13 Councillors Protest Ford Cycling Moves
This is an excerpt from Rideau-Rockcliffe Councillor Rawlson King’s newsletter:
Dear Residents:
I want to update you on an important issue affecting our community’s transportation future. I have joined several Council colleagues in signing a letter opposing new provincial legislation that would severely restrict Ottawa’s ability to build and maintain vital cycling infrastructure.
The proposed legislation would require municipalities to seek provincial approval before implementing any new bike lanes that affect vehicle traffic lanes. This overreach by the provincial government puts nearly all projects in Ottawa’s Active Transportation Master Plan at risk, including potentially removing existing infrastructure like the successful O’Connor Street protected bike lanes – which see over 150,000 uses annually.
This legislation fundamentally undermines our City’s ability to make informed, local decisions about transportation safety and climate action. Many of our cycling infrastructure projects were implemented in direct response to tragic accidents and deaths on our roads. These aren’t just statistics – they represent our family members, friends, and neighbors whose lives have been forever changed by road accidents.
The evidence supporting bike lanes is clear: they reduce congestion by providing safe alternative transportation options while making streets safer. This provincial intervention would add unnecessary bureaucracy to local decision-making and potentially waste taxpayer dollars by removing recently installed, well-used infrastructure.
Our community deserves better. Residents should have the right to travel safely whether they walk, cycle, take transit, or drive. I will continue to advocate for maintaining local control over our transportation planning and ensuring our streets remain safe and accessible for all users.
My colleagues and I urge the provincial government to withdraw this misguided legislation and respect municipalities’ ability to meet their communities’ transportation needs.
The following City Councillors have joined me in signing this letter:
– Councillor Ariel Troster – Ward 14 (Somerset)
– Councillor Glen Gower – Ward 6 (Stittsville)
– Councillor Theresa Kavanagh – Ward 7 (Bay)
– Councillor Laine Johnson – Ward 8 (College)
– Councillor Sean Devine – Ward 9 (Knoxdale Merivale)
– Councillor Jessica Bradley – Ward 10 (Gloucester-Southgate)
– Councillor Stéphanie Plante – Ward 12 (Rideau-Vanier)
– Councillor Jeff Leiper – Ward 15 (Kitchissippi)
– Councillor Riley Brockington – Ward 16 (River)
– Councillor Shawn Menard – Ward 17 (Capital)
– Councillor Marty Carr – Ward 18 (Alta Vista)
This newsletter excerpt is courtesy of the city-wide community group Your Applewood Acres (And Beyond) Neighbours
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How many hours, collectively, went into drafting and editing the letter? Seriously. To accomplish what? To register their discontent with the provincial government.
This letter plus 75 cents will buy nothing at the Dollar Store.
It’s nice to see some statistics included in a report rather than just an emotional plea (and more whining). However, there are two sides to this coin. If an additional lane for vehicles that were not bicycles existed on O’Connor Street how many vehicles (and passengers) could have moved quickly from downtown annually to points south at the end of a business day and how much additional time would residents have saved getting home in a more timely fashion, to feed their children, get to soccer practice, get to community association meetings, etc, etc. This report in of itself is of little value unless all the numbers are included. Unfortunately, the report reflects the way Ottawa city council deals with issues, great writing but lack of problem solving insight.
It is often stated one letter represents 1000 constituents/voters similar views. Using this logic it sends Mr Ford 11,000 complaints. Or if you include how many people they represent, probably 700,000. In government it means a lot. BTW Where is the mayor???
Andrew, I have never heard of the 1:1000 ratio that you cite. Having said that, does that mean that the 13 councillors who found better things to do with their time than whine represented 13,000 non-complaints?
More to the point, I suggest that the 11 councillors would have made better use of their time pondering why the provincial government saw fit to wade, once again, into municipal territory. Is it just possible, just maybe, that the municipalities across Ontario (i.e. this was not just pointed at Ottawa) are not doing a good enough job in evaluating where bike lanes should go? That they are not doing a good enough job identifying the down side on overall movement of people throughout the municipality when replacing a lane that was used by vehicles?
Earlier this year, the Centrepointe Community Association asked the traffic engineer why the city’s traffic calming plan was calling for the installation of four bike lanes of roughly 200-300 metres each, noting that one end of each of these stranded strands truncated at the bike lane free Baseline Road. The response was that council had set a policy that bike lanes were to be installed where ever, when ever, possible. No need for an objective analysis of whether bike lanes were merited in the specific circumstance. No need to consider the impact on the flow of traffic entering/exiting the community. Just do it. Because council wanted it. Yet councillors wonder why a senior level of government is challenging their decisions?
What does 150,000 “uses” mean? and how did they measure this?
Andrew to Andrew – Just because a councillor represents a ward it does not mean that a councillor represents the views of all of its residents let alone even a majority. Certain councillors have taken an ideological stand on bicycles and really don’t care the views of those with whom they don’t agree. As well, given that at best the turnout in a municipal election is about 40% and the average councillor (particularly a first time councillor) gets between 40 and 60% of the vote, that councillor represents far less than 100% of the people in the ward. While no one can argue that the councillors have a legitimate position (particularly about the separation of government powers) and that a number of people want to leave the bike lanes in place or even have more, throwing around meaningless numbers means nothing. One might argue that the only people that we absolutely know who want to keep the bike lane on O’Connor are 11 councillors and the 1000-1500 cyclists who probably regularly use the O’Connor bike lane (based on 150,000/365 but then factoring in that not everyone cycles everyday and non-winter usage is going to be higher than winter usage). As Winston Churchill said, “there are three types of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics.
MM. I think the city lays a rubber hose “thing” on the bike lane and whenever it feels a bump-bump (front tire and back) one is added to the counting device. The number 150,000 is an “approximation at best” because unless people drive single file it is possible for two riders to go over the hose at the same time or for a front and rear wheel to go over it at the same time (which would create 3 bumps, not four). The best way to get an accurate count is to have high school students keeping track while sitting in lawn chairs which I don’t believe is the case. The process is very rudimentary and the accuracy of the count is questionable.
Sisco
Thank you, I was wondering if maybe they were using those. I’ve seen one once, I believe it was on the Ottawa West MUP somewhere behind the old Nortel bldgs and some kids were stomping on it. hahaha.