Ecology Ottawa

News Clippings

COMMENT: Finally, an advance green at Carp and Hazeldean

By Devyn Barrie, StittsvilleCentral, August 2, 2018

After years of safety concerns at the Carp and Hazeldean intersection, the city has finally installed an advance green left turn signal.

But only for traffic turning west onto Hazeldean from Carp Road.

Coun. Shad Qadri shared an update a few weeks back in his newsletter about the new signal, but then issued a clarification: “There was miscommunication between traffic staff and myself and only the advance green travelling West on Hazeldean was activated.”

There will be no light just yet for drivers turning north onto Carp Road because “it does not yet meet the criteria warrants,” Qadri said.

He’ll be tabling a councillor’s report to the Transportation Committee on Aug. 15 to recommend the other signal be installed.

Police focused on pedestrian safety, roundabouts for August STEP

By Alex Black, 1310 News, August 2, 2018

Police will be focusing on pedestrian safety and roundabouts for the month of August.

It's part of the ‘Selective Traffic Enforcement Program,’ which sees police pay particular attention to different problems on the road each month.

Between 2012 and 2016, there were more than 30 fatalities and 1800 injuries in crashes that involved pedestrians, while there were 535 reportable collisions involving roundabouts resulting in 62 injuries.

City launches ByWard Market study

By Alex Black, 1310 News, August 1, 2018

The city is launching a study on the ByWard Market.

The aim is to establish a plan for future improvements to public spaces within the market boundary.

The study will look at how to make the market more inclusive, safe and inviting.

You're invited to share your ideas through a survey on the city website. 

NOTEBOOK: Fringewood and Rosehill traffic calming, city scolds developer for flooding dog park

By Devyn Barrie, StittsvilleCentral, July 31, 2018

Fringewood Drive traffic study begins

The City of Ottawa has begun an Area Traffic Management (ATM) study to examine potential for traffic calming measures along Fringewood Drive.

Fringewood is one of many streets in Stittsville experiencing problems with drivers traveling too fast. The study will look at measures such as speed bumps or narrowings, Coun. Shad Qadri says in his latest newsletter.

As the project continues, the city is asking residents to provide feedback online. The survey is open until Sept. 9.

Residents say Gatineau, Que., reservoir contributes to chronic flooding

By Matthew Kupfer, CBC News Ottawa, July 31, 2018

Residents in an Aylmer neighbourhood say the city's storm water management system is not working well enough and causing chronic flooding issues.

Pascal Truchon has lived on rue Clarence off chemin Morley-Walters for a decade and has been trying to get the city to act on drainage issues since he experienced flooding in 2011.

He nervously watches the weather forecast for sustained rainfall, he said.

"When you see that there's about 50 millimetres of rain forecasted within 24 hours, you know that the water area is going to get full again and then it's going to back up into the city's system," he said.

New exhibit outside nature museum dives deep into ocean plastic

By Sandra Abma, CBC News Ottawa, July 31, 2018

A travelling interactive exhibit now on display outside Ottawa's Canadian Museum of Nature lets attendees take a deep dive into the plastic waste threatening the world's oceans and marine life.

The Ocean Plastics Lab was created in Germany as part of a G7 Action Plan in the fight against marine pollution, and debuted in Italy in 2017.

It's housed in four shipping containers loaded with hands-on scientific equipment, interactive video players, and of course, lots and lots of plastic garbage — bottles, bags, toys and fishing equipment — found on beaches and dredged from the sea.

Reevely: Tories' summer of dismantling will mean difficult autumn of rebuilding

By David Reevely, Ottawa Citizen, August 1, 2018

Ontario’s Progressive Conservatives are setting themselves up for a busy fall of reassembling provincial programs and plans they’ve spent the summer taking apart.

(...)Ontario’s climate-change policy is blown up but a new one is coming, Environment Minister Rod Phillips says.

(...)It’s much the same with climate-change policy, on which the Tory position has been only negative since Doug Ford became leader. He’s asserted repeatedly that he believes climate change is happening, humans are substantially responsible, and humans need to do something about it, but what that might be, we have no idea.

The cap-and-trade system for limiting carbon emissions that the Tories have eliminated was an alternative to having the government instruct particular businesses what they can send up their smokestacks. Command and control from a central authority is very gameable by lobbyists and politicians with donors to defend.

OC Transpo not pursuing new green bus technology as hybrid program runs out of gas

By Jon Willing, Ottawa Citizen, August 1, 2018

OC Transpo is monitoring alternative bus technologies tested in other cities but has no plans to pursue new green-fleet initiatives, other than launching an electrified rail line this year.

Operations director Troy Charter said Wednesday that Transpo is keeping its eye on both Toronto’s experience testing fully electric buses and Calgary’s transit service introducing buses that run on compressed natural gas.

“Right now, we’re waiting,” Charter said in an interview, pointing to the Confederation Line LRT launch as the biggest opportunity to green Ottawa’s transit service.

Tornado warning ends for Ottawa region

By Kieran Delamont, Ottawa Citizen, August 1, 2018

Environment Canada has downgraded its tornado warning to a severe thunderstorm warning, and said there were no reports of funnel clouds touching down in the area on Wednesday evening. 

Just after 5:30 p.m., a broadcast went out over the emergency alert system to most cellphones in the area that warned residents to take cover immediately if threatening weather approached

(...)Young said that there were several reports of funnel clouds forming in the Nepean region, but that none were reported to have touched down, and that they had dissipated..

McElveny: End the war between cyclists and motorists with education

By Monna-Leigh Mcelveny, Ottawa Citizen, July 28, 2018

As an avid cyclist and former professional safety officer, I am troubled by the hostile “cyclist versus motorist” war that rears its ugly head every year. The recent trial involving a truck driver and the death of a cyclist is heartbreaking.

While there is so much focus on safe cycling infrastructure, all the green paint in the world will NOT protect a cyclist who is unaware of the enormity of “large vehicle blind spots.” The area beside a truck (that is, between the truck and the curb), is aptly called the “death zone.” Cyclists need to be aware of this extraordinary danger and stay out of it. Education for both cyclists and motorists is critical for mutual understanding, safety and respect.

The Ontario Highway Traffic Act (HTA) treats a cyclist as a driver of a vehicle. It is the adherence to this principle that makes the HTA the best possible framework for protecting the safety of cyclists. However, all parties need to understand what this actually looks like on the road, and follow the regulatory requirements accordingly.

Ivison: On climate change, Conservatives and Liberals encourage the narcissism of small differences

By John Ivison, Ottawa Citizen, July 30, 2018

Politics has always leaned heavily on social psychology but never more so than in these days of rabid polarization, where there is little interconnection between political tribes.

Research published this month revealed the importance of what other people think when it comes to climate change policy differences between Republicans and Democrats. Those findings have profound implications for the debate in Canada.

Social psychologists Leaf Van Boven and David Sherman conducted two surveys of more than 2,000 respondents across the United States on the issue of climate change. Their research, published in early July in the journal Perspectives on Psychological Science and promoted in a New York Times op-ed last weekend, found that Republicans believed climate change is happening, threatens humans and is caused by human activity — and that reducing carbon emissions would help alleviate the problem. The findings suggested Republicans were in basic agreement with Democrats on the issue — but not on the policy solutions, which were viewed as being specific to the Democratic Party. “This tribalism leads to political fights over differences between the parties that either do not exist or are vastly exaggerated,” Van Boven and Sherman concluded. “This implies that if the tables were turned — if Republican politicians proposed a climate policy — Republican voters might support it. In our research, this is exactly what we have found.”

Should parts of the ByWard Market be closed off to cars?

By Giacomo Panico, CBC News Ottawa, July 28, 2018

Should motorists be banned from using certain streets in the ByWard Market?

The executive director of Ottawa Markets would like to see that happen.

"People are certainly getting away from their cars a little bit, around the world, and particularly [when it comes to] public spaces and public markets," Jeff Darwin told CBC Radio's In Town And Out.

Ottawa Markets is the organization in charge of municipal buildings in the market area. It's looking into the idea of keeping cars off William Street and ByWard Market Square — the two adjacent streets to the market building — on weekends.