Ottawa Rapid Transit Network developments

[Dado]

Originally Posted by ortelius

Jon Willing posted on Twitter

It wouldn't be an Ottawa busway without some black fencing, apparently.

And what's with the snazzy red-hued concrete bus pads? How did we manage to afford that?

[S-Man]

Now if only the neighbourhood were more urban.

The western terminus of Chapman Mills Drive as it stands now ends at Longfields, and the plan is to extend it to the Transitway at Marketplace. At Chapman Mills drive and Longfields you have the Ampersand community, which is fairly high density by Barrhaven standards. However, those residents would likely just walk across the parking lot to the actual Marketplace station.

[Uhuniau]

Originally Posted by S-Man

The western terminus of Chapman Mills Drive as it stands now ends at Longfields, and the plan is to extend it to the Transitway at Marketplace. At Chapman Mills drive and Longfields you have the Ampersand community, which is fairly high density by Barrhaven standards. However, those residents would likely just walk across the parking lot to the actual Marketplace station.

Fairly high density, but still suburan crap layout and suburban crap mass-segregation of land uses.

Why will no one build an urban "community" any more? Why will the city neither approve, nor demand them?

[Uhuniau]

Originally Posted by Dado

It wouldn't be an Ottawa busway without some black fencing, apparently.

And what's with the snazzy red-hued concrete bus pads? How did we manage to afford that?

Black fencing would be an improvement over the garbage at Baseline. And why is the Baseline platform so long to begin with? Why wasn't the "temporary" Baseline station designed with an island config like the old Baseline or Hurdman or Orleans ones, which help facilitate, instead of hinder, passenger's connections?

Ah, right - because OC Transpo doesn't actually care about passenger movements, only bus ones.

[ACmodels]

I think these bus lanes should be extended all the was to Longfields drive

[eternallyme]

Originally Posted by 1overcosc

Woohoot now that's what we're talking about! Real on-street bus rapid transit, just like on Highway 7 in Toronto.

And we've got more of it coming too--on March Road and on Baseline.

Re: March Road, one like that along Eagleson, Teron and March through the length of Kanata would go a LONG way towards improving intra-Kanata service, especially considering any potential LRT to Kanata would not cover the length of the community.

[waterloowarrior]

Map from OC Transpo


http://www.octranspo1.com/routes/bus_only_lanes_and_new_station_for_barrhaven

[S-Man]

I think these bus lanes should be extended all the was to Longfields drive

I was under the assumption that this will eventually be what happens. The entre length of Chapman Mills Drive (and a corridor to the Vimy Bridge) was meant to accommodate the north-south LRT plan that was scrapped in 2006.

Because the corridor exists, they've so far filled it in with BRT from the bridge to Beatrice. I assume next year they'll extend the BRT segment towards Marketplace Station.

[eternallyme]

Speaking of these proposed and new bus corridors, how much commuting is there between Barrhaven and Kanata? I know the current transit setup makes such require a car.

I have long suggested (initially at least during peak periods) that a route from Barrhaven Centre (now Riverview) to Kanata North cutting the southwest corner. The probable route would be like the 99 from Riverview to Barrhaven Centre, then Strandherd, Fallowfield, Old Richmond, Hope Side, Eagleson, Teron and March for the quickest route possible with fewer than normal stops. It would also improve cross-Kanata connections as well.

Such would provide a new suburb-to-suburb connection for travel that is not easy to do by transit today, and cut travel times enormously in many cases.

[ACmodels]

Man I just thought of LRT on that in 30-40 years time!

[rocketphish]

LRT 'graveyard' in Barrhaven gets median bus lanes

By Jon Willing, Ottawa Sun
First posted: Wednesday, November 12, 2014 04:50 PM EST | Updated: Wednesday, November 12, 2014 04:58 PM EST

Chapman Mills Dr. in Barrhaven shows the leftover scars from the carved-up north-south LRT plan.

It's not a particularly long stretch, but it's unusually wide. So wide, in fact, that the city can run a pair of bus lanes down the median.

"It's the graveyard of the LRT," Gloucester-South Nepean Coun. Steve Desroches said Wednesday. "But we were not going to give up that corridor."

Just after the morning commute, OC Transpo opened the special bus lanes that run up the gut of the road, plus a new station at Beatrice Dr. served by Route 99. The lanes and station cost about $5 million.

The previous north-south LRT blueprint, which was cancelled by council in 2006 in favour of the east-west track route currently under construction, made sure to have a wide Chapman Mills Dr. to handle the trains.

"This is the only part of the city we built up around LRT," Desroches said.

When the plan was cancelled, the community was left with a wide road and a problem with traffic safely at the large intersections.

The city and Transpo had to figure out how to make the road work as both a Transitway-like route and a regular road. Buses and vehicular traffic have their own traffic signals.

The bus lanes will eventually stretch to Greenbank Rd. to the west. To the east, the lanes connect to bus lanes on Strandherd Dr. and go across Vimy Memorial Bridge. The connection would be made with the O-Train if the city manages to extend the rail to Riverside South.

Some parents worry that adding bus lanes in the median will create problems for pedestrians, especially with three schools nearby.

"Children are children and sometimes they rush out," mother Nancy Sauriol said.

Sauriol said ideally the city would install something to prevent people from jaywalking across the bus lanes.

There isn't much traffic on Chapman Mills today, but this part of the community is rapidly growing and the number of vehicles will surely increase.

Desroches said he's satisfied the road design is safe and is better than having buses running along the curb on the vehicular portion of the road.

At least one regular Transpo customer who lives in the area thinks the new bus lanes will give more clout to Barrhaven.

Fadhili Samba, 19, said the bus lanes are a "big step" for the suburb and for people who take transit in and out of Barrhaven.

"Buses are the only way we can get anywhere," Samba said.

Twitter: @JonathanWilling

http://www.ottawasun.com/2014/11/12/lrt-graveyard-in-barrhaven-gets-median-bus-lanes

[BenTheGreat97]

Originally Posted by rocketphish

[B]LRT 'graveyard' in Barrhaven gets median bus lanes

Some parents worry that adding bus lanes in the median will create problems for pedestrians, especially with three schools nearby.

"Children are children and sometimes they rush out," mother Nancy Sauriol said.

http://www.ottawasun.com/2014/11/12/lrt-graveyard-in-barrhaven-gets-median-bus-lanes

[Dado]

I guess it's great that there's a busway there and all, but what transit demand is this particular one going to serve?

Neither Barrhaven nor Riverside South have much in the way of employment beyond retail at the moment, so I just can't see there being much in the way of travel readily served by transit (and not too many people in RS are going to go shopping in Barrhaven by bus).

The 99 is something like the bus replacement for the N-S LRT, but like the N-S LRT it doesn't really do much of use in crossing the Rideau River.

I don't begrudge reserving the corridor for future use, but its utility is only when at least one of the two town centres develops as an actual employment node.

I can't help but think that for the time being the money should have been banked and used for a corridor like Baseline, or even March/Eagleson.

[waterloowarrior]

here are some recent docs... there is a section in the first doc on the near-term implementation on Chapman Mills

Barrhaven to Riverside South Rapid Transit EA Recommendations
http://ottwatch.ca/meetings/file/33511/F...ng_City_Council_Date_2012_11_28_10_00_00

Near Term Implementation on Chapman Mills Drive
Chapman Mills Drive has been constructed between Woodroffe Avenue and Longfields
Drive. An extension to Greenbank Road is expected in the near term. To ensure
compatibility of new construction with the BRT Recommended Plan, and to address
existing operational issues within the constructed portion of the roadway, a near term
implementation plan has been developed. Specifically, this plan recommends constructing
the ultimate facility within the median of Chapman Mills Drive as the new roadway is
extended to Greenbank Road, which requires modifications to existing intersections at
Longfields Drive and Leamington Way. The near-term plan also recommends
modifications to the intersection of Beatrice Drive and Chapman Mills Drive to allow transit
vehicles operating within mixed traffic to access transit only lanes through a newly
signalized intersection. Buses will service transit platforms located within the median
before rejoining general traffic on the far side of the intersection. In order to eliminate a
potentially unsafe merge from the left, the parking lane on the far side of the intersection
will be repurposed as a general traffic lane and vehicles will be required to merge from the
right. The proposed near term implementation plan also recommends constructing the
ultimate cross-section from Clearbrook Drive to Woodroffe Avenue (Document 1),
including intersection modifications at Clearbrook Drive and Chapman Mills Drive

Chapman Mills (Longfields to Stranherd) and BRT (Greenbank to Cedarview) Statement of Work
https://drive.google.com/viewerng/viewer?url=http://ottwatch.ca/meetings/file/173353

[lrt's friend]

Originally Posted by Dado

I guess it's great that there's a busway there and all, but what transit demand is this particular one going to serve?

Neither Barrhaven nor Riverside South have much in the way of employment beyond retail at the moment, so I just can't see there being much in the way of travel readily served by transit (and not too many people in RS are going to go shopping in Barrhaven by bus).

The 99 is something like the bus replacement for the N-S LRT, but like the N-S LRT it doesn't really do much of use in crossing the Rideau River.

I don't begrudge reserving the corridor for future use, but its utility is only when at least one of the two town centres develops as an actual employment node.

I can't help but think that for the time being the money should have been banked and used for a corridor like Baseline, or even March/Eagleson.

Wasn't there an issue of unsafe road design as a result of the abandoned LRT corridor in this area? There was a need for a substantial redesign here anyways so I expect this was the reason why the BRT was built now.

[Dado]

There was an issue with people turning left from cross streets into the near side roadway (i.e. wrong way) rather than crossing the median and turning left into the correct one.

But, well, I don't see how *adding* a two-way busway to the median is going to help people inclined to drive into the wrong roadway. They'll just have another wrong roadway to drive into now.

[1overcosc]

Originally Posted by Dado

I guess it's great that there's a busway there and all, but what transit demand is this particular one going to serve?

Neither Barrhaven nor Riverside South have much in the way of employment beyond retail at the moment, so I just can't see there being much in the way of travel readily served by transit (and not too many people in RS are going to go shopping in Barrhaven by bus).

The 99 is something like the bus replacement for the N-S LRT, but like the N-S LRT it doesn't really do much of use in crossing the Rideau River.

I don't begrudge reserving the corridor for future use, but its utility is only when at least one of the two town centres develops as an actual employment node.

I can't help but think that for the time being the money should have been banked and used for a corridor like Baseline, or even March/Eagleson.

To me, the main use of the 99 corridor at this point in time is for cross-town commuting. For someone in Riverside South, the new 99 corridor is a much faster way to commute to Algonquin College or Kanata than the old way of going all the way downtown via the SE Transitway and the all the way west.

It also lays the foundation for an extensive crosstown route in the future. The 99 could easily be extended west to the new development at Fallowfield/416, then even further to Kanata.

Though, I doubt the project was needed now. Was congestion really slowing down the 99 that much? IMO we should have held it in reserve until traffic was actually a bigger problem.

[Dado]

If you were going to Algonquin College from Riverside South, wouldn't you use the 94?

This entire section of new median busway is west of Woodroffe, so it's redundant for going to Algonquin.

Similarly to go to Kanata you really have to head up to Baseline Station, so, again, it's redundant at the moment. If the 99 kept going west via Strandherd and Fallowfield to "somewhere" in Kanata (follow Terry Fox maybe) then maybe this thing would have some legit use.

For the same $12M we could have built a lot of bike facilities to serve far more people, like a bike tunnel under the Bronson-Slater intersection to get from LeBreton to the Laurier bike lanes.

[Kitchissippi]

Building that busway just prevents the formation of a "Friends of the Linear Park" in the future

[TransitZilla]

Originally Posted by Dado

For the same $12M we could have built a lot of bike facilities to serve far more people..

^ The story above says $5M, not $12M.

I think the big issue on Chapman Mills Dr was that the intersections were Stop signs that were confusing and unsafe with the huge median. So there was a need to rebuild the intersections anyway to add signals. I think they figured that if they needed to rebuild the intersections, it made sense to add the planned transit facilities at the same time.