Ecology Ottawa

News Clippings

The only way to get Ottawa drivers out of cars is to charge them actual money

Metro News

By Kathryn Duncan, Ottawa Metro News, November 9, 2015

Complaining about rush-hour traffic on the highway might be a little like complaining about winter or rain. (Name a city, with any population to speak of, that doesn’t have traffic congestion.)

If it feels like Ottawa is particularly bad, with its notorious “slowdown at the split” you’re not just imagining it. Ottawa has the dubious honour of ranking third in Canada for traffic congestion in the TomTom Traffic Index (and 10th in North America).

Reevely: Finding the worst of Ottawa’s biking danger zones

Ottawa Citizen

By David Reevely, Ottawa Citizen, November 9, 2015

A couple of months ago, groups of cyclists set out on commuting routes into downtown Ottawa, writing down the problems and joys they encountered. The result is the Ottawa Centre EcoDistrict’s “Cycle In Report,” which is quite good and useful.Very often, problems with travel in the city get dealt with as a series of points — one intersection, one light, one crosswalk. Traffic’s jammed here, unsafe there.

What can we do to improve conditions here at this spot? You see this kind of problem-solving on the agenda at city council’s transportation committee fairly regularly, as engineers and planners propose ways of making a particular pathway or intersection work better.

Reevely: Ottawa’s transit troubles force rethink of LRT’s financial plans

Ottawa Citizen

David Reevely, Ottawa Citizen, November 9, 2015

Prospects are dimming for a rail link to the airport and an eastern line that goes all the way to Trim Road, as the city struggles to afford the rapid-transit lines it’s already planning. Indeed, the four-year old plan to cover the city’s light-rail costs turns out to be based on some faulty assumptions about ridership and payments from other governments.

You wouldn’t have known it from all the handshakes and sunny speeches on Monday morning at Lincoln Fields, where a bunch of councillors and MPPs gathered to announce the province is giving the city $34.3 million this year — Ottawa’s share of an annual provincial distribution of money Ontario brings in by taxing gasoline. The money, dedicated to transit, is helping to pay for construction right now on the light-rail tunnel under downtown and laying track toward an eastern terminal at Blair Road.

 

Despite Watson's love of them, Royal swans are a waste of money

Sherring

Col

By Susan Sherring, Ottawa Sun, November 8, 2015

Does it make sense to anyone outside of City Hall that Ottawa is still in the swan business?

Don't answer that.

The answer should be an obvious No.

Ironic, isn't it, that, with the city just days away from tackling one of the toughest budgets Ottawa has seen in recent memory, staff time and taxpayer money are still being used by descendants of some royal swans Ottawa was gifted almost 50 years ago.

Reevely: City considers making its evaluations of traffic deaths public

Ottawa Citizen

By David Reevely, Ottawa Citizen, November 4, 2015

When someone is killed in traffic in Ottawa, city officials already look at what happened and what might be done to keep it from happening again. They just don’t tell very many people what they find out.

“We don’t do that communication,” admitted Phil Landry, the city’s manager of traffic services, as city council’s transportation committee talked about what to do about roadside memorials to dead motorists, cyclists and pedestrians. They don’t release results of their safety studies publicly (other than in a broad annual summary), or even to the families of the people killed. There’s no way to hold the city accountable for its diagnoses of its own failures.

Adami: Transpo rider singled out, fined after Presto card fails to register

Ottawa Citizen

By Hugh Adami, Ottawa Citizen, November 8, 2015

Lorinda Karas doesn’t know why her Presto card didn’t work when she tapped it on the reader of the OC Transpo bus she boarded last month. So she definitely doesn’t understand why Transpo humiliated her in a packed bus and then topped it off with a $180 ticket.

Karas, on her way to work Oct. 14, says she didn’t look at the reader’s screen to see if the card had been debited the fare. She also didn’t notice if the reader’s red light came on — indicating a problem such as not having enough money on the card. Karas says that couldn’t have been the problem as she had $15 on the card and it scanned properly when she got on the next bus.

Under pressure: City to unveil 2016 draft budget on Thursday

Ottawa Citizen

By Matthew Pearson and Joanne Laucius, Ottawa Citizen, November 8, 2015

Mayor Jim Watson’s pledge to keep the tax rate increase to two per cent will be put to the test when the city’s 2016 draft budget is tabled later this week.

How the city will achieve this goal, a commitment Watson made before winning re-election last fall, will likely involve a mix of targeted cuts and one-time borrowing from city reserves.

Here's what the Grits are vowing to do for the capital

Ottawa & Region

News

By Jon Willing, Ottawa Sun, November 7, 2015

Federal funding for a new Rideau Canal footbridge, a municipal main library branch and an expanded LRT network could be coming to the City of Ottawa -- if the Liberals follow through on their capital promises.

Here is how the newly-minted Liberal government will help Ottawa if they stick to their word.

Near-miss with moose rattles Riverside South commuter

By Erin McCracken, Ottawa Community News, November 6, 2015

A near-miss with a moose has Allesandra Levitski reaching out to her fellow Riverside South residents to alert them about driving east of the Leitrim area.

The Riverside South resident was driving home from the Ottawa Train Yards around 4 p.m. on Nov. 2. She was heading south on Hawthorne Road and hadn't crossed Davidson Road yet when an antler-less moose emerged from the bush on her left and lumbered onto the road right in front of her Hyundai.

City ponders changes to Glebe intersection in cycling plan

By Alex Robinson, Ottawa Community News, November 6, 2015

Glebe residents have put the kibosh on a city proposal to make Craig Street a one way road at an awkward intersection with Fifth Avenue.

The city has been considering various traffic calming measures at the intersection, where Craig and Percy streets hit Fifth Avenue, as part of its Glebe Neighbourhood Cycling Plan. The city started its Glebe cycling study in 2014 to improve the neighbourhood’s bike lanes and cycling plans.

City staff presented five alternatives for the confusing, but key intersection at a meeting at Mutchmor Public School on Nov. 5. The proposals varied from making no changes at all to fully closing off Craig Street to cars.

Half Moon Bay Park community questions lack of lighting - Ottawa - CBC News

By CBC News Ottawa, November 6, 2015

Parents and the local community association want more lighting at Half Moon Bay Park in Barrhaven after two children were allegedly beat up in an unlit area on Monday evening.

Sean Cusson lives near the park and said he knows two boys, aged nine and 11, who were allegedly punched by a group of teenagers on Monday evening.

Ottawa city councillor hopes Liberals will fast-track footbridge

Metro News

By Emma Jackson, Ottawa Metro News, November 5, 2015

One Ottawa city councillor is hoping to bridge the gap between the Liberals’ promise to spend billions of dollars on infrastructure and the capital’s long-standing desire for a footbridge between Fifth Avenue and Clegg Street.

“If that can be moved up by a couple of years, that would be fantastic,” Capital Coun. David Chernushenko said.