Light-rail transit makes for healthy commuters

According to a study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine in August 2010, the presence of a light-rail transit system in a city meant people had higher physical activity (due to walking to and from stations) and, as a result, better physical fitness. There's a pretty good argument to go ahead with Ottawa's light-rail transit plan, if we needed another one.

The paper, entitled "The Effect of Light Rail Transit on Body Mass Index and Physical Activity" by John M. MacDonald, Robert J. Stokes, Deborah A. Cohen, Aaron Kofner, and Greg K. Ridgeway, looked at the city of Charlotte, North Carolina, polling citizen before and after the construction of that city's light-rail transit system (the LYNX) concluding that (according to Science Daily):

LRT reduced BMI [body-mass index] by an average of 1.18 kg/m2 compared to non-LRT users in the same area over a 12-18 month follow-up period. This is equivalent to a relative weight loss of 6.45 lbs for a person who is 5'5. LRT users were also 81% less likely to become obese over time.

So, by the time 2019 rolls around and Ottawa has a light-rail transit system in place, we can all look forward to reaping the health benefits resultant therefrom. If we're not all replaced by robots by then, of course.

Read more: London Telegraph, Bloomberg.com.

Can we have light rail on Bank Street?

A little while back, Spacing Ottawa published an op/ed piece by Dwight Williams with a suggested way to link the City of Ottawa's two biggest public construction projects: the redevelopment of Lansdowne Park, which is currently not served by rapid transit, with the construction of an east-west LRT line with a tunnel under downtown. Williams' suggestion? A light-rail transit line that tunnels underneath Bank Street at some points, and parallel to at others.

The system map presented above (which you can click to enlarge, and was made with information from Spacing's image) is a rough (and not nearly to scale, I realize) estimation of what this integrated system could look like. The blue line is the current O-Train, the red line is Ottawa's current east-west line, and the green line is Williams' proposed Bank Street line, which I've made the executive decision to connect to the Downtown East station (which would likely be between Metcalfe and O'Connor streets downtown). It does connect the "red line" with the "green line" quite nicely, bringing people from downtown to Lansdowne--as well as Billings Bridge, the Glebe, and other destinations--comfortably and quickly. The inclusion of a Sunnyside Station, which would actually be fairly close to the O-Train's Carleton University station, also brings those lines together.

As it stands right now, there is nothing of significance, public transit-wise, for Bank Street. In the city's Transportation Master Plan update released in 2008 (.PDF, network map on page 1), a small portion runs along Bank Street near Greenboro Station, but other than that, Bank is reserved for local bus routes, personal automobiles, and human-powered forms of transportation.

So, can we have light rail on Bank Street? Well, we probably could, and it would certainly go a long way in solving the transportation problems around the Lansdowne Park redevelopment. But it wouldn't be cheap, and it wouldn't be easy. The cost of tunneling where necessary, and to join up with the Downtown East station, immediately raises questions of cost. Actually building the line would be hard, given that Bank Street is pretty much always busy as it is. And finding the political will to push for this kind of project won't be easy: Since Bank Street isn't really identified as a target zone for rapid transit currently, changing the master plan to put a priority on it would take some real negotiating and gesturing--especially since doing so would likely delay the expansion of light rail further east, west, or south into suburbs like Orleans, Kanata, Barrhaven, and Riverside South.

A terrific idea which would most certainly connect Lansdowne to our current and future public transit systems, but not one without significant hurdles to get over.

2010 Election: Cullen on LRT affordability

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.

The second in a series of posts looking at Alex Cullen's thoughts on transit leading up to the election deals with the affordability of Ottawa's current $2.1B light-rail transit plan, including specifically the $735M Downtown Ottawa Transit Tunnel (DOTT). Cullen started by addressing the criticism that the LRT plan, and specifically the DOTT, has no upper limit budget.

I don’t want to fool people; the idea is not $735M come hell or high water, the idea is to get a tunnel in place that meets the need of our community. We think it’s $735M, but if it tends to be $750M, or $720M, that’s not such a big deal for me, as long as we get it in place, because we’re able to accommodate that. What is not sustainable is if a $735M tunnel becomes a $1.2B tunnel; that’s not sustainable. There are limits, and there would have to be limits, because we only have so much capacity. But we’re not in the danger zone of adopting something we cannot afford.

Leading up to and through the campaign so far, Cullen has been insistent that the City would be able to afford the current $2.1B LRT plan without breaking the bank. I asked him where that confidence came from.

We have the financial capacity [to fund this plan]. It does not bring us to our limit, and, as a matter fact, we’ve taken the whole transportation master plan, at $3.8B over the lifetime of that transportation master plan, and we can do it. So that’s where my confidence comes from. We have the revenues identified from development charges—that’s the portion of development charges dedicated to transit, that’s not 100 per cent of development charges—and we have the gas tax rebate, we have our federal and provincial funding partners, and we have what we normally allocate for transit capital, which is about $75M, and that gets us to $900M. And we don’t threaten our triple-A rating on that basis.

It is the biggest single project, it is going to transform our city, but the work that has gone into estimating the costs and estimating our financial capability of handling these costs, gives me the confidence to say that this is a very doable project.

Bluesfest director disappointed with timing of O-Train maintenance

aerial shot of Bluesfest at LeBreton Flats, 2007, from Wikipedia

Last week, we mentioned that the O-Train is going to be pulled offline from July 12-Aug. 14, 2010 for maintenance and repairs. What I neglected to mention was that the Ottawa Bluesfest overlaps with the downtime: from July 6-18, 2010. So for about a week, folks aren't going to use the O-Train to get on their way to Bluesfest, they'll have to take the "O-Train Special" bus that runs alongside it. Bluesfest executive director Mark Monahan said he's disappointed in the timing of the repairs, according to the Ottawa Citizen:

"It's disappointing" because it will inconvenience fans, Monahan said. "People are still going to get here," but the transit authority could have delayed the work for a week until the festival was over."

Although Monahan's disappointment is understandable, the repairs are likely not going to effect the festival's attendees too much; the O-Train wouldn't likely be a main transporter for fans (the Transitway will likely carry the lion's share of commuters), and those who would have used the O-Train are able to use bus service running along a virtually identical--if somewhat longer--route. And with the current schedule slated to finish the repairs August 14, even that is coming close to the beginning of the school year, when the O-Train's biggest ridership base--Carleton University students--begin using the service in large numbers again. Delaying the repairs, even just a week, would run the risk of having a further delay in construction, for whatever unseen reasons, cut dangerously close to or perhaps right into the school year.

Will the repairs inconvenience any readers who plan on attending Bluesfest? Please feel free to discuss your thoughts in the comments.

2010 Election: Taylor on interprovincial transit

Ottawa's Prince of Wales Bridge. © Padraic Ryan.

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.

Another key part of Charlie Taylor's mayoral platform is an extension of the current O-Train across the Ottawa River into Gatineau, over the currently city-owned Prince of Wales bridge. It's an idea that has come up often (which is why the city owns the bridge), but seems to have been left on the back-burner for public transit in the city. Taylor thinks it needs to be brought back to the forefront.

An integrated rail network tying the whole city together, to me, is a no-brainer. They’re talking about building new bridges for cars across the river. There are, I think, something like 5,000 buses going across the river every day, and surely you could divert some of that traffic if you had a reasonable rail network in Gatineau linked to a reasonable rail network in Ottawa. They’ve already got the infrastructure in Gatineau, and we’re going to be connecting to the Bayview Station shortly—which is where the O-Train runs.

Taylor claimed that Ottawa actually owns land in Gatineau across the river to build a rail station for the O-Train to cross the river, but hasn't pushed the issue after, according to Taylor, encountering resistance from the Gatineau municipal government. Taylor says he would push ahead, whether Gatineau was in favour or not.

If Gatineau won’t talk to us, then I wouldn’t be averse to applying some pressure, saying, “You guys run a lot of STO buses to Ottawa; if you want to keep running your STO buses to Ottawa, let us run our train.” It’s just ridiculous. Tearing up rail line and putting in bus systems is what we were doing in the 1950s and everyone regrets it. The whole world is switching back to rail. We’re the only major city in Canada that doesn’t have a rail-based transit system. It’s more efficient, it’s cleaner, it’s a more comfortable way to go. It’s a no-brainer.

After extending the O-Train into Gatineau, Taylor also suggested the line should be extended southwards to the McDonald-Cartier Airport.

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.

2010 Election: Taylor on the U-Pass

photo © Simon Cremer

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.

Next up is Charlie Taylor. A journalism student at Carleton University, Taylor, 33, has released a series of key platform ideas on his website, from "fiscal responsibility" to "citizen friendly government"--and, of course, public transit.

One of the short-term transit goals Taylor outlined on his platform was to kill the U-Pass, the universal student bus pass which, for $145 per semester, would give any full-time university students a bus pass. One of the key issues debated about the U-Pass as it went through council was an opt-out clause, but it wasn't approved; every full-time student will pay that $145 per semester. Although he said he didn't want this issue to define his campaign, Taylor suggested that the U-Pass is unfair to those students who choose to live close to their campus.

It’s a disincentive for people to make the environmentally-friendly choice to live within walking or cycling distance of school if you charge people a blanket fee. People opt to live close to school, it’s a little more expensive rent-wise, but they’re making that decision to have that lifestyle, and they can invest some of the money that they save in transit into their increased rent. I think that’s a totally legitimate decision, and charging people $300 a year as a tax to walk or cycle is unethical.

The U-Pass, which is valid for bus and O-Train transportation, was brought forth by the student federations of Carleton University and the University of Ottawa, and passed referendums at both schools. Still, Taylor questioned the validity of those student votes.

The red-and-white limo

Funny story a couple days ago on the Change Marketing blog about a group of local high school graduates who chartered an OC Transpo hybrid bus--the red and white limousine--to get to their prom at the end of the school year. And, with the cost spread out over the 25 or so riders, it only worked out to about $12 per person--cheaper, and better for the environment than your conventional limousine.

Charter services is one of a few non-standard revenue generators for OC Transpo. Not sure what percentage of their actual income is resultant from it (I'd wager it's a small percentage), but occasionally you'll come across these types of things--people chartering a bus for a wedding, or a prom, or any other special events. Good for the travellers, good for the environment, and good for public transit? Fine by me.