Quote:
Originally Posted by Dado
I'd like to know why we're sending this to the CTC, at all, especially in light of the Sens probable move to LeBreton. Kanata's biggest problem is that someone (Teron?) long ago had the not-so-bright idea to try to make a "town centre" straddling a freeway. We've been wedded to this absurd idea ever since. I doubt it will ever work.
Kanata's second major problem is that having put a few facts-on-the-ground to match their absurd town centre straddling a freeway plan, they nevertheless didn't really try to make a go of it. So instead of concentrating all development along the freeway corridor, they went both north and south along the edge of the Greenbelt. Note that very little of Kanata's employment, and less still of its tech employment, is located along the Queensway (there's a bit in the Terry Fox-Palladium area, but that's about it). An LRT line to the CTC along the Queensway would see very little reverse flow transit use. In contrast, bus routes like the #101 (or whatever it is now) do actually see a fair bit of use.
At this point, I think they should just abandon the entire town centre straddling a freeway thing. Accordingly, don't send LRT down the freeway. In general, putting light rail down expressways and freeways, while oh-so-tempting to transportation engineers, doesn't do much to support development intensification because you're working with an inherently hostile environment with lots of land that is effectively sterilized from urban development.
Instead of one LRT corridor, they should have two: one going northwest, roughly following the old Renfrew Sub (and I mean the multiuser path, to bring it closer to DND) to Kanata North, then once past Teron head northwest along either March or Legget (with the removal of a few buildings on Carling). If Legget, it can transition to March near Terry Fox and carry on northwestwards indefinitely. There's so much asphalt in this area that redevelopment over the coming decades becomes quite plausible.
The other corridor can head along the old CPR Carleton Place Sub/TransCanada Trail past Bells Corners at least as far as Robertson Rd, and then continue southwest along either Robertson or the old railway corridor to Stittsville and beyond. Building would be easier in the latter with more opportunities for TOD just east and south of Stittsville.
I think what aggrieves me most about all these studies though is the fact that they keep on planning these routes as fully grade-separated. We're out in the suburbs now. The entire rationale for *light rail* and not light metro was that we'd get cheaper construction once outside the Greenbelt. But no, we're getting light metro with all the extra costs. If they shelved the grade separation requirements, we could get two LRT corridors heading into Kanata.
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One of the reasons why grade separation is needed is because of the frequency and the length of trains. Once we get out into the suburbs, the need for trains every 3 minutes becomes ridiculous. If we had a train every 10 minutes, that is enough. In that case, a few gated intersections seems reasonable and workable.
What you are saying is something that I have argued for all along. We need to keep costs more reasonable where passenger traffic is less in the suburbs. There could still be rail priority. I have also said that integration into suburban neighbourhoods would be more successful without 100% grade separation and by not running next to a freeway, which always creates a pedestrian hostile environment. Remember how quickly LRT along the Queensway in central Ottawa was rejected.
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