2022 Ottawa Municipal Election

[lrt's friend]

It appears that nobody is advocating moving forward on the missing link, the Baseline BRT. This is a critical trunk line that allows for bypassing downtown when downtown is not your destination. And with the changes with the public service downtown, decentralizing our transit service becomes more critical. I also want to see better all-day service in central Ottawa as we continue to build more high-rises and to re-imagine downtown as an all-day destination.

Our candidates are not delivering concrete proposals other than McKenney's bike infrastructure improvements.

We need to continue to improve our cycling infrastructure, but, we cannot be Amsterdam or Copenhagen with our severe winters. We need to understand our climate limitation to make sure that we offer overall transport options that work for majority of people.

Walking is great for under 1 km
Cycling works for most if it is 5 - 10 km when the weather is decent.
Beyond that, it is transit and private vehicles. Ottawa is much bigger than 10 km, so a major number of trips will fit into this category. Most people are not biking from Kanata to Vanier. That is too far for the majority.

So, if we don't want private vehicles, we need to offer the right mix of alternatives, and good portion will have to be efficient transit especially when the weather is not good.

We cannot build 25 years of cycling infrastructure if it is at the expense of what the majority need. I am not satisfied with the status quo regarding cycling, but a 25 year investment in 4 years? Sure, accelerate our investment, but we should also need a major rethink and improvement of transit, after spending the last 10 years of cutting transit service. More frequent trunk routes throughout the city and better neighbourhood connections and I will add, finally, a regional all-day bus service by working with the province. It is time to think of a GO Transit-like system for greater Ottawa. Even our growing rural villages within the city limits have next to no bus service.

But I listen to the crickets.