Transportation Issues A brief overview of transportation issues which are of potential interest to residents of Sandy Hill and where to go for more information. Comments or questions on any of the issue discussed below can be directed to [email protected] Action Sandy Hill participates as a member in the City Centre Coalition (CCC). The CCC consists of 13 different downtown citizen‟s groups and focuses on supporting community-oriented transportation planning that emphasizes walking, cycling, and transit. The CCC opposes road construction and expansion intended to accommodate peak-hour car demand particularly for projects within the greenbelt or which are intended to increase the peak hour capacity leading to the urban core. Such roads only induce environmentally and community-destructive car use. The CCC maintains a website which is an excellent resource for tracking ongoing transportation planning reports and activities in the City and providing a record of ongoing CCC activities. www.ccc-ottawa.ca John Verbaas – Jun 2012 B. Ottawa-wide Issues with Sandy Hill Implications New Ottawa River Crossing Study (East End Bridge) Inter-Provincial Transit Study Alta Vista Corridor (AVC) Queensway Expansion to 8 Lanes East of Kent Street Ottawa LRT Rapid Transit (Downtown Ottawa Transit Tunnel - DOTT) Lansdowne Park Re-development (Lansdowne Partnership Plan) Transportation Master Plan 2008 Rideau/Sussex/Colonel-By Intersection Enhancement Study Other Useful Links New Ottawa River Crossing Study (East End Bridge) The NCC together with the Ontario and Quebec Ministries of Transport have commissioned a series studies to determine the best possible location for a new crossing of the Ottawa River. The Action Sandy Hill transportation representative is an active member of the Public Consultation Group (PCG) whose role is to represent various community interests. Phase 1 of this study concluded in Jan 2009 and recommended that the best location for a new crossing would be Kettle Island, connecting on the Ottawa side via the Aviation Parkway to the 174-417 split intersection. Negative reaction to this was swift and another study was then initiated which re-introduced two of the potential crossings (about 6km further east down Highway 174) which Phase 1 of the study had discounted. Further study was then broken into 2 phases. Phase 2A‟s purpose was to consult with communities on what will be the process to be used in phase 2B which will narrow down from the now 3 potential crossing locations to a single preferred location. The reason for Phase 2A was that communities in the east end felt that they had not been given sufficient opportunity to comment on what evaluation criteria were used to perform the original Phase 1 evaluation and recommendation. Phase 2A completed in June 2010 and Phase 2B started in the summer of 2011. Phase 2B will lead to the choice of a single preferred location. This decision is expected in late summer/early fall 2012 and will then be followed by a detailed design and environmental assessment of the preferred crossing would run into 2013. The stated main purpose for a new crossing is to divert trucks out of the Waller-Rideau-King Edward corridor and to accommodate forecast increases in inter-provincial travel demand over the next 50 year time horizon. The eventual construction of a new crossing could be of significant benefit to Sandy Hill, however there are some concerns over just how much traffic (both car and truck) may be diverted out of downtown by any potential new crossing. Phase 1 of the study concluded that around 30-40% of the trucks currently travelling down Waller, Rideau and King Edward would be „attracted‟ to and prefer to take a new crossing in the east end. That leaves 60% of the trucks still downtown and that will be some 10 years from now and after spending 500m$ (the cost of the crossing + approach roadway changes as estimated in the Phase 1 study). Will it be possible at that time to go one step further and to ban trucks from Rideau/KingEdward and force the remaining 60% to take the long roundabout route over an east end bridge? To date no comprehensive study has been performed which estimates the potential increase in cost imposed on the business community of such a downtown truck ban. Similarly no consultation with business and trucking groups has taken place to discuss the impact of a regulated diversion of all inter-provincial trucks to an east end bridge. Lastly, the act of forcing all trucks to a potential new east end bridge has the side effect of moving the current 2500 trucks per day onto the City of Gatineau street that would serve as the access to the new bridge. This simply moves the truck problem from Ottawa to Gatineau and the City of Gatineau council has already passed a resolution stating that it will be unacceptable for all truck traffic to be moved from King Edward to Gatineau‟s streets. If there is a risk that forcing all trucks to use a new east end bridge will not be politically or practically possible then maybe we should be looking for a different solution to this problem than a new east end bridge? A key issue at stake here is the relative weighting of the requirements on a new crossing for getting trucks out of downtown vs simply adding new peak hour inter-provincial car based commuting capacity. The Action Sandy Hill transportation representative is involved in keeping forward momentum going on this initiative and to ensure that the best possible solution to reduce the downtown cut-through truck and commuter traffic is found. Further details can be found at the web link: www.ncrcrossings.ca Other groups have been formed who are opposed to some or all aspects of a potential east end bridge and have formed their own websites to explain their positions. Some of these can be found here: http://www.ssd-ottawa.ca http://www.stopthebridge.org/ http://commonsensecrossings.com/ Inter-Provincial Transit Study In 2009 the NCC launched a study (together with City of Ottawa and Gatineau) to recommend how to improve the quality and efficiency of transit across the Ottawa River. This is of particular interest to Sandy Hill because today as many as 150 STO buses per hour in rush hour travel south on King Edward Ave and then west along Rideau St, significantly reducing quality of life in these areas. A better integrated inter- provincial transit system has the potential to take the vast majority of these buses off these roadways. It also has the potential to reduce the volume of cars commuting through Sandy Hill to and from the Macdonald-Cartier bridge. The Sandy Hill transportation representative is an active participant in the PCG (Public Consultation Group) guiding this study. The first phase of this study which was completed in the fall of 2009 involved consulting various community groups on what they saw as the issues and priorities to be addressed in improving inter-provincial transit in this region. In February 2010 a brief presentation was made to the PCG group outlining a list of possible transit improvements in the short, medium, and longer term. Of particular interest to PCG group members was the longer term potential „infrastructure‟ options. Six different alternatives were tabled which included the following options: a) bringing STO buses across a (current unused rail-based) Prince of Wales bridge (which would need to be substantially altered for buses) and transferring passengers to the new Ottawa LRT system at Bayview (after it is operational in 2019). b) The reverse of (a)…Once Ottawa has a North-South LRT running (post 2018) to extend it‟s northern terminus across the Prince of Wales bridge to Gatineau where STO passengers would transfer from buses to the LRT. c) Like (b) except this North-South LRT with every other north-south train crossing the bridge to Gatineau alternating with the next north-south train which would merge onto the Ottawa east-west LRT line and continue through downtown Ottawa d) Implementation of a loop based rail system between Gatineau and Ottawa downtown which would probably use the Portage bridge and Alexandra bridges e) An alternating Ottawa LRT line…this time the east-west line…. from Blair station where every other train would turn north at Bayview to cross the Prince of Wales bridge into Gatineau where Gatineau passengers would transfer to STO buses there. This would alternate with regular Ottawa east-west LRTs which would travel the full east-west line from Blair to the Ottawa far western terminus f) Extending Ottawa‟s downtown tunnel with a branch that travels north under lowertown to cross the river into Gatineau. Ottawa‟s future north-south LRT would (after travelling through Ottawa downtown) branch off north to serve downtown Gatineau. What has not yet been made available to the public is any kind of data or analysis that could be used to evaluate between the advantages and disadvantages of each of these options. Information such as anticipated ridership analysis, capital costs, operating costs, etc is required. The study website as of Sept 2010 was missing any kind of visibility of the upcoming study steps, deliverables, or timelines. It can be found at this address: http://www.interprovincial-transit- strategy.ca/ As of Sep 2011, indications from the NCC were that the study was to be completed by the end of 2011. This was delayed again and as of writing in Jun 2012 there is no visibility of when any recommendations are to be brought forward. Alta Vista Corridor (AVC) For some years now the City of Ottawa has had listed as one of its top priority new road projects a corridor joining Conroy Road at Walkley, through an empty corridor north of the Ottawa Hospital connecting to a re- designed interchange of Nicholas Avenue at the Queensway.