Expensive new Park & Ride planned for Kanata

Yesterday, the Ottawa Citizen published a new Kelly Egan column on the planned Park & Ride in Kanata at the intersection of Innovation and Terry Fox drives. As Egan explains, it's a pretty expensive project:

"It’s to open in the fall of 2016 and Phase 1 will have room for 300 or so cars. It will cost $8.3 million. This excludes the $5.7 million for the land. Yes, that makes $14 million, or $47,000 per spot, given away free to the user."

The Innovation Park & Ride is expected to open in the late fall of 2016.

Park & Rides are a double-edged sword. They make it easy for suburban commuters (and especially rural or out-of-town residents) who have a car to leave it in the suburbs--thus avoiding downtown parking fees--while still getting to work in a reasonable amount of time, thanks to Ottawa's well-developed Transitway system. This makes the service easier and more convenient for a certain group of riders.

On the other hand, as Egan discusses, they can be very expensive capital projects.

From a system standpoint, though, Park & Ride lots can also undercut OC Transpo's efforts to build a system that offers service within reasonable walking distance of most houses. Express buses are a significantly costly service to offer; it takes a lot of time to deadhead the bus to its starting point, and then have meander through suburban streets, before hitting a Park & Ride, filling up, and heading onto the main Transitway arteries. That time means money, going to the operator's salary as well as fuel and maintenance. Many express buses aren't full by the time they arrive at a Park & Ride lot, but they're usually full when they leave because they offer riders the option to bypass the express route's "local" segment and just hop on for the speedier portion.

This option, it turns out, is very popular, and Ottawa's Park & Ride lots are, in many ways, victims of their own success. The Eagleson Park & Ride, for instance, is regularly above capacity--which is why the Innovation Park & Ride is being planned, and why it's plan includes an optional second phase that would include another 500 spaces on top of the 300 included in Phase 1.

Looking at the issue critically, it seems odd that Ottawa invests such a large amount of money building these lots to make transit service more convenient for those who can drive to it, yet they have given little consideration--aside from a small number of permits sold--to recovering much of that investment. It may be time to examine parking fees for everyone who elects to use the Park & Ride service.

The fee need not be large; a nominal fee of $2 per day would help control the currently off-the-charts popularity of Park & Ride Lots, while also offering some much-needed additional revenues for OC Transpo and without making the service less accessible--those who can't or would rather not pay the parking fee can simply connect with a local bus, or catch an express route nearer their home.

Parking fees for Park & Ride lots would also allow Ottawa to recover money from those who may not otherwise be paying for these services, including commuters and users from communities outside city limits.

Growth of Ottawa's Park & Ride lots is a good sign of the convenience they offer, but it's also an unsustainable. New options need to be considered, and one of those may be charging Park & Ride users.

In the Year 2012: More Park and Rides

For the past few days, I have picked a few tidbits from the 2012 OC Transpo business plan. Today, we will look at the ideas for new Park and Ride locations.

OC Transpo's business plan promises more park and ride spaces in the city. This year, there are plans to expand the existing lots at Trim, Strandherd stations and to build a new lot at Strandherd and Woodroffe, which will be a 3-minute drive from the existing Park and Ride at Strandherd and Greenbank. Once the Strandherd-Armstrong bridge is built, the Strandherd/Greenbank lot will only be a five-minute drive from the Riverview lot. While the short distance between lots is great when one lot fills up, it just doesn't make a lot of sense to have lots so close to each other, especially when there is room to expand at the existing Riverview lot.

In 2013, if everything goes according to schedule, new Park and Ride lots will appear in Chapel Hill in Orleans, which will be part of the Cumberland Transitway linking to Blair station in 2021, Hazeldean Road between Kanata and Stittsville, and one in Kanata North, presumably on the route 93 line. In 2014 or 2015, Millenium Park and Ride will be expanded and a new lot will appear on Cambrian Road.

OC Transpo wants to continue down the path of providing more parking lots for customers because the spaces fill up quickly.  But, most of the spaces are free, so, of course, there will be overcrowded parking lots.   Who doesn't want free stuff?  If OC Transpo wants ideas for revenue, they may want to look at expanding their price system for the Park and Rides.  Why not charge for spots in the morning and leave the weekends free?  Those parking on a weekday morning can enjoy dealing with less crowded lots once people figure it's no longer free.


It's disappointing to be reading plans about proposed Park and Rides when there is no mention about improved local service. Improving local service would be drawing people away from parking their cars and encouraging people to take transit from their home.  It's probably more expensive to run more local buses all year long, but Park and Rides aren't cheap either; The facilities must be maintained and secured.


If there is one thing OC Transpo is quick at doing, it's building Park and Rides.  There will be more of them as long as there is available land and there is plenty of that in Ottawa's suburbs.

Deadly design flaws at Eagleson Park and Ride

Looking back, there was never really any questioning if someone would be struck by a car at the Eagleson Road Park and Ride; it was simply a question of when it would happen.

Sadly, tragedy struck last week, when a 17-year-old girl running across the six lanes of high-speed traffic to transfer from one bus to another was fatally hit by a truck.

As it stands today, Eagleson Station is broken down into two stations: Eagleson East and Eagleson West, which each have parking lots for commuters and are separated by the fast-moving traffic of Eagleson Road. It's not uncommon for a rider to be dropped off on the Eagleson West platform and have to cross the street to catch their next bus at the Eagleson East platform. The traffic light at the intersection can be an agonizingly long wait, and can frequently be the reason for a missed transfer--made especially frustrating when you're stuck standing at a red light while the bus pulls in and then leaves the station you should be at, and the 15-20 minute wait for the next 96 bus. It's enough to drive lots of people to cross on a "don't walk" signal, despite the inherent dangers.

These design flaws are a matter of infrastructure failing to keep up to growth in the area. Even though it was opened in 1995, the Park and Ride was conceptualized in 1986, when Kanata was a much smaller area than it is today, and car traffic on Eagleson Road was significantly lower.

The only preventive measure currently installed along Eagleson Road is an eight-foot-tall chain-link fence running along the median between north- and southbound traffic. But rather than prevent people from crossing, the fence just funnels people toward a small section of median along the nearest intersection, and reduces visibility for both pedestrians crossing as well as automobile traffic driving.

That reduced visibility is significant, as cars barreling down the road can barely see people crossing the street, and pedestrians almost need to step into oncoming traffic in order to see where the nearest car is (along with the fence at the intersection is a large traffic light post, with traffic signs on it which further impede visibility).

The point of the fence is to encourage people not to cross, but it doesn't, and there's next to nothing the city can do to stop people from crossing. It's an example of infrastructure built to impede or block human nature, when the key to designing functional walkways is making it pedestrian-oriented. We need the crosswalk to fit human tendencies, not attempt to shape them.

The city must do something to improve the current configuration of the Eagleson Road Park and Ride. As it stands today, with parking lots and drop-off points on both sides of the street, people are almost encouraged to jaywalk despite the danger of six lanes of very fast (usually greater than 60 km/h) car traffic.

The simplest and most immediate measure costs nothing but time: Have every route traveling in any direction head into the larger station on the northbound side of Eagleson Road. It might add five minutes to a bus trip, but that's not what matters here.

Another choice is a pedestrian underpass or overpass, and some have called for a footbridge in the aftermath of the accident. A footbridge, though, would also take longer than crossing the road itself (so you may still see people jaywalking), and would likely be more expensive than what I think would be the best solution.

The best, and most long-term, option is a bottom-up redesign of the station. An easy comparable is Baseline Station, where buses traveling in either direction turn into the station, rather than dropping people off on one side of Woodroffe (which, like Eagleson Road, is six lanes wide). It's a fairly easy fix, and, although we need to do something regardless of the cost, it would not be terribly expensive. It might require a few parking spots in the already-overstuffed parking lot to be sacrificed, but that's a sacrifice worth making.

The design below (pardon the low quality) is one option for the redesign. Basically, the idea is that the three current drop-off/pick-up points (one on the west side of Eagleson, two on the east) are amalgamated into one larger station. This would be safer and simpler for riders catching their buses, and also for those waiting for their buses: In December of 2009 a man waiting at the park and ride was robbed at knifepoint, and a larger station would draw more people and likely offer a more secure place to wait.

The bottom line is something needs to be done, and quickly. Lives could be at stake.

Ridership grows and sets new record in 2010

Do you notice your bus getting more crowded? OC Transpo has seen a large boost in ridership in 2010 and has reached a new record level for ridership. According to 580 CFRA, “99 million people used OC Transpo last year, up from 83 million in 2009.” OCTranspo.com reports the number as 99.3 million. Still, this is approximately a 19 percent increase in ridership, which is significant because the national average increase was only 4.1 percent. The record for the highest OC Transpo ridership was 95,646,026 in 2007.

So, what happened in 2010 that caused such a large increase? The following are some major events in 2010 that may have affected ridership:

--Update (2:26pm): The 19 percent growth may not be as large as it may seem due to the fact there was the transit strike in late 2008 and early 2009, which caused a decline in ridership during that period and immediately after the strike ended.  Nevertheless, there is still an increase in ridership from 2008 to 2010.

--The Next Stop Announcement System (NSAS) was installed on over 500 buses by October according to OCTranspo.com. NSAS probably does not attract more riders, but it certainly helped the visually impaired, night users, and anyone travelling in unknown areas of the city. Riders frustrated with inconsistent stop announcements in the past were likely more satisfied with the new system too.

--The rise of gas prices in late 2010 have made car users consider taking public transit to get to work. However, there was also a fare hike in March 2010 for passes, tickets, and cash fare. Of course, the increasing price of gas had a role in the rising operating costs and fares. Taking both gas price and transit fare changes into consideration, the net effect on ridership is a bit unclear.

--Two Park and Rides opened on Millennium Boulevard in Orleans and on Leitrim Road in south Ottawa. Millennium Park and Ride can hold 168 cars while Leitrim Park and Ride can carry 292 cars. The new park and rides should be convenient, especially for those who are not within walking distance of a bus stop.  Those driving from the south of Ottawa can park at Leitrim without fighting for a spot at Greenboro and being forced to take their car to work.

--In September, the U-Pass was introduced for the University of Ottawa and Carleton University students. This is probably the most significant factor in the rise of passenger volume. Peter Raaymakers wrote in April about the U-Pass' effect on ridership in the fourth quarter of 2010. The city reported an “additional 300,000 student trips each month” during that time. Although many students take public transit anyway, the U-Pass gave those who drove or biked, an extra incentive to take public transit. Since they paid for the U-Pass through tuition, they perhaps felt compelled to use it.

New on-ramp to Hwy 417 for buses and Park & Ride at Scotiabank Place

On a slow moving bus heading out of the Scotiabank Place parking lot, I often hear comments like “I should have drove to the game!” or “the city wants us to take the bus and this is what we get?” In the near future, we shouldn't be on a slow moving bus or hear those comments anymore at Ottawa Senators games.

The Ontario government, City of Ottawa, and the Ottawa Senators announced a new eastbound on-ramp to the Queensway from Scotiabank Place for buses. The ramp should save Senators fans and Scotiabank Place concert goers about 15 minutes since the ramp will give buses priority exiting. High-occupancy vehicles with two or more people have access to the ramp once buses have cleared. The City of Ottawa will invest $250 000 into the project, while the Ontario government will pay $500 000. According to CTV Ottawa, construction will start this fall and is expected to be finished in 2013.

Leaving Scotiabank Place after a Sens game can be aggravating for passengers on a bus, especially for those who are standing. The time to get out of the parking lot can be somewhere between ten and fifteen minutes. This on-ramp will be a huge improvement since it gives buses an exclusive exit out of Scotiabank Place. Also, the amount of time it will provide an additional incentive for car users to ditch their cars on game days and take the bus instead. A map of the on-ramp can be found here

As for the new Scotiabank Place Park and Ride spaces, there will be 100 new parking spaces. Public Transit in Ottawa's Peter Raaymakers wrote about the City reaching an agreement as early as September. The new Scotiabank Place Park and Ride will attempt to reduce the car volume at Eagleson and Terry Fox Park and Rides. At this time, there is no further information as to whether the new lot will be free, partially free, or Gold Permits only.

New Park-n-Ride lot may come to Scotiabank Place

Boy, does this make sense. You know that large spanse of paved land out by Scotiabank Place in Kanata? All the parking lots? Well, according to 580 CFRA, talks are ongoing and an agreement to use some of the lots could be in place as early as September 2011. From the article:

Councillor Shad Qadri originally floated the idea of setting up a parking lot for OC Transpo commuters at the Kanata arena. Hubley says a parking lot would provide "all kinds of new parking spaces overnight," adding the City wouldn't have to buy a field to create a new Park & Ride lot. The Councillor says talks are "going very well" between the City and the Ottawa Senators.

This makes sense for a few reasons, notably taking advantage of space that would otherwise be completely vacant, and saving money by renting the lot rather than purchasing land to build and maintain a giant parking lot. There may be issues, especially on game and event days, but it seems like a step in the right direction.

The potential Scotiabank Place lot would be served by the "optimized" route 96, some routes of which are going to be re-routed to serve Scotiabank Place. It will likely be used by residents of the Mattamy development right on the edge of Kanata and Stittsville, as well as residents from surrounding areas; that might relieve some of the overcrowding at the Eagleson, Terry Fox, and Stittsville park-n-rides.

Park-n-Ride lots are a little controversial in the public transit field, mostly because a) it prevents transit-oriented development because the lot sprawls out so far, and b) it institutes a requirement to drive to your bus, which isn't possible for everyone. But in this instance, I think it's definitely a good idea.

What would an out-of-towner premium mean for OC Transpo?

Cumberland councillor Stephen Blais, a member of the City of Ottawa's Transit Commission, recently put forward an idea to have commuters from outside the City of Ottawa who use OC Transpo pay a premium for the service. The premium, according to CTV Ottawa, would help cover the true cost of the service, and at least partially recover what "out-of-towners" don't pay to the service in property taxes.

While the idea is still very much in its infancy, it's one that, at least on the surface, seems rational. Since only about half of OC Transpo's operating costs are funded by fares (the other half coming from the tax base), a rider from Kemptville is paying about half as much as one from inside the city line.

By that rationale, though, tourists are also paying far less than the 'true cost' of OC Transpo rides they might be taking, and we're not about to start asking them to top-up their fares. It's always going to be a tricky line to walk when certain people pay for (part of) a service aren't the only ones who might use it.

One possible benefit of the move, according to CTV, would be unclogging the Park'N'Ride lots through the city. Which might be true, but even if it does, that just means more cars driving into the city, and fewer people taking the bus; is that really a positive outcome, overall?

As said above, it's still all hypothetical, and in the investigative stage; it won't even be considered until next year's budget. Who knows, perhaps staff will come up with an arrangement that brings in some extra income to offset the discrepancy, but still doesn't overly inconvenience out-of-town riders; that would be the ideal situation, realistically. But it will be interesting to see if the idea gets much political traction.

2010 Election: Scharf on OC Transpo

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

Mayoral candidate Jane Scharf has a few different ideas on how to complement OC Transpo bus service, from interprovincial rail service between Ottawa and Gatineau and aerial gondolas to add some spice to Ottawa's transportation infrastructure. But she also has several ideas based on her observations on how to improve bus service itself, which she thinks can help make for a more efficient service.

And there’s other things [I think are worth looking into], like putting more buses on the Transitway. It’s not overly busy, especially coming out this way—I’m in Kanata. It’s really congested--traffic congested--really badly. More buses, and more attention to that process. Like right now, it’s hard to use the Park’n’Ride, there’s not a lot of spaces; they could extend that, that would be cheap. Certainly cheaper than $2.4B. They could do all of that, what I just said, and that would make a huge impact on the congestion issues.

Scharf also thinks that there are big ways the city can change how they deal with the transit union in particular, and unions in general, to make for better relations and, as a result, better service.

I actually think that—this is a personal thing, I don’t even know if it’s something that they’re looking at in general—but personally, I think that the union process could be improved. And not just with OC Transpo, but everywhere, to make it more of a cooperative effort. For example, in Germany, in the 70’s they had a model of unions that was working really well where the government would train union negotiators and place them in a company, and once they’re placed they would be paid by the company, and it would be their job to set up a committee between management and labour—in equal numbers—and it was a requirement by law that all books would be open. And this labour guy just facilitated negotiations, and they had great results with it. Wages could go up, or down, depending on what profits were.

And it’s all open, so there’s not none of this adversarial ‘give us more’, ‘we don’t have any’, ‘give us more’, ‘we don’t have any’, that we have here. I think that you’d see better results, more effective. Doesn’t mean that I want them to change totally like that, but I think that they can go closer to that. For example, they could, say, make all the books open. Leave, by and large, the structure that’s there now, and just open all the books. To just the negotiating committee, not to everyone who works there, but whose ever coming on the negotiating committee.

Southwest Transitway Extension construction, part two

Continuing from last month's look at the Southwest Transitway Extension construction project, a few more photos have been uploaded to our Flickr account. The top photo is one of the southernmost part of the road that's being built, likely in the area where the actual station will be built. You can see Loblaws, the green building to the left, and other stores in the background, plus some construction equipment farther down. Strandherd Station is far in the background.

In this second photo, you can see the pilings along Strandherd Avenue, driven far down into the ground as support for the underpass that will be built for the buses. Strandherd Station isn't pictured, but is to the right of where the photo was taken from.

There are a few more photos at the Flickr account, so check those out if you're interested.

Southwest Transitway Extension construction, part one

Took a walk around the current construction of the Southwest Transitway Extension, which includes a tunnel underneath Strandherd Avenue heading into the Barrhaven Marketplace. I've updated a few photos on the Transit Ottawa Flickr account; the one above is looking northwest towards the Strandherd Park'n'Ride.


A look the other way around, to the southeast, where there will (eventually) be a new transit hub at the southern endpoint of the Transitway.

I'll try and post some more photos of other parts of the project in the coming week.

Construction begins on southwest Transitway extension

Photo courtesy office of Gloucester-South Nepean Councillor Steve Desroches

Construction began on the southwest Transitway extension through Barrhaven on Friday, September 18, 2009. The route will move buses from the existing Fallowfield Park and Ride, following along the VIA train tracks until just before Greenbank Avenue, when it turns south towards the Strandherd Park and Ride, goes underneath Strandherd Avenue and through the Barrhaven Marketplace (along an existing pedestrian pathway) towards new residential development in Chapman Mills neighbourhood (see map below).

Google Map overlaid with new Southwest Transitway Extension route

The extension is intended to move commuters more quickly from the Fallowfield station into southern residential developments. One undesirable by-product of that is the new route will take many routes, such as the 95, further from residential developments along Fallowfield and Greenbank, but it does run through future developments between Longfields Drive, Greenbank Road, and the train tracks.

The construction is scheduled to be completed by the spring of 2011. Undoubtedly, the most interesting component will be when the route tunneling underneath Strandherd Avenue. It will certainly be complicated, considering Strandherd at that point is four automobile lanes wide.

For more information on the Southwest Transitway Extension, check out the city's official public consultation page.

Park'N'Ride lots insufficient

There was a story in the Ottawa Citizen last weekend about a local transit user who was given a $65 ticket for parking illegally in a Park'N'Ride lot in Barrhaven. I know how she feels; I was ticketed for the same thing at the Eagleson Park'N'Ride just a year ago.

The issue at hand for the transit user is that the city is encouraging people to use public transit, and especially to use Park'N'Ride lots to ease bus service. And ticketing people who use the service isn't a way to encourage its use. Which is true; no one likes paying $65 because you there aren't enough parking spots.

A few days after I had received the ticket, I was going to my car (which was legally parked this time), and spotted one of the transit constables writing and issuing tickets. What he told me was that every fall, there is a ticketing blitz to get people--those who have been parking illegally all summer--to stop parking in unmarked spots. The reason for this, I was told, was because snow removal is next to impossible if cars are parked in every square inch of the lot. Which, to me, is a fair point. It sucks, especially for those who have to pay $65 or who can't find a parking spot, but that's how it is--at least for now.

Logically, the city needs to find a solution to this problem. If the service can't support everyone who wants to use it, then it needs to improve. There is already an onus on commuters to get to buses, rather than buses getting to commuters. Express buses provide some relief by going through suburban developments, but they don't serve everyone. There are planning problems with huge swaths of parking spots for Park'N'Rides, though, because it's not a tremendously positive use of space.

And ultimately, there is a way for concerned transit users to avoid paying for tickets. These may not be as convenient as parking illegally, but the story outlines at four possible solutions from a few sources, including author Hugh Adami and manager of OC Transpo transit service design Pat Scrimgeour:

• Park at the rarely full Strandherd Park'N'Ride, rather than Fallowfield
• Buy a $42 reserved parking pass
• Plan your ride in advance, using OC Transpo's 560-1000 service so you're not scrambling to find a spot
• Wake up earlier, to get to a spot before the lot is full

As I said, not as convenient as parking illegally, but there is one final (and undesirable) option: Drive all the way down. If that's not amenable, you might have to work around what Scrimgeour calls the city's "fiscal prudence, our responsibility to keep our expenditures in control and to work within the budget we're given."

More riders, but no more Park'N'Ride spots

CBC.ca released a story about the frustration of transit users in Ottawa last week, notably with the shortage of Park'N'Ride spots for our cities commuters. The story cites statistics stating that about 68 riders compete for every spot:

Many of the 350,000 people who ride public transit each day compete for 5,100 parking spaces at OC Transpo's 11 suburban lots before transferring to a bus.

The chair of the city's transit committee acknowledged that the jump in gas prices is making the crunch at the park-and-ride lots, which was already a problem, worse.

"We know the challenge is there," he said. "We're trying to accommodate as best we can. We have in our plan to provide more park-and-rides."

I can surely sympathize with everyone who's had problems parking. I often park at the Eagleson Park'N'Ride, but I was ticketed a few months ago so I've started driving an extra 5-10 minutes to the Terry Fox Park'N'Ride.

In large part, the system is reliant on transit hubs with transfers from personal automobile onto an OC Transpo bus. If there's no place to stash our cars without getting ticketed, though, why on earth would we run the risk of dropping $55 to take the bus? The only alternatives are waking up absurdly early to try and beat the rush, or fighting through local routes--which normally come every 20-30 minutes, sometimes require another transfer before getting to large runs, and their milk-run routes generally take 2-3 times as long as driving would.

How much bigger should these lots get, though? The real estate spent already on parking lots could certainly be used more effectively as parkland or land for development, it doesn't make too much sense to expand 5,100 spaces to 20,000 or so to more fully accomodate Park'N'Ride users. But how else can we accomodate riders from the outskirts of the suburbs?

Do any readers have stories of good or bad experiences with Park'N'Ride service? Feel free to post in the Comments section.

Getting rural constituents more pissed off

According to a story by Joe Banks in the Ottawa Citizen, city council had plans in place to begin charging residents of rural areas, who have traditionally been exempt from transit levies by virtue of being outside of the Urban Transit Area, some sort of transit levy. This was based on the questionable research done that said 22 per cent of users of suburban Park'N'Rides were from rural areas.

Aside from the questionable data, the process of putting this recommendation on the table was not at all transparent. Banks goes over the many issues with the proposal, and in the process recommends that if some rural residents are indeed using the Park'N'Ride services paid for by urban and suburban residents, perhaps a user-based fee would be more reasonable than charging everyone in the area for a service that, by all accounts, is used by a minimal minority.

Property taxes are already substantially lower in those peripheral towns. Cost-free park and rides make it more viable for people to live outside Ottawa and commute in to it. Every morning, on my drive on Highway 416, I see a growing number of cars heading north from Kemptville, Spencerville, Prescott, for whom the commute remains viable, without having to contribute a dime to the system through their tax bill. We'll see how staff, if they continue to insist on a plan to hose rural Ottawans for a service they say that one in five of us use, intends to ding those people for taking up space paid for entirely by Ottawa taxpayers.

User pay would do it.

In the meantime, in what is becoming a familiar pattern, rural residents are again forced into telling the city what they don't want, the flip-side of those groups and people who have become accustomed to announcing what they do.

Maybe some day those wants and needs will find common ground and with it, a vision that appeals to everybody. Until then, logic should prevail.

There is no good reason to charge all rural residents a transit levy. They already pay a premium fare for express rural service that is unpredictable and often unreliable. There would naturally be some who use Park'N'Ride lots in suburban areas, so a user-based system might be good. But it could also be a slippery slope; what if those in urban and suburban areas decide that they don't use transit services, so why shouldn't there be a user-pays system in place in the centre, too?

And if a levy were put in place, how much would it be? If service for rural residents is, say, one-tenth as good as that in urban areas, and one-quarter that of suburbs, they should realistically be expected to pay no more than a fraction of the normal fees.

Another difficult issue to address when plans are put forward. Banks' column is a good read, whether or not you agree with his proposal of a rural transit levy, I recommend interested readers check it out.

Everyone needs light rail, but where do we start?

Breaking news in the Ottawa Citizen today: Kanata commuters think Kanata needs light rail. In his first trip in a series of three from the city's largest suburban hubs, mayor Larry O'Brien asked people from Kanata what they thought about the recent transit plans as launched by the city. Today he went from Mackenzie-King to Orleans, and tomorrow he'll take the ride from Fallowfield to downtown.

Want to take a guess what the second and third rides will show? I bet Barrhaven commuters will think Barrhaven needs light rail, and Orleans commuters will think Orleans needs light rail. And, in the long run, all are true. But just because everyone thinks they need light rail right now doesn't mean the city doesn't have to make priorities, and follow those.

An excerpt from the story:

Most commuters were pleasantly surprised to see the mayor, who posed for pictures and joked with riders. They also filled his ears with complaints about current transit challenges, including overcrowding, reliability, and difficulties getting home in the winter.

Stittsville-Kanata West Councillor Shad Qadri, who rode the bus with Mr. O'Brien, said he "wouldn't mind seeing LRT come out as far as Eagleson."

"That would serve all of that west-end area very, very well," said Mr. Qadri, adding that light rail could go as far east as the edge of Orléans.

[...]

Mr. Qadri said he was leaning toward Option 3, which keeps the O-Train and uses the tunnel for light rail, which would increase the potential for an LRT expansion.

The bottom line is that, realistically, all three areas should be connected to the transit infrastructure without having to make transfers, or having to drive to a park'n'ride, or spend three times as long on a bus as the drive would take. Extending light rail would solve these problems, but it can't all be done at once, can it?

Transit system doesn't serve Ottawa's needs

A lot of people say that Ottawa has a pretty good public transit system. And, when you've arrived into the downtown corridor, that is often the case. The problem with the infrastructure--as has been the case for some time--is getting into Ottawa's heart.

And that might be an explanation as to why Ottawa commuters are largely declining to use services provided by OC Transpo. According to an article by the Canadian Press:

On the outskirts of major cities such as Toronto, Calgary and Vancouver the process of transferring from a local bus to the main subway system adds to a commute that some say would take a fraction of the time in a car.

"Every time you add a transfer piece to a trip you're tacking on anywhere from five to 15 minutes," said Lorenzo Mele, chairman of the Association for Commuter Transportation of Canada. "That's when our systems fall apart."

"There's no point in trying to convince somebody to turn a 30-minute car ride to work into an hour and a half journey across the transit system," he said.

That same argument can be made in Ottawa, where recent attempts to get people into the centre of the city--in Kanata at Eagleson and Terry Fox, in Barrhaven at Strandherd and Fallowfield, in South Keys at Greenboro, and all other Park'n'Rides in Ottawa--shift the onus of getting into the main transit system onto the commuter commuter.

As for the Ottawa transit situation, it's not pretty. An article on CBCNews.ca gives the numbers:

About 70 per cent of the 560,000 commuters in the Ottawa-Gatineau region still travel to work in personal vehicles, according to a new report by Statistics Canada.

That means not even one person in five in the region uses public transit, the report says.

Those statistics are largely reflective of the city's failure to properly assess and address the needs of people in Ottawa.