Quote:
Originally Posted by acottawa
I think you are overstating how “urban” Montreal/St.Joseph are. There are a few urban pockets, but it is mostly strip malls, low density housing, and campus-style employers set in vast fields. This line would probably have a few thousand people actually living or working in walking distance. A transit line would probably lead to more density over time, but at the rate Ottawa builds high-density housing it is a project that would be measured in centuries.
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I’m not saying it’s like Yonge St. but in general it’s good to run transit lines down corridor with shops, grocery stores, small businesses like bakeries and whatnot. Take a look on Google Maps and you’ll see plenty of businesses that are easy to miss when you’re driving down Montreal Rd. focussing on the road ahead of you. And way easier access for surrounding residential, even if it’s low density. It’s a lot easier to walk say 200m to a potential station on Montreal Rd. than to walk 200m across 174 on/off ramps getting a nice coat of salt spray.
All I’m trying to get at is that right now, the way we build O-Train means that most of the time you’re emerging from a station to nothingness. Tunney’s, nothing apart from sprawling, car-oriented gov campus. Bayview, nothing. Pimisi, nothing… etc. And even in cases where we do aim for TOD near stations, the “integration” is poor, e.g. Dream Lebreton interface with Pimisi station or proposals for future Bayshore station etc.
This is all fine and great if you’re a commuter, in which case all you care about the terminus station where there’s either a bus loop or a park and ride waiting for you. But for our transit to truly fit the generally accepted definition of success, it should serve commuters and also people who want to hop on for 3-4 stations to visit somewhere like Clocktower or The Royal Oak or Dhruvees and then head back. Simple, every day outings that should be easily achievable on transit but aren’t at all. Right now O-Train isn’t being built that way, instead it’s built as more of a bridge between outer suburbs and downtown while taking the cheapest path in between, especially re: the east extension.