By CBC News Ottawa, July 5, 2016
Ottawa-Gatineau farmers rejoice today.Not because the heat wave continues, but because today kicks off a string of days with rain in the forecast.
Wednesday's forecast calls for mainly sunny skies until some cloud cover later in the morning. There is a 40 per cent chance of showers late in the afternoon and a risk of a thunderstorm.
By Jon Willing, Ottawa Citizen, July 5, 2016
Ottawa’s growing love for biking probably isn’t the reason why OC Transpo’s ridership has tanked, according to a U.S. consultant that suggests the city’s transit agency should consider how Presto might have clouded its projections.
“The precipitous drop in 2012 points to sudden significant change, not gradual acceptance of walk/bike or telework,” analytics firm RSG told Transpo after a review last fall.
By Emma Jackson, Ottawa Metro News, July 4, 2016
Woodland Avenue residents are fighting to keep Byron Linear Park intact as the city finalizes stage two LRT.
Larry Ladell with the Woodpark Community Association said New Orchard Station should be located north of Richmond Road instead of south.The current plan would destroy the neighbourhood’s only parkland with the construction of an open-air station serving the underground train, Ladell said. And most locals would have to cross Richmond to access the station.
By Caissie Aylward, CFRA News, July 4, 2016
The head of an Orleans community association says there are concerns the speed humps that are set to be installed on the crash-plagued Viseneau Drive may be less effective than what a study recommended several years ago.
On Saturday night, one person was hospitalized after a collision sent an SUV driving onto a residential lawn. This comes about a month after an 18-year-old suffered serious injuries was sent crashing into a light post by a collision with another driver, who was later charged with impaired driving.
Now, Innes Ward Councillor Jody Mitic says speed humps will be implemented by the summer's end, but Pat Teolis with the Chateauneuf Community Association says the ones that are planned are not the ones a report initially recommended.
By CTV News Ottawa, July 3, 2016
Innes Ward Councillor Jody Mitic says speed humps will be added to Viseneau Drive in Orléans by the end of summer to calm traffic and speeding on the residential street. "I've told the city they have until the end of summer to finish it," he says. "If they aren't done, they will have quite a ruckus from the neighbourhood and myself."
Mitic's comments come one day after a serious two-vehicle collision on Viseneau Drive that sent one person to hospital with minor injuries. The cause of that crash has yet to be determined and police are not saying whether speed or alcohol were factors.
By Susan Sherring, Ottawa Sun, July 3, 2016
Congestion.In Ottawa or in cities around the world, many of us can’t avoid the frustration of the bumper-to-bumper traffic that eats away at our free time and takes us away from our families as we inch our way to work and then back home each day.
Ottawa is the fourth-most congested city in Canada, according to navigation tech company TomTom. It’s 15th in North America, tied with Montreal.
By Kathleen Ruff, Ottawa Citizen, July 4, 2016
One of the key promises made by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is that his government will restore Canada’s badly tarnished image on the international stage. Canada is back, says the prime minister. Canada will support global policies based on evidence and play a positive role at the United Nations. Trudeau’s pledge has been welcomed by most Canadians and by the international community.
But when it comes to asbestos, Trudeau is breaking that pledge.
By Don Butler, Ottawa Citizen, June 3, 2016
Reducing the Sir John A. Macdonald Parkway to two lanes west of Island Park Drive could divert as many as 550 vehicles an hour onto other roads, according to a preliminary analysis.
In a memo dated Feb. 1, 2016, engineering and management firm Morrison Hershfield provided the National Capital Commission with its interim findings on the traffic implications of reducing the parkway to two lanes from the current four between Island Park Drive and Carling Avenue.
By Tom Spears, Ottawa Citizen, July 4, 2016
This summer, Postmedia’s Tom Spears brings you the often offbeat science behind the season that calls us to go outdoors. It’s all part of a series we call the Science of Summer. Today’s story is on loons, who are not uniquely savage, but as ruthless as any other species: All is not peaceful in the loon family.
New mates replace old after violent battles for territory, and the family members that pay the heaviest price can be chicks that are killed as a result of these fights.
By David Reevely, Ottawa Citizen, July 4, 2016
The city has known for years that its plans for the new Booth Street bridge will endanger cyclists and pedestrians alike.
The big new bridge is part of the transit station at LeBreton Flats, which is being rebuilt for the 2018 opening of the light-rail system. Unveiling the final design a couple of weeks ago, the city showed off drawings that included a Booth Street bridge with no bike lanes, let alone separate bike tracks, which Ottawa’s policy on safe streets would ordinarily oblige it to build.
By Don Butler, Ottawa Citizen, July 4, 2016
One appealing idea in the National Capital Commission’s draft plan for the Sir John A. Macdonald Waterfront Linear Park is a boardwalk that would extend over the Ottawa River east of Deschênes Rapids.
But if a feasibility study commissioned by the NCC is any indication, the cost of the boardwalk could be high — potentially tens of millions of dollars.
By Kelly Egan, Ottawa Citizen, July 1, 2016
Last week we raised the spectre of Lincoln Fields Shopping Centre being demolished, in stages, to make way for a more residential- and transit-friendly development.
We should make the point — a flustered merchant did — this could take five to 10 years, maybe even longer, so it’s business as usual.
But another reader responds with a good question. If RioCan is considering a major takedown of Lincoln Fields and Westgate malls, should these sites be considered for the new Civic campus of the Ottawa Hospital?