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© Clive Doucet 2008
May 2008
Life and Lifestyle
A lifestyle has things.
A life has people,
community and purpose.- from Canal Seasons
Light rail or just a lot more buses?
At first glance the new recommended transit network looked like a plan for light rail. It included conversion of portions of the transitway to electric light rail, a tunnel through downtown and extension of the bus transitway in outlying areas. Look at it more closely and you have a recipe to fund more buses and not to fund light rail. It is a busway plan first and foremost.
There’s no arguing with the choice of electric rail. It is what all other cities are doing now (Toronto, Montreal, Edmonton, Vancouver, Calgary). This is the right technological choice which a vast majority of people participating in the public consultation said they wanted.
The choice of where to put the light rail is poor. Having most of it replace an existing service on the transitway will not increase ridership. Increasing ridership is key to getting federal and provincial funds to help pay for transit. Nowhere else in the country are these other levels of government funding replacement of an existing service. All the big transit projects elsewhere are for extended service because that’s how you get more ridership. With the city’s financial reserves in frightening decline, most of the light rail conversion of the transitway risks being un-fundable. By comparison, the 40 kilometers of new busway extensions in outlying areas will attract funding from other levels of government. This is why I called the recommended transit network, nothing more than a plan for more buses and why I am advocating for alternate routes for the light rail.
Using Carling Avenue comes to mind as an alternate corridor worth comparing. Unlike the transitway route, where we need to get the NCC to allow to electric rail along their parkway, the city owns the entire Carling right-of-way and the corridor passes through a more densely populated area which includes major employment and shopping centres not currently served by the transitway. This is just one example of how an alternate route could provide new and improved service which could attract new riders as well as federal and provincial money.
If the tunnel and the light rail portions of the new recommended transit network prove un-fundable, we need contingency plans which include alternates routes and surface light rail. This is what I call Plan B and if we don’t prepare for a Plan B now we will risk loosing many more years with nothing but planning studies to do and more buses to show for it.
No Parking Meters in Old Ottawa South
Parking meters will not be added to Old Ottawa South. However, the unprecedented way business groups, some city councillors, community groups and churches had to all come together on the parking meter issue and spend so much effort to stop something destructive to the entire city centre demonstrates how dysfunctional the City Hall has become. This highlights the lack of leadership from the Mayor’s office and how divided council is. It shouldn’t have been so hard to get agreement on the need for a citywide equitable parking policy before making snap decisions.
Enviro-breakfast
Spearheaded by Glebe’s Environment Committee and Old Ottawa East’s Sustainable Living Ottawa East (SLOE), a community association networking meeting to discuss environmental and sustainable development issues was held at the Green Door restaurant. It was impressive to see so many community associations from across the city coming out for an 8 a.m. meeting on a Saturday morning to discuss their growing concerns and sharing ideas for change. I welcome these networking sessions and will be supporting the development of more similar initiatives in the future. If we can’t get the city as a whole to function in a more cost effective and healthy way – changing the city one neighbourhood at a time is our best bet.
Air Quality Summit
The most significant improvements to life expectancy were made as result of water purification. Providing safe drinking water is the most important responsibility all cities carry. The next most vital resource for the health of a population is the air we breathe. Municipal governments are starting to look at local air pollution more closely. Ottawa is not immune to poor quality, increasing rates of asthma and premature deaths due to smog.
I am organizing an Air Quality Summit with health professionals and air quality specialists in September to raise awareness and build consensus on steps that would be practical for the city to take to reduce the risk of bad air. The event will be at the Irving Greenberg Theatre (the new GCTC location), 1233 Wellington Street West on September 25. Stay tuned for details.
