Ottawa's new transportation plan must not overlook South Orléans
Development in my ward accounts for one-fifth of current new development across the city. Yet our transportation infrastructure isn't keeping pace.
Catherine Kitts
Published Apr 25, 2023 • 3 minute read
Ottawa Council is set to vote Wednesday on the city’s Transportation Master Plan (TMP, Part 1). It’s a document that will guide how people, vehicle and goods move through our city for the next 25 years. While it aims to improve transportation infrastructure across the city, it is vital that the east end is not forgotten in the process.
South Orléans has seen tremendous growth. Blink and you’ll miss an entire subdivision rising out of a formerly vacant field. I am told by city planning staff that development in my ward accounts for one-fifth of current new development across the city. However, our transportation infrastructure has struggled to keep up with the rapid pace of development. As a result, our residents face daily challenges with traffic congestion, inadequate public transportation options and limited, unsafe active transportation infrastructure.
It is high time to lift the east end from mobility poverty to mobility possibility.
Last year, council passed an ambitious New Official Plan. Front and centre in the city’s strategy for managing growth in Ottawa was the idea of creating 15-minute communities: where daily and weekly needs can be accessed through connected walking, cycling and efficient transit routes. Increasing the share of trips by sustainable modes of transportation is a laudable goal and is supported by most residents I speak to.
But, for that to be achievable, those options need to exist.
Current transit options in South Orléans and its surrounding rural area are limited, with persistent long wait times and unreliable service. A typical commute from South Orléans to downtown pushes 75 minutes on a good day, one way. City-owned lands reserved for a bus-rapid transit corridor in South Orléans remain vacant due to our longstanding stalemate with the NCC over the Brian Coburn extension — not to mention an under-utilized park-and-ride facility in Chapel Hill South, with few routes that justify its existence.
The Orléans community values active transportation, including walking and cycling, as a means of reducing congestion, improving health and promoting sustainability. However, our current active transportation infrastructure is also inadequate, with disconnected bike routes and lack of walkable amenities and employment. Of the TMP Part 1’s 244 identified active transportation projects, only five reside in Orléans South-Navan. This hardly takes a run at resolving the connectivity discrepancy in an area experiencing rapid growth.
Instead, South Orléans is plagued by traffic congestion. This has led to longer commutes, increased emissions and reduced quality of life. If we want to encourage sustainable transportation and a true modal shift in car-dependent neighbourhoods, we must invest in them. The greatest opportunity for modal shift is in developing communities where travel routines and patterns have yet to be cemented. Instead, we are building car-dependent communities.
We cannot shame suburban and rural residents for choosing to travel by car if we offer no other option.
The next phase of the TMP must include strategies to address the pressing traffic congestion east-end commuters contend with daily. City transportation staff have given assurances that they view the Brian Coburn extension as a necessary road link to meet future growth needs, but residents of Orléans know that the project is needed now. We have reached the tipping point where our roads are becoming unsafe. And while our planning policies are formed around a theoretical modal shift, the rapid pace of development is not hypothetical. It is happening.
City staff has made it clear that the plan is meant to be a living document, to be flexible and reviewed every five years to respond to our needs. We must remember that we want our growing communities to develop in a healthy way. Residents want access to reliable, efficient and sustainable transportation options, so let’s give it to them. Together, we can build an overall transportation network that enhances the livability and sustainability of our community for generations to come.
The policies and frameworks we’re considering today will determine how we move around the city until 2046. My hope is that it sets my community up for success once and for all.
Catherine Kitts is the city councillor for Orléans South-Navan and the vice-chair of the city’s Transportation Committee. Reach her at: [email protected].
https://ottawacitizen.com/opinion/kitts-...ion-plan-must-not-overlook-south-orleans
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