Lansdowne gets A+ for traffic at RedBlacks games
Glebe, Old Ottawa South still squeezed for street parking as retail increases
By Emma Jackson
Ottawa West News, Apr 21, 2015
Glebe residents have been pleasantly surprised to see more fans taking transit to football games at Lansdowne Park than expected, but they’re still looking to the city to solve day-to-day parking problems on nearby side streets.
More than 60 per cent of Ottawa RedBlacks ticket holders used an alternative form of transportation to get to games last year, via public transit, cycling, walking or free shuttles provided by the stadium.
That’s a far cry from what many Glebe residents predicted would happen when the park redevelopment was proposed seven years ago.
Residents were convinced the area would be overrun by drivers trying to get to games. At a transportation committee meeting on April 20, Capital Coun. David Chernushenko said he’s happy to report no one can say, “I told you so.”
Surveys from four different RedBlacks games found that 50 per cent of ticket holders took transit or shuttles, while 14 per cent walked and four per cent rode their bikes.
And traffic flow has remained fairly steady on game days. Speeds averaged between 46 and 59 kilometres per hour in the lead up to the first five games, according to the city’s traffic data.
The results were also positive for Ottawa Fury and Ottawa 67s games, which didn’t benefit from free park and ride shuttles. Despite that, the Ottawa Sport and Entertainment Group, which operates the park, doubled its expected number of transit users to more than 20 per cent, per game, on average.
NO PARKING
But while traffic management for major events has been hailed a great success, residents living around the park want the city to address the day-to-day parking squeeze as more and more retail opens up.
Brian Mitchell, chairman the Glebe Community Association’s traffic committee, said side streets across from Lansdowne like Wilton Lane, Melgund Avenue, Monk Street, Oakland Avenue and Woodlawn Avenue used to have 40 per cent of their on-street parking spots in use at any given time in 2009.
“Today its 90 per cent utilization, which more or less means you can’t find a parking spot,” Mitchell said.
The free parking that used to be available to local workers at Lansdowne is gone now, which has pushed hundreds of extra cars onto side streets, which west of Bank still offer three-hour parking.
The change has cost the Glebe Centre long term care home more than 100 volunteers – almost a third of the unpaid army the non-profit centre needs to deliver its services – with most citing lack of parking as the reason they quit, Mitchell said. The centre could not be reached for comment.
Lansdowne’s commercial area is about 85 per cent occupied now, according to OSEG CEO Bernie Ashe, and many of the stores are the first and only locations in Ottawa, including Whole Foods, Sporting Life and, most recently, a 10-screen “VIP” movie theatre that serves alcohol during films.
That’s drawing a whole new crowd of shoppers to the area who are using on-street parking to avoid paying fees in the underground parking garage.
And Mitchell said Lansdowne employees are also starting to opt for on-street parking.
He said the Glebe community association would like to see parking limits reduced to one hour west of Bank, as they have been on the east side along Holmwood Avenue, Adelaide Street and O’Connor Street.
Other issues outlined in a traffic report published by the association in March include:
- Weekend congestion on Bank Street, particularly on days the Ottawa 67s are playing
- Lack of signage encouraging drivers to use the Queen Elizabeth Driveway to access Lansdowne
- Unsafe crossing at the Bank Street Bridge on the Queen Elizabeth Driveway
- Cut-through traffic on Holmwood Avenue east of Bank
- Dangerous cycling conditions on the Bank Street Bridge.
So far city staff has not taken residents up on the suggestion to reduce the west side to one-hour limits, but traffic planner Phil Landry confirmed at a transportation committee meeting on April 20 that the city will be increasing signage and sharrows to make sure drivers know the bridge is a cycling priority area.
Mitchell said a key solution to the ongoing day-to-day issues is to get more people onto transit.
To that end, the community association has asked staff to consider testing a no-fare zone along Bank Street to help tourists and shoppers access the Glebe during the busiest times, such as weekends and Thursday and Friday evenings.
OC Transpo operations manager Pat Scrimgeour said it could cost “multiple hundreds of thousands” a year to implement such a zone, depending on the scope and scale of the project. However OC Transpo will increase weekend service on routes 1 and 7 this spring to try to accommodate extra visitors to the area.
At the city committee meeting, Ashe said OSEG would also be open to allowing parking on the stadium field in the winter months, when the stadium field is otherwise buried in snow.
That doesn’t solve the problem in high season, but by summer 2016 a 150-spot parking garage at Second Avenue should also take some pressure off.
GETTING TO GAMES
During Ottawa RedBlacks games, city staff and managers at OSEG had predicted that about 20 per cent of ticket holders would use transit to access the park, about 4,800 people, while 36 per cent would take the free shuttles from park and rides set up at Carleton University, the RA Centre, Canada Post headquarters and Vincent Massey Park.
But those numbers ended up reversed; over the entire season an average of 37 per cent of ticket holders took public transit – as many as 41 per cent, in the case of the final game on Oct. 31 – while only 18 per cent used the free shuttles. The park and rides only had about 1,600 cars parked per game, even though 4,200 were available.
For 2015, OSEG planners suggested the off-site parking spaces be cut in half and concentrated at only two locations, rather than continuing to offer four different shuttle routes.
The report also called for greater emphasis on OC Transpo park and ride shuttles, since they were so well used last year, and better promotion of the stadium’s secure on-site bike parking service, which only saw 1.5 per cent of the total modal share last season.
The Glebe association has also asked the city to make the shuttle routes on the Queen Elizabeth Driveway permanent. The routes were altered halfway through the season because residents on Lakeside Avenue were incensed their street was full of buses.
The National Capital Commission, which owns the driveway, said it “continues to work with the city” to identify options for 2015 and beyond.
“The NCC feels that last year’s operation was successful. We will inform the public once we’ve finalized this year’s solution,” said spokesman Mario Tremblay.
http://www.ottawacommunitynews.com/news-...e-gets-a-for-traffic-at-redblacks-games/
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