Ottawa Has A Transportation Crisis
What are our politicians and bureaucrats doing about Ottawa’s transportation crisis?
What are they doing about the Confederation Line not working, stage 2 of light rail far behind schedule, the Trillium Line closed at the same time and buses being stripped from already unreliable routes to replace the two disabled rail lines?
Ottawa’s Failure Goes Beyond LRT: BENN
What is the city doing about the western parkway being narrowed to one lane (not two lanes, one in each direction) periodically because Westboro Beach is being reconstructed and across the road stage 2 LRT building is ongoing and late?
Why is the National Capital Commission Chaudiere Bridge still closed when it was to be opened in May? Yes, high Ottawa River levels set back construction but the waterway has appeared quite normal for some time. Why is the Champlain Bridge, which serves the entire west end of the city (remember the population halfway point across the city is Woodroffe Avenue, not Bank Street, and moving west), closed to occasionally one lane with construction workers handling the kilometres-long traffic jams? What will replace the Alexandra Bridge? What progress is being made on an east-bridge or have the rich well-connected people in Rockcliffe and Manor Park got their way again? What is the city doing about the dangerous clown show that is the route through downtown leading to the Macdonald-Cartier Bridge.
Why is Highway 417 being closed on three separate weekends to build a pedestrian bridge to a non-existent light-rail project and replace two interchange bridges? Couldn’t the province and city have co-ordinated those all to happen on one weekend? Highway 417 is the only major transportation mode still working in this city. Now government is closing it down on three weekends (not to mention closing all the Ottawa River bridges for Race Weekend). Isn’t that thoroughfare so important that enough people can be brought in to conduct that vital construction work at once?
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Meanwhile, downtown parking-lot owners can’t keep up to demand because commuters are abandoning unreliable mass transit for cars (often old, polluting used cars because the owners can’t afford anything else). Highway 417 experiences traffic jams at all times of the day because car volume is simply too big with mass transit down. One accident recently at the Highway 417-174 split backed up traffic all the way to Bayshore Mall effectively stopping east-west mass transportation in the city.
We have a transportation crisis in this city, most of which has been caused by government incompetence.
At first, Ottawans thought government was just conducting a war on cars. But that’s not true.
Instead, government is conducting a war on movement, either purposely or inadvertently or through good intentions gone bad, that is retarding the economic and social fabric in the national capital.
Ken Gray
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Your assessment of what’s happened with the local transportation systems (roads, bridges, public,) is dead on. There is little thought nor co-ordination when it comes to how the public and business need to get around. The costs in time and money to everyone are incalculable but must be in the billions of dollars. Basically there are 2 glaring problems here. The first is that where expertise and experience are most needed there is very little of either. The education system does not breed people who take all the factors into account when making decisions. Instead we have politicians who serve special interest and NIMBY groups without any thought to the economic good of the population at large. The second is the total lack of oversize nor co-ordination of the 4 levels of government who independently operate the power switches as if they are the only game in town Unfortunately the electorate are also to blame for not caring who has their hands on the power levers. Until everyone wakes up to all these factors, it’s only going to be more of the same.
You can add to your list the proposed closing of two of the four through lanes on the Billings Bridge on Bank St. over the Rideau River to allow for bike lanes. The performance of special interest cycling activists in favour of this on the Zoom consultation with the city was something to behold.
John, the bicycle enthusiasts are well organized and know how to manipulate what passes for the city’s public “consultations” to their advantage. That the city does not factor this into their analysis of the input they receive is not surprising.
As for closing half the lanes on Bank Street over the Billings Bridge to motor vehicles … all that will do is move the Bank Street bottle necks further back, in both directions.
I am left to wonder what the Glebe residents think of this. In particular, the group that was advocating a tunnel under Bank Street, to ease traffic lack of flow.
I also wonder what the reaction is from OC Transpo’s mismanagement team. Slowing down a key north-south route into centre town should not be high on their priority list.
Sadly the reason we have such clown acts Municipally, Provincially and Federally is because of voters. What politicos say is given far more weight if not all of it than actions or results.
There’s a saying we get the government we deserve.
We need to start teaching practicality and common sense reasoning starting in grade school.
We need a version of the following thinking….not such small amounts but you’ll get the idea. A small township in the USA was incensed at a water tax increase of $18 a month or year I forget which but at the first chance punted the entire band of politicians. Canadians voters are so apathetic, uninformed or outright clueless that steady as she goes is just fine.