overdue but still very sensible move to make, and will hopefully make pedestrian access to the major station at least a little bit safer.

The project is well on its way and, based on what I've seen there, should probably be completed within a couple of weeks.

Of course, there's a larger issue at stake here: The lack of initial consideration for pedestrian access to many transit stations in the first place, especially those near major roadways. It's an issue that caused a fatality two years back at the Eagleson Park and Ride, which was poorly designed for pedestrian access. Lincoln Fields is another station with poor accessibility, and the conventional response to it--installing physical obstructions to block pedestrians--is not sufficient to compensate for these errors. These obstructions rarely prevent pedestrians from crossing dangerous roadways, but almost always make those crossings more dangerous than they were originally.

If Ottawa is serious about encouraging people to walk, bike, and ride the bus, they need to ensure connectivity between those systems is possible--especially walking and using transit. If you make it easy for people to get to stations, you give them one less reason to avoid transit.

LRT on the Parkway: Simply not happening

The city's current light-rail transit plan has, since its inception, pencilled in the western corridor of the line to run along the NCC-owned Ottawa River Parkway. Despite obvious reluctance on the part of the NCC to allow the line, it's continued on as the default option, even while the city investigates the feasibility of other western-corridor options, including Carling and Byron.

It seems that city staff and planners are reluctant to face an obvious fact: The Parkway option is simply not going to happen.

The NCC is obviously no in favour of the option. Since the plan was approved, the NCC has been telling the city that they'd better investigate every other option available, because they'd need a compelling case to offer the Parkway for light-rail. Although they haven't said so explicitly, they've hinted as recently as last week that they're not convinced.

The Parkway option would have advantages. It's the simplest because there's little development to disrupt; it's the cheapest for the same reason; and it's the current western corridor so there's an ease of transition. (It would also offer riders a pretty sweet view across the river as they ride the train, but that's probably not a deciding factor in the debate.)

But those advantages are based on a fact that is also the most significant criticism of the option: Namely, that it's not surrounded by high populations. It would draw well from the northern portion of Westboro, but on the other side is just a river--not many people live in there. Contrast that with Carling or Byron, which are surrounded on both sides by fairly high-density residential areas as well as retail sites and plenty of employers.

Last week, David Reevely blogged about a letter from the NCC to the city in which their tone changed slightly: They don't want to allow trains on the Parkway, and they see little reason to think that would change.

I'm sure few would argue that using the Ottawa River Parkway land as a scenic roadway is the best use of that land, but using it as a light-rail throughfare wouldn't be much better.

Could Ottawa use a commuter ferry?

Interprovincial transit is kind of a hot issue in the national capital region right now. Currently, OC Transpo drives across the river into Gatineau, and STO drives across the river into Ottawa. Neither are particularly popular on the other side, but the presence of STO buses in downtown Ottawa has been an especially unpopular reality for city planners here. Add to that the fact that the interprovincial service of OC Transpo removes it from provincial jurisdiction and into federal hands, thus decreasing the possibility of an essential-service designation that some have called for, and you see that Ottawa and Gatineau have a bit of a problem on their hands.

There are a few ways to prevent this bus cross-over--most popular being an LRT connection across the river--but one idea I thought would be interesting, and as far as I know hasn't yet been discussed, is a commuter ferry joining the two transit providers. The image above is a possible route, running about 500 metres (maybe a 10-15 minute ride) between the Hull Marina and an area near the Ottawa Rowing Club near Sussex Drive. If Ottawa and Gatineau were to initiate a ferry, this seems like as reasonable a route as any.

On the Gatineau side, the decision is easy. It would require negotiation with the Hull Marina, and perhaps some retrofitting of the facilities to ensure they could handle what would likely be a fairly large boat, but the marina is run by a not-for-profit management board which may be open to the possibility (although I haven't spoken with representatives to confirm this). The Ottawa side would be more of an issue, because a harbour would need to be built to dock the ferry and load passengers. The area I selected, near the rowing club around Sussex Drive, was recently discussed on OpenFile Ottawa, and development projects around there may be in the works. Those projects could include the construction of a harbour for these purposes.

Interestingly, the land between Lady Grey Drive and the river is owned by the National Capital Commission; if an Ottawa Port Authority were to be established, it would make sense for the NCC to be the catalyst for it.

The problem with the above image? Well, most obvious, is the fact that OC Transpo buses don't go anywhere near Lady Grey Drive; most buses will have followed the Transitway south towards the Hurdman Bridge as they head that far east. The other option would be west of downtown, near Lebreton Flats or in Nepean Bay, but that's a long haul for the ferry to run, and it would have to run along the front of the Chaudières Falls.

Maybe it's not something that can happen. Maybe it can. I just think it would be an interesting and potentially effective way of uniting two regional transit utilities with a novel transportation option.

Bike-share to make its return to Ottawa

It's been a bumpy ride, but after a one-year hiatus, the Bixi bike-rental service is going to return to Ottawa this summer. From the Ottawa Citizen:

The NCC, Ottawa and Gatineau, ran a successful pilot project in 2009 and had planned to launch a full-blown system of 500 bikes at rental stations spread throughout the Ottawa-Gatineau downtown core. The project is designed to provide an alternative mode of transportation downtown and enhance the green credentials of the capital. The scaled-down program will cost the NCC $660,000 and start with 100 bikes — 10 at each station. But Lemay said the goal remains 500 bikes, and the numbers will be increased as Ottawa and Gatineau come aboard.

After that fairly successful 2009 pilot program, the hope was that a company would step forward and manage the system for summer of 2010, but none did. The program was put on hiatus, but it appears the NCC is going to move forward with it now, even without the cooperation of either municipal governments in Ottawa or Gatineau--which the NCC was looking for--or an outside company to manage it.

Good for the NCC. In 2009 most reviews were positive, but it may still take a few years for the service to really gain sustainable traction in the city; if the NCC can help it get to that critical mass, a company should have no problem taking over and managing the system. Montreal has shown it can work, if supported sufficiently.

Bike-share may be coming back to Ottawa

After a pretty successful pilot program from 2009 was set back in 2010, some bike-share program may return to Ottawa for the summer of 2011, according to Centretown News. From their coverage:

[NCC Director of Communications Lucie] Caron says the NCC is working co-operatively with Ottawa and Gatineau and hoping for the program to be completed by the spring.

Media spokesperson Jasmine Leduc confirmed the NCC’s expectation for 50 stations and 500 bicycles to be available in Canada’s capital region and on both sides of the river by next year.

Ottawa's 2009 bike-share pilot program was supposed to set the groundwork for a permanent system, but in 2010 the NCC was unable to find a partner to manage the Bixi bike-share service, so it didn't get off the ground. Now, it appears the program is expected to move forward in the new year.

In the Centretown News article, Somerset Councillor Diane Holmes voiced significant support for the moving forward with the project. However, in a June 2008 interview with PTIO, new councillor David Chernushenko suggested the city needs to truly invest in building up a cycling infrastructure in order to make sure any bike-share program will work:

"We would start by saying every time a street or a sidewalk needs repair, we can seize that opportunity not just to replace the sewer infrastructure and the telecom cables and everything else that’s there. We’re actually going to redesign that street."

Many recent street redesigns have included measures to make them more pedestrian-friendly, particularly in the core, and a potential segregated cycling lane would only add to that.

Interprovincial cycling strategy in the works, too

For a while now, the NCC and the cities of Ottawa and Gatineau, along with OC Transpo and STO, have been looking into ways to integrate public transit between the regions. Now, the cities and the NCC are also looking at finding ways to map out a 50-year plan to create a vision of cycling in the national capital region.

From the Ottawa Citizen:

NCC chief executive Marie Lemay, Ottawa Mayor Larry O’Brien and Gatineau Mayor Marc Bureau met Thursday to discuss a plan to improve cycling infrastructure over the next 50 years and to create a safer environment for the region’s cyclists.

“If we do want to increase the percentage of people using their bikes to commute, we have to make the routes safer,” Lemay said. “The reality is, if people don’t feel safe, and if it’s not easy to do, the people that are not avid cyclers … won’t take their bikes.”

It seems sensible to consider cycling when the region's municipalities work to integrate public transit. The two can often work with one another to provide transportation alternatives for residents, but serve more effectively as complements rather than mutually exclusive.

2010 Election: Taylor on cycling

bicycle parking lot in Japan, from Wikipedia

Over the course of the 2010 Mayoral Election campaign, Public Transit in Ottawa will be sitting down with mayoral candidates, discussing their platforms and thoughts on transit in this city, and what they hope to achieve during their mandate, if elected mayor.

An interesting fact about mayoral candidate Charlie Taylor is that he's made the personal choice to use cycling as his primary form of transportation. Citing the health and environmental benefits, along with the convenience, Taylor's been a cyclist all his life. But he's also got a few changes he'd make to the city's approach to cycling to make it more appealing, if elected mayor.

For one thing, Taylor noted that much of the city's cycling infrastructure is operated by the National Capital Commission, and seems suited more for recreation than function--noting in particular the 220 km of recreational paths collectively referred to as the Capital Pathway network. Of particular note, Taylor wanted the 20 km/h speed limit for cycling on the Capital Pathway taken away, "because it’s not feasible for commuting, going at a fast walking speed."

In terms of encouraging more citizens to take up cycling, Taylor said that finding a way to make people feel safer while on their bikes is a way to get them cycling. (This statement was backed up by an Ottawa Citizen-commissioned poll published just after our interview, in which more than half of all respondents said they'd bike more if they felt safer.) On top of establishing designated cycle lanes on roadways, and even cycling-only streets, Taylor suggested painting cycling lanes a different colour from roadways would make people feel safer.

Designated bicycle lanes, in Europe, they’re a different colour. They’re blue. I’ve biked a lot when cars are taking a corner, and they zip into the bicycle lane because it’s just another white line on the pavement and they don’t really pay attention. If you’ve got a whole different colour, it’s a lot more visible, and people think, “Oh, that’s where the bicycles are. That’s not for me, I’m a car driver; that’s where the bicycles are.” And how much does blue paint cost?

(There are numbers to support Taylor's idea: Spacing Toronto recently wrote about blue bike lanes in Portland, Oregon that made cyclists feel 50 per cent safer, and a Danish study suggested that painted cycle lanes reduced bike-car collisions by 38 per cent.)

Taylor also said that the city needs to find a way to define cyclists: Not quite motorists, and not quite pedestrians, and sharing some rights and responsibilities with both.

"There’s also this myth that bicycles are a motor vehicle, and are treated as such. A bicycle is not a motor vehicle, and they need to be recognized as a distinct form of transportation. I agree that most of the rules of the road should apply to cyclists, like stop signs, stoplights, all that good stuff, absolutely. But there are certain things. If a cyclist wants to make a left-hand turn on Bronson at rush hour, you can’t expect a cyclist to pull into the left-hand lane, sit in traffic with cars going by on both sides, you’d have to have a death wish to feel comfortable doing that."

Bixi bike-rental program in Ottawa hits a snag

Last year, the National Capital Commission ran a successful pilot project with Montreal-based Bixi bicycles for a bike-rental service. The program found the service would be economically viable, but the NCC, who wanted the bikes to be available beginning in June, hasn't found a company to take on the contract to manage the service this year.

From CBC.ca:

However, officials say the terms of the proposed contract appear to have scared off bidders.

The NCC wanted the winning company to own the bicycles and locking stations, but companies didn't seem to want the financial risk of that kind of arrangement: No bike-sharing companies responded, including the Montreal company whose Bixi bicycles were used in the pilot project.

It's too bad the system has hit this snag. It gained a fair bit of momentum last year, and seemed rather popular with locals and tourists--one would expect that momentum to have carried into this year. Hopefully the problem can be resolved before all that momentum is lost, and the program has to start over from scratch.

Recap of the interprovincial transit study consultation

On Tuesday evening, I stopped in to the public consultation on the National Capital Commission (NCC)-led interprovincial transit study. Attended by about 30-40 people (at least when I was there, from 6-7 p.m.), the consultation represents the fourth step in the overall process, the results of which will help the strategy team come up with a recommendation for integration of the national capital region's transit infrastructure--in short, better connecting Gatineau with Ottawa through public transit.

The consultation had a number of posterboards (images of which you can download in .PDF form here) and forms for attendees to fill out offering their opinions on the options presented. The options were largely broken down in short-, medium-, and long-term objectives, and dealt with the superficial (common branding and signage standards; shared transit maps) to the practical (compatible or common 'smart' payment cards; coordinated transfer-point route scheduling) and into the technical aspects of the transit integration (bus rapid-transit versus light-rail transit; crossing the river to the east or west of downtown, or a loop with both; and so on). And, naturally, there were forms for attendee comments about any other aspects--including those not presented on the posterboards.

Although an interesting exploration of the different options for interprovincial transit, it's unclear what this study will achieve, beyond the recommendation of an integration strategy. Although the cities of Ottawa and Gatineau are participants in the process, as are OC Transpo and STO (the city's respective public transit agencies), it remains to be seen who might pay for any such project. Ottawa's tied up with the current LRT implementation, which--from the first phase, including the downtown tunnel, to the further three phases--will take decades to build. Still, even if it is a recommendation, that does give the cities a foundation on which to plan future transit construction on either side of the river.

If you missed Tuesday's open house, you have still got the opportunity to attend one on Wednesday, July 7, 2010 at Gatineau Maison du Citoyen from 5:30-8 p.m.

On to Baseline: Western Light Rail consultation begins

The City of Ottawa has begun the Western LRT Corridor Planning and Environmental Assessment project. This project is going to determine the route that light rail will take as it leaves Downtown (at Bayview station) and heads to Baseline Station. While the current Transit Master Plan (TMP) chose the Ottawa River Parkway, this study is going to "wipe the slate clean" and look at all the route options. Anything from the Parkway, Byron Avenue, O-Train cut, Carling Avenue, Churchill, and just about anything else conceivable is on the table for review and investigation.

The NCC has not said one way or another that they will permit light rail on the Parkway. But the NCC was a key contributor in designing the assessment, and has suggested a willingness to discuss options if the Parkway is indeed recommended under the Environmental Assessment. The feeling at city hall is that the NCC wants to make sure the City has really investigated alternate routes and is not choosing the Parkway simply because it's there and is the easy "status-quo" choice.

The City is engaging stakeholders by forming three different input groups: agency, business, and public. The "agency" group is composed of government ministries and agencies that are involved because they are a major employer, landholder or provide oversight to the Environment Assessment process. The "business" group is made up of the school boards, hospitals and BIAs in the area. Finally, the "public" group comprises Community Associations, advocacy groups, and members from the city's Advisory Committees.

Monday, June 21, 2010 was the first day of meetings between the City and the consultation groups. The agenda was to get the groups up to speed on how the process will work and to invite the groups to offer feedback on the process itself.

The next meeting in September is where everyone will get into the details of choosing an alternate route. Management consultant group Delcan will be preparing a number of options to be reviewed at that point. Both the City and Delcan have been very up front about the fact that all options are on the table. The process will initially "fan out" to explore the different routes (Parkway, Carling, O-Train, Byron, and so on) and designs (underground, below grade, overhead, etc) then whittle the options down until just one route is selected as the recommended alignment.

More reading:

• City of Ottawa's Western LRT Project information (http://ottawa.ca/westernLRT)
• Western LRT Corridor, Planning and Environmental Assessment, Study Design and Schedule Document (PDF)
• June 21 slide presentation and meeting notes.
  

NCC looking to work with city on DOTT stations

According to an article in the Ottawa Citizen, the National Capital Commission is looking to get involved with the City of Ottawa to offer some input into Ottawa's light-rail transit stations during the upcoming design process.

From the Citizen article:

“As they were explaining the project to us, with the 13 stations, it just seemed like such a wonderful opportunity to put a national or a capital component to it,” Lemay said.

The transit system will be a “capital-changing” project, she said.

“It would be wonderful to be able to involve the provinces. … One of the things we’ve heard from Canadians is they don’t feel represented in their nation’s capital. What a wonderful opportunity to actually give them that opportunity to be represented.”

The fact that there are to be 13 transit stations along the LRT line, the same number of provinces and territories within Canada, is an intriguing coincidence--adding in some design element bringing that home would certainly make for a nice train ride through the core. And although the NCC has said that their offer doesn't come with further funding (they're offering their "expertise" and an ability to connect with the whole country) it's probably not too much to think that provincial and territorial governments may be interested in investing in "their" LRT stop along the line. Perhaps not significant investments, but even a small amount of funding to help improve the aesthetics of the station could allow Ottawa to have some terrific-looking stations without breaking the bank on the design aspect.

Still, the blog Maple Manifesto--a newcomer to the Ottawa blogging scene--is wondering why the NCC is looking to have input in the City's infrastructure affairs when they aren't always willing to cooperate with the City in other areas.

The image at the top of the page (click to enlarge) is of the projected 'Downtown East' station--in the middle of the downtown tunnel, tentatively slotted right in front of Parliament Hill (or within a couple blocks, anyway), and likely the stop most tourists will be disembarking at in order to get to events in the area. Of all the stations the NCC might get involved in, this seems the most likely for them to invest into. And, if we go from west to east along the line as we do with provinces (relegating the territories to the eastern portion, for arguments' sake), Tunney's Pasture would be British Columbia, and Downtown East would be--you guessed it--Ontario.

NCC looking for input on interprovincial transit in capital region

As a part of the National Capital Commission (NCC)-funded project looking into an interprovincial transit strategy for the National Capital Region to integrate Ottawa and Gatineau, a series of public consultations are scheduled to solicit the public's opinions on what form public transit should take between the two municipalities.

The press release is available here (.PDF), but the real important stuff is really just the dates for the two events:

• Ottawa
  Tuesday, July 6, 5:30 to 8:30 p.m.
  Ottawa City Hall (110 Laurier Avenue West) – Jean Pigott Hall
• Gatineau
  Wednesday, July 7, 5:30 to 8:30 p.m.
  Gatineau Maison du Citoyen (25 Laurier Street) – Agora Gilles-Rocheleau

The meetings are the fourth phase of the NCC project, which started in mid-2009 and is hoping to establish something new for Ottawa-Gatineau transit--by 2031, anyway. Some of the options that will be discussed at the consultations are increased bus service, surface light rail across the Prince of Wales, Chaudiere, and/or the Alexandria Bridge, and a tunnel through Ottawa--whether the DOTT, or a new one.

The preferred option, according to McCormick Rankin engineer Sean Rathwell as quoted in Metro Ottawa, is a light-rail loop across bridges to the west and east of downtown, with a tunnel under Ottawa. Similar, perhaps, to the illustration at the top of the page, taken from a May 2010 column by Randall Denley talking about 'the loop' (as it's become known).

The loop above appears to run across the Chaudiere and the Alexandria Bridges, but also runs west to include the War Memorial--it might make more sense to run the western leg along the Prince of Wales Bridge, in order to link up there, serve more of Gatineau, and also connect with the O-Train. But time will tell; if the NCC is taking the lead on this, the presence of federal support is virtually assured.

I hope to be at the Tuesday open house, and will post information I find on the site shortly afterwards.

NCC willing to budge... no, not on the Parkway

View across the Rideau Canal towards Lansdowne Park. Image © City of Ottawa.

According to reports, the National Capital Commission (NCC) would be willing to re-route the Queen Elizabeth Driveway, its scenic roadway along the Rideau Canal, in order to accommodate redevelopment plans for Lansdowne Park.

The move could be mutually beneficial: It allows Lansdowne Park some frontage on the Canal, enabling scenic pools, ponds, or fountains to be built off of it (ideas that have been bandied about in discussing the redevelopment plans), but it also offers the NCC more space to run their roadway instead of having to squeeze it between the park and the Canal. From the Ottawa Citizen:

[NCC's Executive Director of Capital Planning François] Lapointe said the area between Lansdowne and the Rideau Canal is "not that comfortable. It's very narrow.

"If we want to create a new experience, a new meeting place and activity space, it's clear we'll need to create a more comfortable zone in that area. That may include pushing the parkway further away from the canal."

The NCC's willingness to compromise, though, is also relevant to the city's transit planning. Although the city's current plan calls for building the rail lines right along the current Transitway, and thus along the NCC-owned Ottawa River Parkway, the NCC has been reticent to give their blessing to the idea. An environmental assessment is currently underway, examining a few different options for the western portion of the transit plan: the Parkway, Carling Avenue, and Byron Avenue, with perhaps still other possibilities.

While the city might pencil the Parkway as its preferred route--due in large part to the ease of installation and the lower price point--the NCC has other factors which they'll hold in higher priority. And while there are real benefits to moving around the Queen Elizabeth Driveway, there are few (if any) positive side effects to the NCC giving prime riverside land to the City for rail development.

It remains positive, though, that the NCC is willing to negotiate and compromise with city planners in order to find mutually beneficial solutions to these problems. Once the western corridor EA is released, we'll certainly hear more debate about these different options.

Is there an appetite for streetcars back on Sparks Street?

There is a grassroots movement afoot to bring back the City of Ottawa's historic streetcars, more than 50 years after the city tore up and abandoned them. The Ottawa Streetcar Committee talked with some transit decision makers in Ottawa to try and find a way for streetcars to be re-installed along Sparks Street, from the National War Museum to the old train station by the canal. From the Centretown News Online:

The National Capital Commission, Queen’s Park, and the city sat down with the Ottawa Streetcar Committee which aims to draw people back to the beleaguered shopping district by bringing back historic street cars and to reduce bus congestion downtown.

The group estimates it will cost $16 million to get the project on track, a capital investment that David Powers, a city economic development consultant, said would require some integration with the city’s transit plans.

As interesting as the re-implementation of streetcars along Sparks Street would be, I don't know what kind of contribution they would offer to the city's rapid transit infrastructure. They could, if done well, beautify Sparks Street and offer some more options for public transportation downtown aside from Slater and Albert Streets. If done as proposed (somewhat along the lines of the illustration above), the line could perhaps be a very good complement during the construction of Ottawa's downtown tunnel, and a street-level alternative when the tunnel is open. But they wouldn't likely be able to serve a significant portion of the city's ridership.