Montreal-Blair Road Transit Priority Corridor [St. Laurent Blvd to Shefford Rd]

[roger1818]

As mentioned here, I stumbled across the Environmental Assessment Study – Statement of Work for a "Montreal-Blair Road Transit Priority Corridor (St. Laurent Boulevard to Blair Station)"

Here is a map of the study area:



You can find the Statement of Work here: http://app05.ottawa.ca/sirepub/view....&fileid=517156

[1overcosc]

That's a little odd.. the 12 doesn't turn down Blair.. Blair doesn't even have continuous bus service down its route.

Is there a future split of the 12 in the works?

[Jamaican-Phoenix]

Why is Bathgate (closer to actual people and a college) never included in these study areas?

[roger1818]

Originally Posted by 1overcosc

That's a little odd.. the 12 doesn't turn down Blair.. Blair doesn't even have continuous bus service down its route.

Is there a future split of the 12 in the works?

Not sure. Maybe a split, a rerouting or a new route. On pg. 4, the statement of work says:

After the opening of the O-Train Confederation Line, Blair Station will play a critical role as a high volume transfer station. The EA Study will investigate options to provide an efficient and reliable transit service connection between the Montreal-Blair Road corridor and Blair Station.

Here is a transit map that was included on pg. 11:

[Uhuniau]

Originally Posted by 1overcosc

That's a little odd.. the 12 doesn't turn down Blair.. Blair doesn't even have continuous bus service down its route.

Is there a future split of the 12 in the works?

Probably.

[Uhuniau]

It's nice to see that at least one fragment of the 2013 transit plan for the inside-the-Greenbelt east end has survived, at least for now, because the rest of it has already been torn up on the QT in the other Montreal Road process.

[TransitZilla]

Originally Posted by Jamaican-Phoenix

Why is Bathgate (closer to actual people and a college) never included in these study areas?

I agree it should be.

[roger1818]

Originally Posted by Jamaican-Phoenix

Why is Bathgate (closer to actual people and a college) never included in these study areas?

According to the Transportation Master Plan, Blair Rd is designated an arterial road (red), where as Bathgate Dr is only designated a collector (green), not even a major collector (orange). As a result, they may not want to flood it with frequent bus service.

Having said that, during the EA, they will likely look at alternative routes, and Bathgate may be one of them.

[waterloowarrior]

Open House 1 on Dec 4
https://ottawa.ca/en/city-hall/publi...r#open-house-1

[TransitZilla]

^ Display boards are now posted at the above link.

I e-mailed the project manager to question the utility of bus priority measures on Blair Rd given the current almost non-existent bus service, and suggested that improvements to Bathgate would be more useful now and in the future.

This is what I got back:

I understand your point that there is only one bus route that currently uses Blair Road north of Ogilvie. However, we have been consulting with OC Transpo staff as part of this study, and they indicated they may utilize Blair Road more in the future for some bus routes. The study team will confirm future OC Transpo bus routes and access to Blair Station in coming months.


Regarding Bathgate Drive: at this time the EA study is focused on implementation of transit priority measures in the Montreal and Blair road corridors, as per the direction given by the City’s Transportation Master Plan. However, we are interested in hearing your thoughts on other north-south connections and how they may help improve transit service in the area. If you have additional input regarding Bathgate, please let me know.

So feel free to send suggestions to Katarina.cvetkovic (at) ottawa.ca

[Multi-modal]

Originally Posted by bradnixon

^ Display boards are now posted at the above link.

I e-mailed the project manager to question the utility of bus priority measures on Blair Rd given the current almost non-existent bus service, and suggested that improvements to Bathgate would be more useful now and in the future.

This is what I got back:


So feel free to send suggestions to Katarina.cvetkovic (at) ottawa.ca

That is the trick... lets say the City is actually open to using Bathgate (which I doubt) what could they do? Could you widen Bathgate? Take from the feds?

Boards look good other than the Bathgate issue - glad they are proposing continuous transit lanes on Montreal. I hope they do not choose to widen (they should just reallocate existing curbside vehicle lanes).

[Uhuniau]

Originally Posted by Multi-modal

That is the trick... lets say the City is actually open to using Bathgate (which I doubt) what could they do? Could you widen Bathgate? Take from the feds?

Boards look good other than the Bathgate issue - glad they are proposing continuous transit lanes on Montreal. I hope they do not choose to widen (they should just reallocate existing curbside vehicle lanes).

Those continuous lanes on suburban Montreal Road are going to merge with the whatever-the-hell-they-are-doing on the urban part west of St. Laurent where the plan - the PLAN - is to increase the length of transit trips by up to 8 minutes.

Net result will be still crap transit service on the only east-west thoroughfare through Vanier and its neighbours.

[Multi-modal]

Originally Posted by Uhuniau

Those continuous lanes on suburban Montreal Road are going to merge with the whatever-the-hell-they-are-doing on the urban part west of St. Laurent where the plan - the PLAN - is to increase the length of transit trips by up to 8 minutes.

Net result will be still crap transit service on the only east-west thoroughfare through Vanier and its neighbours.

Yes I agree. The plan west of St. Laurent is terrible...

BUT, at least with this suburban Montreal Road plan the westbound buses will be able to skip the long westbound vehicle queues that are likely to develop on the approach to urban Montreal Road west of St. Laurent.

[Uhuniau]

Originally Posted by Multi-modal

Yes I agree. The plan west of St. Laurent is terrible...

BUT, at least with this suburban Montreal Road plan the westbound buses will be able to skip the long westbound vehicle queues that are likely to develop on the approach to urban Montreal Road west of St. Laurent.

Awesome! They'll be able to {checks notes} get stuck on the two-lane, no-transit-priority busiest portion of Montreal Road that much quicker.

[Multi-modal]

Originally Posted by Uhuniau

Awesome! They'll be able to {checks notes} get stuck on the two-lane, no-transit-priority busiest portion of Montreal Road that much quicker.

Exactly

[lrt's friend]

Originally Posted by Uhuniau

Awesome! They'll be able to {checks notes} get stuck on the two-lane, no-transit-priority busiest portion of Montreal Road that much quicker.

Put a big bike/scooter share in front of Notre Dame Cemetery. It will be faster.

[roger1818]

Originally Posted by lrt's friend

Put a big bike/scooter share in front of Notre Dame Cemetery. It will be faster.

Even better, put it in the route 12 busses themselves.

[TransitZilla]

Originally Posted by Uhuniau

Awesome! They'll be able to {checks notes} get stuck on the two-lane, no-transit-priority busiest portion of Montreal Road that much quicker.

The section west of St Laurent will still have WB bus lanes.

You keep mentioning an 8 minute increase, but IIRC that was only going to be if the section between North River and Vanier Pkwy was narrowed. The decision was not to narrow it and to add a bus queue jump lane for EB buses at Vanier. The forecasted impact on EB buses is more like 1 minute.

[Uhuniau]

Originally Posted by bradnixon

The section west of St Laurent will still have WB bus lanes.

In the morning peak.

You keep mentioning an 8 minute increase, but IIRC that was only going to be if the section between North River and Vanier Pkwy was narrowed. The decision was not to narrow it and to add a bus queue jump lane for EB buses at Vanier. The forecasted impact on EB buses is more like 1 minute.

The 8-minute impact was the one that was mentioned in the display boards at the most recent open house for the project. Maybe they had it wrong - they often do, as the boards are poorly QC-d and fact-checked, and getting worse with every major project that the city undertakes.

[Uhuniau]

Speaking of which, YET AGAIN, the City of Ottawa, in keeping with its laughable commitment to transparency and accountability, has bit-bucketed almost all of the archival information about the Montreal Road project.