Alternate Suggestions For Public Transit

Through Downtown Ottawa.

Planning a transit system WITHOUT integrating it into urban and regional planning is simply creating a "stand alone system" that will NOT change how this city functions.
 
Urban planning , urban design, employment, recreation, transit oriented development, walkability, public transit and transportation planning must be integrated and planned as a single multifaceted system.
 
We don't appear to be doing that  in Ottawa.

We have a greenbelt to contain sprawl, but people live in sprawling neighbourhoods beyond its border.
 
We have three satellite cites that people for the most part do not WORK in and therefore, they have to commute to Ottawa ACROSS this "barrier". Why can't people live AND work in the Kanata, Barrhaven and Orleans instead of commuting to downtown Ottawa? Satellite cities are supposed to be TRUE functional cities, not just bedroom communities for larger centres.
 
Some of these communities even have rail lines or rail corridors going right through them, but these rail lines are not used for pubic transit.

The lack of rail line use for Public Transit is even more puzzling since Mr. R. Hoather of VIA Rail said that they would allow the use of their corridor for commuter rail purposes.
 
But very little if any of the urban and transit planning in Ottawa takes these parameters into account when "the city " plans a transit system.
 

When you do analysis for transit use in a city such as Ottawa you must look at various alternatives, and that includes considering the built infrastructure already in place.
 
You need a plan A, plan B, plan C, plan D, etc.
 
And even though I have a bias for surface LRT in Ottawa, I still need to take a scientific approach to the problem. And that means having an open mind, and to always remember that in the end, it is the taxpayer who is paying for this. 
 
What I am doing on my site is listing quite a few transit alternatives to show people that there are MANY different solutions to a transit problem.
 
You know, possible solutions that were not shown or talked about at the Public Open Houses on Ottawa Transit.
 
The Downtown Ottawa Transit Tunnel is only "ONE POSSIBLE" solution. I do not believe that it is the BEST solution to transit in Ottawa
 
Many of the "suggested" solutions on my site will be "doable", but not one is a 100 percent  perfect solution. There are benefits and drawbacks to ANY transit system that is designed and chosen.  Being dogmatic about ONE choice is not scientific.
 
And you can't plan and build a transit system WITHOUT integrating into urban planning on a regional scale.
 
So I want to show these options to the voters and then let them decide which is the best way to go.
 
If surface is the best solution, then people will be convinced, but if something else is better then so be it.
 
Michael Kostiuk. June 3, 2010.


I am not in favour of the current LRT plan that includes the deep downtown tunnel. I am not against tunnels as a transit solution in general, but I do not like the tunnel design that was chosen.

The problem with this tunnel is that it has too few stops downtown and it is too deep. In some places it is around 30 metres or 100 feet below the surface of the street.

If you look at cities like Toronto, Montreal and New York, the standard methods of subway design is to build the subway just below street level. This makes is easier for the transit users to get access to and from the subway or light rail train. And if there is an emergency it is also safer and easier to evacuate people from a shallow tunnel as opposed to a deep tunnel. A shallow below-grade tunnel can also be easily integrated in the underground shopping concourses in downtown, whereas a deep tunnel will not be able to provide that type of benefit.

 

Here are some examples of shallow tunnel designs:

Shallow tunnels allow pedestrians easier and quicker to and from the street.


Two level station at Broadway and Lafayette in New York

 


Dufferin Subway Station in Toronto

 

Based on my analysis of different modes of public transit available, the geography of the Ottawa region, and the distribution of employment in Ottawa I (and other transit advocates such as Friends of the O Train) have determined that there are other different and cheaper methods that can accomplish the same goal as the current plan. The current plan will still leave 50% of the buses downtown so it does not even solve the problem of too many buses downtown!

One my biggest objections to the current downtown tunnel is based on how many people will be served by it. For one thing, only 18.7% of the total employment force in Ottawa works in the downtown core. This surprisingly number comes from the City of Ottawa's own Employment Demographics. More people; 52.6% of the work force is employed in the areas outside of the core.  Many of these people work in the business parks that ring the area of the city just inside the Greenbelt. These areas also suffer from poor public
transit, yet they have unused rail lines passing either through, or very close to them.

So if we place all of our transit dollars into building this tunnel then we have no money left for the vast majority of people that do not work in the downtown core.

Alternative one: Light Rail on Surface Streets.

Although light rail on surface streets was rejected in the cancelled North-South Light Rail Plan many people think that there are surface rail alternatives that would work here in Ottawa. The original North-South Light Rail Plan had Light Rail, buses and cars sharing the same road corridors through downtown Ottawa.

This was probably trying to do too much in too little space.

David Jeanes of Transport Action (formerly Transport 2000) developed a plan for operating light rail on surface streets through downtown Ottawa and last year I made a video presentation of his suggestions.

The following three videos detail Mr Jeanes suggestions for running Light Rail on surface streets in downtown Ottawa. Unlike the cancelled North-South Light Rail Plan David's plan does NOT include buses. This means that the Light Rail vehicles have more street space, and consequently the Light Rail Trains would be able to operate with a higher frequency of service, as well as being able to pull a greater quantity of passenger cars.

Please note that the use of this video does not imply Mr. Jeane's endorsement of my election campaign. In fact Mr. Jeanes dos not publicly endorse any candidate.

 

Alternative Two: Modifying how we use buses in downtown Ottawa. Operate the Transitway as a TRUE Bus Rapid Transit System

 

I asked the city how many people are carried by the bus system through downtown Ottawa.

The answer was 10,500 people per hour on both Albert and Slater Street.

198 buses are used per hour to move commuters on Albert during the rush hour period. 

I then asked how many people can an articulated bus carry, and the reply from the City was 100 passengers (combined sitting and standing).

Therefore, if you divide 10,500 passengers per hour by 100 (capacity of an articulated bus) then we get a number of 105 buses. That is almost half the number of buses that are actually used to move the same amount of people/per hour in downtown Ottawa. i.e. 198 buses are used to move people on Albert Street during rush hour.

Even if we ran the articulated buses at a 90% load this number of people could then be carried by approximated 120 articulated buses.

What this means is that the City is "NOT" using its bus fleet effectively. We have too many buses carrying too few people on downtown Ottawa streets.  The core of this downtown transit problem of” too many buses” is the express bus system.

Instead of taking the next available bus, many transit users are waiting for their own express bus to take them back to their suburban destination.  This causes delays at each downtown bus stop since all the buses must line up along either Albert or Slater and wait for the other buses to slowly move to each bus stop. This delay is called "dwell time" and the only way to solve this problem is to remove the express buses from Albert and Slater Streets. The express buses also only comprise 8% of the transit users, but they are the cause of the transit delays.

THAT is the problem!

If we ran the Bus System as a true Bus Rapid Transit System as it was designed, then we would have people getting off at Transitway stops to transfer to dedicated larger buses. Then, the dedicated Transitway  buses would carry people on the Transitway east and west,  and north and south.

This is how Commuter Rail, Subway systems, Metro System, Light rail lines, and even Streetcar lines are designed to operate, and do operate all around the world.

However, there are other solutions to this transit problem as well. One possible solution is to use alternate streets in downtown Ottawa for express buses such as Queen Street and Laurier Avenue. That would allow the regular transit lanes on Slater and Abler to flow more freely and would eliminate the need to a tunnel option for  years to come.

 

Alternative 3: Eliminate Express buses from downtown Ottawa. Create a Free-Fare Zone between Hurdman Station and Lebreton Station/Tunney's Pasture.

And here is an interesting solution. Have all transit users’ transfer from their buses at both Lebreton or Tunney’s Pasture in the west and Hurdman station in the east to dedicated Transitway buses that would only serve downtown Ottawa via Albert and Slater Streets.

The area between Tunney’s Pasture/Lebreton and Hurdman would be a “FARE FREE Zone”.

Essentially, everyone would get on the next DEDICATED TRANSITWAY bus in downtown and then they would get off at either Hurdman in the east or Tunney’s Pasture/Lebreton in the west to transfer to the bus of choice. This type of system would provide very fast and efficient bus transit in the downtown core since the dwell times at each bus stop would be reduced to a VERY SHORT time period.

It would also be easier for the bus driver since they would not have to check for passes and fares, and people could use any door to get on the bus. This system would be good for people who live in the downtown area and those people, like tourists, who would want to get from one end of downtown to the other end. Essentially, I modified the plan that the Friends of the O Train put forward  4 years ago. But instead of using surface Light Rail I am proposing using dedicated articulated buses, and to also make the downtown section  a “fare free” zone.

If in the future there was a demand for surface light rail then the Plan created by the Friends of the O Train could be put in place. Their plan allowed for over 30,000 people pre hour to be carried by Light Rail between Hurdman and Tunney’s Pasture. It should be noted that Calgary’s Light Rail trains which runs on the surface streets in downtown Calgary can also carry up to 30,00 people per hour.

What the above examples show is that the City has not done a proper comparative analysis on how system modifications could be used to solve our transit problems.   My solutions are both cheaper, and can be put in place in a very short time. The money saved can be used to expand the O Train north across the Ottawa River to Gatineau and out to Leitrim in the South. We could also provide east–west O-Train service on the mostly unused railways that pass by the many business parks in the region where thousands of people work.

 

The following map shows the range of the Free Fare Zone that I am proposing . It would go from Lebreton Station, west of Downtown, to Hurdman Station, east of Downtown Ottawa.

 

 

Alternative 4. Keep Express buses in downtown Ottawa. Use alternate streets for Express buses.

This proposal would keep All Express bus routes going to downtown, however these buses would use streets other than Albert and Slater. Instead, morning and afternoon Express bus service would use streets such as Laurier Avenue and Queen Street. This would keep regular transitway buses flowing more freely on Albert and Slater Streets. One curb lane on each side of Laurier and Queen would need to be allocated for use by these Express buses. These Express bus lanes would most likely be needed for a minimum 3 hour period in the morning and afternoon peak transit times. However the other side of the street can still have parking. The following map shows the area of downtown where Express Buses could be diverted in order to speed up services on Albert and Slater Streets.

Michael Kostiuk. October 3, 2010.

Geographic Research and Studies.

 

Links to Other Transportation Related Sites.

 

 

 

Michael Kostiuk, MA Geography, B. Ed. OCT, CITP, EP.

Last update: October 3, 2010.

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