OC Transpo

[eemy]

I understand that when they were building the transitway, they wanted to have a connection between the mall and the station, but the owners of the mall weren't interested. So we have what we have now.

So, what do you like about OC Transpo.

[citizen j]

If Lincoln Heights (mall) is ever expanded, that might be an appropriate time to talk about linking it to the station. As it currently stands, it's no great tragedy the two aren't connected; the "Galleria" is relatively insignificant.

[eltodesukane]

I always wished there was a pedestrian path
from the transitway Train Station
-- across the 417 to near the Fat Cats stadium, Canadian Tire, Best Buy
-- across the train tracks to Terminal Ave. near the Train Yards shopping area, Wal-Mart

(Google Earth image)

So I am happy to read of a planned pedestrian bridge connecting the Ottawa Stadium with the train station. But it's only half of what is needed.

Pedestrian bridge growing longer, maybe costlier
By Jon Willing,Ottawa Sun, First posted: Friday, March 02, 2012
http://www.ottawasun.com/2012/03/02/pedestrian-bridge-growing-longer-maybe-costlier
A planned pedestrian bridge connecting the Ottawa Stadium with the train station is growing longer and it could get more expensive...

[Uhuniau]

What a wasted opportunity at Trainyards.

Wasted, wasted, wasted.

[eemy]

With the new location of the Train Station, the crossing of the 417 will be much less useful, but hopefully a connection to Terminal Ave. will be in the cards.

[eltodesukane]

I need to pickup a package at Purolator tonight.
They are at 3330 Hawthorne, an industrial park.
Of course no bus go there.
OC Transpo says I could take the 98 for 1 hour till it's last stop, then walk 1 km to Purolator's warehouse.
That's the world of OC Transpo...
There really should be a bus following Hawthorne and Hunt Club, maybe from Walkley to Riverside.

[eemy]

You're complaining about lack of bus service into an industrial area at night? A 650m walk to the Purolator place is pretty reasonable considering the location and you might complain to them about choosing an awful location for their business while you're there.

[eternallyme]

Originally Posted by jeremy_haak

You're complaining about lack of bus service into an industrial area at night? A 650m walk to the Purolator place is pretty reasonable considering the location and you might complain to them about choosing an awful location for their business while you're there.

Indeed, it is only about 650m, not 2 km. For an industrial area, anything less than 800m is certainly reasonable and even 1,200m is acceptable during off-peak periods, and especially at night and on the weekends. Ridership outside of peak periods is generally fairly low in those.

The only reasonable all-day service that I can see extended into that area would be an extension of Route 86, and I would want to see some additional trip generator (like a large Park and Ride) before doing that.

[eternallyme]

Originally Posted by Uhuniau

What a wasted opportunity at Trainyards.

Wasted, wasted, wasted.

Totally a wasted opportunity, I agree.

HOWEVER, the setting of the area would make serving it by transit difficult no matter what. Unless VIA Rail would agree to allow a long crossing through the station (not likely), its setback away from residential areas means that the only way to serve it without inconveniencing more riders is a dedicated route, not a piece of an existing core route. A walking connection to Coronation (Route 86) would be nice as well though.

[Uhuniau]

Originally Posted by eltodesukane

I need to pickup a package at Purolator tonight.
They are at 3330 Hawthorne, an industrial park.
Of course no bus go there.
OC Transpo says I could take the 98 for 1 hour till it's last stop, then walk 2 km to Purolator's warehouse.
That's the world of OC Transpo...

I had a company purolate something to me once.

Once.

When they had to re-send it, it having been returned as undeliverable because the Purolator douchebags "attempted" to deliver it twice in about 10 minutes on a weekday afternoon, I made sure they did what they should have done all along: just put the damn stuff in the mail.

Will never, ever understand why anyone uses a courier for anything.

[Uhuniau]

Originally Posted by eternallyme

Totally a wasted opportunity, I agree.

HOWEVER, the setting of the area would make serving it by transit difficult no matter what. Unless VIA Rail would agree to allow a long crossing through the station (not likely), its setback away from residential areas means that the only way to serve it without inconveniencing more riders is a dedicated route, not a piece of an existing core route. A walking connection to Coronation (Route 86) would be nice as well though.

It's not just transit service.

It's the layout of the place, the utter banality of the buildings, the pure suburban bigbox craptaculosity of it.

Has ANYTHING been built in Ottawa, since the last official plan, that in any way remotely lives up to the aspirations of that document? It's not dense, it's not walkable, it's not urban, it's not urbane, it's pure unadulterated crap.

We might as well be printing the plans on toilet paper, using randomly-generated ASCII gibberish, and saving the expense and bother of planning exercises that get ignored anyway.

[Kitchissippi]

When I miss a Purolator delivery, they take it to the PostNet store a few blocks away, right next to the #2 bus stop.

[eternallyme]

Originally Posted by Uhuniau

It's not just transit service.

It's the layout of the place, the utter banality of the buildings, the pure suburban bigbox craptaculosity of it.

Has ANYTHING been built in Ottawa, since the last official plan, that in any way remotely lives up to the aspirations of that document? It's not dense, it's not walkable, it's not urban, it's not urbane, it's pure unadulterated crap.

We might as well be printing the plans on toilet paper, using randomly-generated ASCII gibberish, and saving the expense and bother of planning exercises that get ignored anyway.

Who owns and who designed the area?

[waterloowarrior]

Originally Posted by eternallyme

Who owns and who designed the area?

It is owned by Controlex, a local company. The development was originally approved in 2001, before the new Official Plan (although the guiding policies for this development emphasize transit, cycling and pedestrian friendly design). I'm not sure if he was the original consultant but Bill Holzman has done a lot of the planning work for this project.

[McC]

Originally Posted by waterloowarrior

It is owned by Controlex, a local company. The development was originally approved in 2001, before the new Official Plan (although the guiding policies for this development emphasize transit, cycling and pedestrian friendly design). I'm not sure if he was the original consultant but Bill Holzman has done a lot of the planning work for this project.

Worst.company.name.ever.

[eternallyme]

Having thought about it, I figured out an idea for improving transit there:

* A new connector between Trainyards and Coronation is necessary. A small section of a parking lot would need to be acquired. Only buses and bicycles would be permitted to avoid traffic issues in the upper Alta Vista area.

* Route 86 would run onto the connector, then along Trainyards and Terminal. All 86's (from both Colonnade and Baseline) would operate to Elmvale, resulting in a 15 minute frequency at most times of the day.

* Route 121 would be revised to remain on Industrial rather than into the Trainyards. It would also be reduced to only operate every hour outside of peak periods due to lower ridership expected.

PROS: More frequent service to the Trainyards, better connection from downtown and Elmvale, more frequent service available on Russell and Coronation east of the connector

CONS: Reduced service east of the Trainyards (ridership is lower there anyway), longer walk for some customers (but the 8 is nearby and frequency would be increased)

[Uhuniau]

Originally Posted by waterloowarrior

It is owned by Controlex, a local company. The development was originally approved in 2001, before the new Official Plan (although the guiding policies for this development emphasize transit, cycling and pedestrian friendly design). I'm not sure if he was the original consultant but Bill Holzman has done a lot of the planning work for this project.

Even the pre-2001 plan was full of the usual crap platitudes about controlling sprawl and pedestrian priority, and all the other stuff that gets completely ignored in practice.

[S-Man]

Worst.company.name.ever.

Agreed! It's about as imaginative as the layout of the Trainyards development itself!

Also agreed that there's nothing urban about Trainyards. It's a big peice of suburbia plopped right in the centre of the city. The first time I went there was while driving a friend to a doctor's appointment at a physio clinic. He'd never been there either.

His words: "What the hell is this place doing here?"

[lrt's friend]

I have just returned from San Francisco and for most of the trip, I did without a rental car. It was surprisingly easy to get around SF on transit and the service was quite frequent even in the evening. I even used transit to get to a small satelitte city over an hour from the city and it worked. I just marvel how Ottawa has let transit service go to pot in central areas of the city, making short trips difficult. I still contend that a lot of the issues is the policy of basically having one fare apply to the whole city. In the long run, this discourages use of transit for short trips because we keep jacking up the fares to pay for service extensions further and further from the city but charge exactly the same fare. In SF, regional service is separate and you pay much more but is easily justified by the distance travelled.

[eltodesukane]

Originally Posted by Kitchissippi

When I miss a Purolator delivery, they take it to the PostNet store a few blocks away, right next to the #2 bus stop.

lucky you!