I want to add to my original post, but I'll post the addition down here so people don't have to go searching through my post for the update.
Bike Share Program and Puzzle Parking
Ottawa has (or had) Bixi Bike, but it’s aimed more for tourists who want to bike along the canal or river. The docking stations were located in prominent tourist destinations, but were not distributed extensively, with the western-most one, to my recollection, being on Lyon and Queen. It wasn’t a bike-share program like Montreal’s Bixi, or Paris Vélib with frequent docking stations throughout the city, and not just in the downtown, allowing people to get from their homes to work or shopping throughout the Plateau, Downtown, Westmount areas (and perhaps more).
What Ottawa should have, along with the extensive segregated cycling routes , is a proper bike-share program that has docking locations in Vanier, Lowertown, Centretown (CBD and everything South), Glebe, Hintonburg, Dow-Preston/ Little Italy, Chinatown, LeBreton, Bayview, Tunney’s, West Wellington, Westboro, Old Ottawa South, Lees, uOttawa, and more. One should be able to rent a bike to get to their destination, park it in a docking station, and then rent it again to go elsewhere. They could even use the Smartphone apps to indicate where the nearest docking station is, how many bikes are available and if their bike can be parked there.
Now, an important part of improving cycling infrastructure in Ottawa is parking our bikes. What am I supposed to do if I want to bike downtown but can’t find a spot to lock my bike because the racks are full with other bikes? We’d have to invest in more bike racks, but that can get quite crowded and unpleasant. Just think of what some parts of Amsterdam look like (not my photo):
Well, we can copy what
Japan is doing with parking infrastructure (definitely worth watching). Use the electric “Puzzle Parking” system that allows us to place our bike on a platform and then brings it down into into an underground parking garage specifically for bikes. It would leave surface area available for other uses, and could potentially allow more bike spots than we need.
Etiquette
People in Ottawa have almost no etiquette when it comes to public transit, driving and roads, escalators, etc. What I would like to see is a proper project by the city to teach people what they can do and what they shouldn’t do.
For example, notice what people do on escalators. In Montreal, you typically stand on the right side, leaving the left side open for people who wish to walk up the escalator quickly. In Ottawa, people stand wherever they want, in many cases forcing people who are in a hurry to wait behind someone just because that other person doesn’t want to leave room for others to pass them.
Another should be aimed at public transit, especially with the LRT getting underway. In Japan – and possibly Korea – it is socially unacceptable to eat, talk loudly, listen to music loudly, litter, try to pry open doors and more on the trains and buses. Yet we in Canada do these things constantly. I would like to see to multiple campaigns addressing these issues and teaching people how to behave while using public transit.
In this link and below are examples of one humorous campaign done in Japan.
People on buses in Ottawa can be really obnoxious, not provide courtesy seats to those who need it (or kick others off seats when others are open because they wanted to sit there). There are people who choose to sit in aisle seats with the window seat empty or occupied by their bag, when they should sit at the window seat and always keep their bag on their lap so that other people can come and take the empty spot beside them. I’ve seen several times people who refused to let anyone sit beside them, and other times where instead of scooching over a spot to give the aisle seat to another person. There are people who carry too much with them to the point that it blocks the bus (this could include large strollers), such as what I witnessed around Christmas.
I got on the #7 bus to go towards the Glebe around Christmas, and the bus got full quite quickly to the point that it was difficult to even get off the bus (we need to stop overfilling transit). But these two people, possibly unrelated, got on with rolling suitcases each. They decided to sit down in the double seats towards the front of the bus, across the aisle from each other, and left their suitcases in the aisle. These suitcases were beside each other, blocking the aisle for anyone trying to get by.
There’s also the problems with cars. Motorists are some of the most entitled people I have witnessed in Ottawa, to the point that they put their lives and other people’s lives at risk, in many cases injuring or killing pedestrians and cyclists.
Many a time I notice how people in all vehicles will choose to speed up when the light is turning yellow, or will blow through a red-light. I see people who drive too fast, or worse people who don’t stop at stop signs, either by driving through without stopping or do a “rolling stop” where they only slow down but keep going. This is unsafe for pedestrians and cyclists, and only furthers my ire against cars and motorists. There needs to be an even more extensive campaign to teach road safe (people spend how many years trying to get their licence, and yet seem to ignore all the rules they were taught?). There should also be harsher punishment for breaking these laws. Simply being fined doesn’t discourage anyone, especially not people wealthy enough to continuously pay off these fines. I think there should be a 2- or 3- strike system where, after a warning or two, you lose your drivers’ licence for a year or more, and only after this time period has elapsed can they try to get their drivers’ licence all over again, much like when they had to get it the first time. Repeated infractions should result in permanent bans on driving. These people would then have to find an alternative to getting around, which could involve public transit, cycling or moving altogether to a more favourable area. The city should get tough on motorists breaking the law and endangering people’s lives.
Add-on idea to Parkdale Market
Furthermore, if Parkdale Market could become an exciting arts district for the city, it might be enough to attract tourists and other people to Hintonburg, thus justifying a hotel either in this area or as a a part of the Tunney's redevelopment. There could also be a new museum at Tunney's (Museum of Civilization, I hope?)
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We could only hope for some other flowering tree, if they can survive in Ottawa, but the salt would be a problem...
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