By Ted Raymond, CTV News Ottawa, May 17, 2019
A new testing track for autonomous vehicles has officially opened in Ottawa.
Touted as the first of its kind in North America, the testing facility will allow developers of autonomous vehicles to test them in a variety of road and weather conditions. It’s already been in use, but Invest Ottawa is holding a grand opening Friday.
The aim is to improve the safety of driverless cars by training the software that runs them.
By Kimberley Molina, CBC News Ottawa, May 16, 2019
More than a month after it got the axe, Parliament Hill's historic elm tree will live on in some young saplings.
The century-old American elm was cut down in April, despite pleas to keep the majestic tree that grew beside a statue of Sir John A. Macdonald alive during major Centre Block renovations.
Around 100 twigs cut from the tree in March ended up being sent to the University of Guelph's arboretum as part of its Elm Recovery Project.By Laurie Fagan, CBC News Ottawa, May 17, 2019
Devastating flooding that's destroyed and damaged homes along a huge stretch of the Ottawa River is a "natural disaster" and not caused by hydroelectric companies mismanaging the dams, insists the agency that oversees the river.
Some 4,000 people have signed a Facebook petition calling for an "independent public inquiry" into possible dam mismanagement during the second major flood on the river in two years.
In the Outaouais community of Mansfield-et-Pontefract, Que., council has passed a motion calling for an inquiry into whether reservoirs and dams along the Ottawa River are being used properly to prevent flooding.
(...)Lalonde said photos taken at Deux-Rivières only show the wide flat river banks and that the river, which isn't visible in the photos, is flowing at a very high rate.
"It's a perception problem, and not a technical one," she said. "It's not a dry river there."
Ottawa Riverkeeper executive director Patrick Nadeau said he agrees with that assessment.
"A lot of fingers have been pointed at dam operators, but the water coming down the river is unprecedented," he said. "They are doing what they can."
By Matthew Kupfer, CBC News Ottawa, May 17, 2019
Cyclists are raising safety concerns about the block of Laurier Avenue where a fatal hit and run happened Thursday morning.
Ottawa police are continuing to investigate the cause of the collision near the corner of Laurier and Elgin Street that killed an unidentified man between age 55 and 60.
They released a description and photo of the suspected driver, who left his vehicle a block away, fled on foot and has not been found.Anabel Beaudry-Sarazin returned after seeing the aftermath of the collision on her way to work. She said she was there before paramedics arrived.
"From the time I saw it [until I got] to work, I cried. It's hard because you think 'It could be me,'" she said.
"I'm afraid every day when I pass there because it's in the middle of two car lanes. Everybody must be careful."
This shift involves both attitudes and infrastructure.
(...)You'd think that on a day where a cyclist was killed there would be a noticeable change in the patience of drivers around bikes. I didn't see it — quite the opposite, in fact. On at least three occasions as I followed a cyclist through Hintonburg, encouraging them to take the lane to be safe from dooring, I had drivers behind me right up on my bumper. (...)From my experience (I commute two trips downtown for a total of more than 80 kilometres a day on routes which avoid Highway 417) there are too many drivers who behave as though they find cyclists to be a hindrance or an obstacle.By James Schaefer, Ottawa Citizen, May 13, 2019
(...)Recently, we were reminded of a deluge of planetary proportions. The UN issued its Global Assessment Report on the state of the world’s biodiversity. The figures are astonishing and sobering. Extinction looms for one million species; three-quarters of land and two-thirds of oceans have been severely altered by humans; plastic pollution is up tenfold in 40 years; crops worth three-quarters of a trillion dollars could be at risk from the loss of pollinators; 25 million kilometres of new roads are expected in 30 years. And so on.
The report makes clear: The swell of extinction is more rapid now than at any point since the dawn of humanity. Species are vanishing up to 1,000 times faster than normal — the consequence of a rising human population and its resource demands. Our impulse is to scramble for a mop, to stem the consequences of the flood rather than deal with its source. We tinker with offsets, control of predators, technological fixes, weak regulations and mild incentives while we hunt for resources to replace those we depleted. As the waters threaten to overwhelm us, we remain fixed on the immediacy of business-as-usual. We cast around for more buckets.
By Brigitte Pellerin, Ottawa Citizen, May 17, 2019
The study made the news, but it didn’t shock us nearly as much as it should have. Researchers found that kids from poorer neighbourhoods in Ontario get hit by cars significantly more than kids from wealthier areas. Excuse me for screaming, but something is wrong and we urgently need to fix it.
The study, conducted by a team under the direction of Dr. Linda Rothman of SickKids in Toronto, in collaboration with York University and the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences, found that children from the lowest-income areas were 52 per cent more likely to be struck by a vehicle than kids from the highest-income neighbourhoods.
Provincewide, between 2008 and 2015, the researchers found that while “pedestrian-motor vehicle collision-related emergency department visits decreased by 22 per cent in high-income neighbourhoods, the rates of visits in low-income neighbourhoods increased by 14 per cent.”
By Frank LeClair and others, Ottawa Citizen Letters to the Editor, May 17, 2019
Population explosion part of the problem
Re: Biodiversity crisis means changing our short-term psychology, May 13.
While biology Prof. James Schaefer makes some interesting points about human psychology, institutions and the question of whether we have all gone mad, his commentary, like so many others about the recent UN report on the biodiversity extinction crisis, leaves out a key factor in the discussion of possible solutions: the human population explosion.
(...)My bike helmet is not a weapon
I recently attended a couple Ottawa 67’s playoff games at TD Place Arena. Both times, I travelled by bicycle, and was stopped at security because I had a regular bicycle helmet with me. I was told it could be used as a weapon.
(...)Think outside the box on climate change
I am listening for the best plan to deal with climate change. The Liberals say: Tax and spend money. The Conservatives say: No tax and spend no money. Polls show, as happened in Ontario, that the Liberals are losing favour while the Conservatives are gaining.
By Tom Spears and Jon Willing, Ottawa Citizen, May 17, 2019
Cycling on Laurier Avenue outside city hall is fundamentally unsafe and can’t be fixed so long as bikes share the same pavement as cars and trucks, say a transportation expert and some city councillors.
Barry Wellar, a geography professor from the University of Ottawa, got a long, close look at it last year. He was being inducted into the Order of Canada and he and his wife stayed at the Lord Elgin Hotel to skip the morning traffic.
“Our window overlooked that intersection (Elgin Street and Laurier). I could have died of a heart attack so many times it would make your head spin,” he said.
By Blair Crawford, Ottawa Citizen, May 15, 2019
Transport Minister Marc Garneau has vastly expanded the interim ban on boating on the Ottawa River to a more than 400-kilometre stretch from the Otto Holden Dam, northwest of Mattawa to Lake of Two Mountains near Hudson, Que.
The interim order, issued Tuesday night, also includes the Mattawa River between the Hurdman Dam and where it enters the Ottawa River. It includes all pleasure craft, including human-powered boats such as canoes and kayaks.
(...)The amendment lets the minister issue the ban “if immediate action is required to deal with a direct or indirect risk to marine safety or the marine environment, including on a precautionary basis,” Rivet said.
With the Ottawa River at record high levels, sometimes within a few centimetres of the top of dikes, sandbag barriers and building foundations, there is a worry that wakes from passing boats could overwhelm the flood defences. Emergency responders worry, too, about having to stage a water rescue at a time when emergency resources are already spread thin.
By Mary Cutler, CBC News, May 10, 2019
The students of Gradale Academy in midtown Toronto are on their way to a place they call "Mud Mountain" for some outdoor time that may offer an antidote to everyday problems affecting their physical and mental health.
Situated near their school around the trails of the Don Valley, "Mud Mountain" is, yes, dirty and mucky. Armed with clipboards, the students, who range from kindergarten to Grade 6, examine the foliage and wildlife of an early spring day.
But researchers believe nature offers more than just its beauty; it offers serious academic and mental-health benefits.
By CBC News, May 10, 2019
About 180 countries reached a deal on Friday that aims to sharply reduce the amount of plastic that gets washed into the world's oceans, the United Nations says.
They agreed to amend the Basel Convention to make global trade in plastic waste more transparent and better regulated, while also ensuring that its management is safer for human health and the environment.
"I'm proud that this week in Geneva, parties to the Basel Convention have reached agreement on a legally binding, globally reaching mechanism for managing plastic waste," Rolph Payet, executive secretary at UN Environment for the Basel, Rotterdam & Stockholm Conventions, said in a statement.