Wellington Street Pedestrian Mall

[Acajack]

It's actually not particularly busy in this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOHtmgJ1fHE

[lrt's friend]

I understand that Wellington Street is closed at Kent (so I presume the north end of Bank Street is also closed), and it is only open that far east to facilitate STO buses. We have barricades up all over the place. So beautiful! And a constant reminder of the misery inflicted by the convoy protest.

Wellington is so institutional, and because of security concerns, most, if not all government buildings downtown have many security restrictions that minimize or exclude public access, not just on Wellington.

Given the fact that some vehicle access will be needed, how is this accomplished while maintaining the desired security? Let's agree that security is the main reason for closure. It seems to me, this will be like a security camp under the best of circumstances. RCMP cars blocking the road, or some sort of automated gates. This does not sound inviting, and with lanes still open to some traffic, it will not be a pedestrian mecca that closure supporters dream about.

And further to everything, how convoluted are we making crossing downtown both for residents or visitors? Because of Ottawa's geography, street patterns always limited crossing downtown, but our step by step closing of the main east-west thoroughfare makes this far worse.

[acottawa]

Originally Posted by lrt's friend

I understand that Wellington Street is closed at Kent (so I presume the north end of Bank Street is also closed), and it is only open that far east to facilitate STO buses. We have barricades up all over the place. So beautiful! And a constant reminder of the misery inflicted by the convoy protest.

It is closed at Bank, North end of Bank is clogged with traffic.

[Acajack]

Albert and Slater streets are perfectly fine for crossing the CBD in an east-west direction.

[lrt's friend]

Originally Posted by Acajack

It's actually not particularly busy in this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOHtmgJ1fHE

Notice a few things:

1. It is a public square, not a former street.

2. The square is surrounded with 'open' streets, with tour buses, public transit, taxis and private vehicles. There is no need to walk blocks to reach here.

3. The surrounding public buildings include retail and cafes. They are not closed to public access, at least not at ground level.

4. It is a public focal point, that is beautifully designed, and welcomes people to either walk through, or linger. Parliament hill is beautiful, but rarely encourages people to linger except on a few occasions. Will the 'Changing of the Guard' ever return? It wasn't there last summer.

[lrt's friend]

Originally Posted by Acajack

Albert and Slater streets are perfectly fine for crossing the CBD in an east-west direction.

That is not entirely true. Access to the various bridges to the Quebec side, to the Byward Market, to the Sir John A. MacDonald Parkway, Sussex, Rideau/Montreal Road, is not that direct. In most cases, you have to make multiple turns. When you enter downtown from multiple directions, many face blockades that require you to find your way around. Even as a life-long resident, this gets confusing.

[lrt's friend]

Originally Posted by acottawa

It is closed at Bank, North end of Bank is clogged with traffic.

I remember on a recent trip, a bus trying to turn left off of Bank at Slater. Why? I don't know, but that doesn't work.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by lrt's friend

That is not entirely true. Access to the various bridges to the Quebec side, to the Byward Market, to the Sir John A. MacDonald Parkway, Sussex, Rideau/Montreal Road, is not that direct. In most cases, you have to make multiple turns. When you enter downtown from multiple directions, many face blockades that require you to find your way around. Even as a life-long resident, this gets confusing.

Sure, but while it functions as a (forced) through route to some degree, the main CBD of a metro area of 1-1.5 million people and national capital doesn't necessarily have to be a speedway.

And I say this as someone with mixed views on closing Wellington St. to traffic.

On the one hand I am extremely skeptical of the glorious future of a pedestrianized Wellington.

That said, seeing certain types of vehicles on there that probably have no local business like 5-ton delivery trucks always makes me cringe.

[lrt's friend]

Originally Posted by Acajack

Sure, but while it functions as a (forced) through route to some degree, the main CBD of a metro area of 1-1.5 million people and national capital doesn't necessarily have to be a speedway.

And I say this as someone with mixed views on closing Wellington St. to traffic.

On the one hand I am extremely skeptical of the glorious future of a pedestrianized Wellington.

That said, seeing certain types of vehicles on there that probably have no local business like 5-ton delivery trucks always makes me cringe.

If it is likely to fail as a pedestrian mall, and the closure is just to expand the security perimeter, I am against it. The latter certainly reflects the failure of our institutions and even our democracy when we need to hide our seat of government behind barriers, and when we already have a set of more discreet barriers. Is that not enough?

As far as closing Wellington to truck traffic, that is part of a bigger debate of where trucks are going to go. We have designed our city to funnel truck traffic through downtown. If we re-route truck traffic, it needs to go somewhere. Perhaps, not a good idea to push truck traffic to where more people actually live. But we seem to be frozen on how to get surplus truck traffic out of downtown.

[rocketphish]

Originally Posted by Acajack

Albert and Slater streets are perfectly fine for crossing the CBD in an east-west direction.

Unless you're trying to get from one NCC parkway to the other. Google Maps routinely suggests a detour via Hull for this. So much for the Ottawa portion of the ceremonial route that is supposed to be Confederation Boulevard.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by lrt's friend

If it is likely to fail as a pedestrian mall, and the closure is just to expand the security perimeter, I am against it. The latter certainly reflects the failure of our institutions and even our democracy when we need to hide our seat of government behind barriers, and when we already have a set of more discreet barriers. Is that not enough?

As far as closing Wellington to truck traffic, that is part of a bigger debate of where trucks are going to go. We have designed our city to funnel truck traffic through downtown. If we re-route truck traffic, it needs to go somewhere. Perhaps, not a good idea to push truck traffic to where more people actually live. But we seem to be frozen on how to get surplus truck traffic out of downtown.

In terms of how it handles interprovincial truck traffic, Ottawa is basically a supersized version of Hawkesbury, ON or Campbellton, NB.

[phil235]

Originally Posted by acottawa

It is closed at Bank, North end of Bank is clogged with traffic.

I'm not sure what time you are referring to, but most of the time the north end of Bank is basically car-free. I can't remember the last time I had to wait for the light to cross Bank at Sparks.

[YOWetal]

Originally Posted by rocketphish

Unless you're trying to get from one NCC parkway to the other. Google Maps routinely suggests a detour via Hull for this. So much for the Ottawa portion of the ceremonial route that is supposed to be Confederation Boulevard.

Is this really a detour or the shortest route? Or at least nearly so.

Agreed Slater/Albert are not the same. Going from the Market to points east is substantially slower now. Additionally because of this people who used to use O Connor to access eastbound 417 are now clogging up Nicholas. I don't know how much of a difference it makes but it's not nothing.

[lrt's friend]

Originally Posted by rocketphish

Unless you're trying to get from one NCC parkway to the other. Google Maps routinely suggests a detour via Hull for this. So much for the Ottawa portion of the ceremonial route that is supposed to be Confederation Boulevard.

With all the weird alternative routings now required, we might as well cancel Confederation Boulevard. It really doesn't exist anymore.

[acottawa]

Originally Posted by phil235

I'm not sure what time you are referring to, but most of the time the north end of Bank is basically car-free. I can't remember the last time I had to wait for the light to cross Bank at Sparks.

I will try to take note of crossing times and get back to you. I cross that intersection 20-30 times a week so they all blur together.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by YOWetal

Is this really a detour or the shortest route? Or at least nearly so.

Agreed Slater/Albert are not the same. Going from the Market to points east is substantially slower now. Additionally because of this people who used to use O Connor to access eastbound 417 are now clogging up Nicholas. I don't know how much of a difference it makes but it's not nothing.

Here is my take on driving on various streets in downtown Ottawa:

Albert and Slater are relatively free-flowing almost all the time including rush hour, and have been that way since they removed the wall-of-buses from them a few years ago when the Confederation Line opened.

Going north from these streets on either Kent or Bay to get to Wellington and then the Portage Bridge is rarely a problem. This used to be a huge traffic headache (especially Bay) pre-pandemic.

There is often a minor to middling bottleneck (especially in the morning rush) coming off the Portage from Wellington approaching Lyon, Bank, etc.

Lyon, Bank and O'Connor flow pretty well southbound pretty much any time and any day of the week.

Confederation Square eastbound (in front of the Château Laurier going east towards Rideau and Sussex) can be a bottleneck pretty much anytime, any day.

Westbound Rideau going towards Elgin is fine most of the time.

Nicholas northbound going towards Laurier and Rideau is highly unpredictable and can be a bottleneck any time any day.

Nicholas southbound from Laurier to the 417 is generally fine except for busiest period of the afternoon rush on weekdays.

Same with O'Connor southbound towards Isabella towards the 417 eastbound - generally fine except for afternoon drive home.

King Edward is unpredictable for its entire length, though not as hellish as pre-pandemic.

Rideau generally isn't too bad.

[lrt's friend]

So, I took the challenge and went to Wellington Street early this afternoon. You could have shot a cannon down Wellington without any risk of hitting anybody or anything. Of course, police cars were lined up to keep the unwashed Ottawa residents out of there. Where is everybody? They are on the sidewalks where there are cars on the streets. A stunning revelation. The new Wellington Street, no cars, no transit and no pedestrians. I walked between O'Connor and Metcalfe and didn't meet a single person until I reached the corner of Metcalfe when 3 construction workers walked by me.

[phil235]

Originally Posted by lrt's friend

So, I took the challenge and went to Wellington Street early this afternoon. You could have shot a cannon down Wellington without any risk of hitting anybody or anything. Of course, police cars were lined up to keep the unwashed Ottawa residents out of there. Where is everybody? They are on the sidewalks where there are cars on the streets. A stunning revelation. The new Wellington Street, no cars, no transit and no pedestrians. I walked between O'Connor and Metcalfe and didn't meet a single person until I reached the corner of Metcalfe when 3 construction workers walked by me.

In fairness, I believe that most employers told their employees to work from home today and tomorrow because of the impending blizzard. I imagine that all of downtown was basically deserted today, so probably not a representative
day.

Again, absolutely no one is arguing that Wellington is a people place as currently configured. The debate is whether it could become a good public space with proper design.

[OCCheetos]

Originally Posted by rocketphish

Unless you're trying to get from one NCC parkway to the other. Google Maps routinely suggests a detour via Hull for this. So much for the Ottawa portion of the ceremonial route that is supposed to be Confederation Boulevard.

Originally Posted by lrt's friend

With all the weird alternative routings now required, we might as well cancel Confederation Boulevard. It really doesn't exist anymore.

The idea that the Confederation Boulevard can only exist if you're allowed to drive along it is silly.

Frankly you'd get much better views of all the landmarks along it by cycling, or walking.

Originally Posted by lrt's friend

So, I took the challenge and went to Wellington Street early this afternoon. You could have shot a cannon down Wellington without any risk of hitting anybody or anything. Of course, police cars were lined up to keep the unwashed Ottawa residents out of there. Where is everybody? They are on the sidewalks where there are cars on the streets. A stunning revelation. The new Wellington Street, no cars, no transit and no pedestrians. I walked between O'Connor and Metcalfe and didn't meet a single person until I reached the corner of Metcalfe when 3 construction workers walked by me.

We're 27 pages into this thread. "People aren't walking on the road, therefore we should keep the road" isn't a valid argument.

[acottawa]

Originally Posted by phil235

Again, absolutely no one is arguing that Wellington is a people place as currently configured. The debate is whether it could become a good public space with proper design.

No, the debate is whether it should stay on zombie apocalypse mode indefinitely in the absence of any other ideas or funding for those ideas.