Bédard wants idling Gatineau buses banned

[YOWetal]

I have always wondered why Ottawa puts up with this. The claim that Ottawa benefits is dubious. If they are threatening to cancel the busses, the end result would only be people moving to Ottawa.


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Bédard wants idling Gatineau buses banned
Councillor 'fed up' with scores of STO vehicles polluting streets in Lowertown
Patrick Dare, The Ottawa Citizen

The City of Gatineau may have to take its buses that wait in Ottawa's Lowertown off the streets because of complaints about pollution, noise and congestion caused by the vehicles.

Rideau-Vanier Councillor Georges Bédard will next week ask the city's transportation committee to ban idling buses from Lowertown, specifically King Edward Avenue, George Street and York Street, after many years of complaints about the pollution problem.

Mr. Bédard said for years Gatineau officials have suggested something will be done to end the practice, but it just continues.

"I'm just fed up. We've tried absolutely everything. There's always some excuse for not doing it," said Mr. Bédard.

The councillor said he knows his move will upset some people across the Ottawa River, saying, "They're obviously not pleased."

But he said there are 100 buses from the Société de transport de l'Outaouais (STO) that are coming into Lowertown's residential streets each day, idling for 15 or 20 minutes before taking off to pick up passengers and head back across the river.

During extreme cold and warm weather, the city's anti-idling bylaw doesn't apply and Lowertown residents simply have to put up with it.

Mr. Bédard said people in new residential buildings find they can't use their balconies because of the noxious fumes.

"Those poor people are suffering from constant pollution," said Mr. Bédard.

The report going to city council's transportation committee says: "Residents, nursery school children, theatre patrons and business operators are directly exposed to dangerously high levels of toxic emissions from diesel engines that are almost constantly idling."

Residents of Lowertown have been complaining about the pollution and congestion issue since the Macdonald-Cartier Bridge was built in the 1960s and heavy bus, truck and car traffic started clogging King Edward Avenue, which was once a beautiful federal ceremonial route. Regional government in Ottawa tried to improve the situation in 1991, but made little progress.

Mr. Bédard wants STO buses to be banned from parking on King Edward, George Street and York Street, and he wants the STO to use a new bus lay-by area recently built under the Macdonald-Cartier Bridge for at least some of the vehicles. City of Ottawa staff agree with the request to have STO buses use the new lay-by area but they don't support the councillor on banning idling buses from Lowertown. The city's staff say such a move could increase costs for the STO and would make it more difficult to run the service between Gatineau and Ottawa.

Céline Gauthier, spokeswoman for the STO, said Gatineau transit officials are well aware of the problem and that, starting on Sept. 1, the new lay-by under the bridge will be used on 49 bus trips a day. She said a facility on the Quebec side to accommodate buses that are waiting to make their runs has been planned but that approval must be won from the Quebec government.

"It's something that we have been working on. It's a work in progress," said Ms. Gauthier.

She noted that the STO's service into Ottawa is important for Ottawa's economy since the buses carry about 12,000 people a day in and out of the city.

ILLUS: Photo: Pat McGrath, The Ottawa Citizen / Councillor Georges Bédard says about 100 buses from the STO come into Lowertown each day and idle for 15 or 20 minutes before taking off to pick up passengers to take back across the river. ;

[c_speed3108]

What I never understood is why so many STO routes need to come into downtown Ottawa. Why just run something along the lines of OC's 180 Hull Shuttle and have it connect to all these Hull buses at some bus station in Hull.

This way the buses can be completely full rather than have a ton of half full buses clogging up rideau street late (or early) in their run.

[Cre47]

As long as it doesn't affect further service reliability, if the ban would cause more delays to service then I'm against it.

[Suzie]

Originally Posted by c_speed3108

What I never understood is why so many STO routes need to come into downtown Ottawa. Why just run something along the lines of OC's 180 Hull Shuttle and have it connect to all these Hull buses at some bus station in Hull.

This way the buses can be completely full rather than have a ton of half full buses clogging up rideau street late (or early) in their run.

Such arrangement would force STO users to transfer, which would cause great inconvenience and no doubt result in a ridership loss.
If such arrangement were put in place, STO users would need to get something in return in order to offset (at least partially) the increased inconvenience. To me that would be gaining access to a corridor that is more centrally located than the terrible Rideau/Wellington corridor – i.e.,
• The Mackenzie Bridge. This would require reserving the entire bridge to transit during peak periods. This would significantly improve the integration of STO/OC services and allow OC to create separate platforms to segregate regular routes from express, thus reducing bus congestion at the busiest station.
• Albert/Slater or Queen. The former option would require placing new stops on blocks that currently do not have them and giving an extra lane to buses. The latter option would require banning all parking (at least during the peak) and the narrow sidewalks would make it difficult to find good spot for stations. I doubt that downtown business owners would agree to this.
To balance out demand, it would make sense for this new service to be used by both OC and STO users that cross the River. Perhaps, an articulated bus each minute would be sufficient to meet current demand at peak.
The service would also have to be extremely reliable, serve both Portage and Chaudière, and link up with Lebreton. I don’t know where the STO transfer station would be in Hull. It would have to be fairly large.

[AuxTown]

The city of Ottawa does not owe anything to STO users. Gatineau has basically stated that they want nothing to do with our long-term transit plan and that they will do things their own way. That's their prerogative and I wish them well, but as soon as those buses cross the river they have been lucky to get what they have up to this point (i.e. buses clogging up King Edward and polluting (noise and air) right in front of parliament). I would love it if OC Transpo and STO could amalgomate to make a much more efficient system and if they would plan their new BRT to somehow link up with our future LRT. I guess it's too much to ask a government in Quebec to work with anybody else and, as the population continues to grow accross the river, we are going to run into serious capacity issues on those bridges. I'm glad I only cross early in the morning or on the weekend when I go hiking/camping/skiing so I don't have to deal with the rush hour jam.

[c_speed3108]

Originally Posted by Suzie

Such arrangement would force STO users to transfer, which would cause great inconvenience and no doubt result in a ridership loss.

It is the very same thing the Ottawa riders who work in Hull have to do now. They all jump off express buses in droves at Lebretton and jump on the high frequency rush hour shuttle across the bridge to hull. If they need to go any further they would have to transfer to STO buses at that point.

As long as it is high freq it should be an issue.

Actually ideally if OC and STO ran the shuttle together it would only require (roughly) half as many buses since both companies peak riders are going in opposite directions across the bridge. An efficiency most commuting transit could on dream of.

[lrt's friend]

The problem is that far more Gatineau passengers are travelling to downtown Ottawa, than Ottawa passengers travelling to downtown Hull. A shuttle may work for the latter but there would be way too many transferring passengers to work the other way. No matter how we feel about the lack of coordination and cooperation from STO, we have a responsibility to provide efficient transit service to both sides of the river. In fact, it is critical given limited bridge infrastructure. We certainly don't want to create a situation that encourages more car traffic into downtown from the Quebec side. It would be a lose-lose situation.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by YOWetal

I have always wondered why Ottawa puts up with this. The claim that Ottawa benefits is dubious. If they are threatening to cancel the busses, the end result would only be people moving to Ottawa.

Wrong. The end result would only be thousands of more cars pouring into downtown Ottawa every day.

Traffic woes alone won’t force significant numbers of people to move from Gatineau to Ottawa, trust me.

[YOWetal]

Originally Posted by Acajack

Wrong. The end result would only be thousands of more cars pouring into downtown Ottawa every day.

Traffic woes alone won’t force significant numbers of people to move from Gatineau to Ottawa, trust me.

Traffic woes won't force people to move, but people who are low income or who work where there is no parking would be forced to move.

My main point was that ending idling is not going to mean the elimination of Gatineau buses. It may cost STO more and may add to some delays but this is not going to cause "thousands of more cars to start driving to downtown Ottawa.

[Acajack]

My point was in response to the “magic wand” thinking of this kind:

Banning idling STO buses = more people moving from Gatineau to Ottawa

On your latest points, consider the following.

Faced with a more complex transfer/traffic situation in downtown Ottawa or Gatineau (adding X minutes to one’s commute time), what would a low-income Gatineau resident holding down a joe-job in Ottawa do? Move to the expensive Golden Triangle or the Byward Market to be closer to work? Move to a crappy but cheap apartment somewhere further from downtown but in Ottawa that’ll cost one third more than his Gatineau digs? Or suck it up and get up a bit earlier in the morning to make it to work on time?

Furthermore, this is predicated on the fact that most STO commuters travelling to Ottawa are low-income “captives” of public transit. Actually, I ride the STO every day to central Gatineau and most of the people who stay on board and cross over to Ottawa are “choice” transit commuters. People who leave a car sitting in their driveways (or perhaps at a park-and-ride somewhere) to take the bus into town. Once again, faced with STO service deficiencies in downtown Ottawa, these people would either A) suck it up and stay with the STO; B) drive into downtown Ottawa and pay for parking no matter the cost (as lots of people already do) or C) find a job on the Quebec side of the river (not that difficult since many STO riders are public servants)… all of this way before they’d ever consider moving to Ottawa.

I am not saying a ban on idling would be the death-knell of competitive transit between Gatineau and Ottawa, but if you read the article you’ll see the reference to 12,000 STO passengers daily. Even if a fraction of them decided to drive, that’s a lot more cars, man.

[Suzie]

Originally Posted by c_speed3108

It is the very same thing the Ottawa riders who work in Hull have to do now. They all jump off express buses in droves at Lebretton and jump on the high frequency rush hour shuttle across the bridge to hull. If they need to go any further they would have to transfer to STO buses at that point.

As long as it is high freq it should be an issue.

I see them every morning and I feel sorry for them too, especially in the winter. Lebreton Station is a terrible place to have to transfer.

[YOWetal]

Seems Bedard knew this was coming... still good news though.

STO to move Ottawa terminus in wake of complaints
Last Updated: Wednesday, August 20, 2008 | 12:37 PM ET
CBC News
Starting in September, transit buses from the Outaouais will no longer park or idle on King Edward Avenue, George Street and York Street in Ottawa in the afternoons, following complaints from neighbourhood residents about pollution and safety concerns.

Instead, passengers will have to board at the new Union bus terminus under a ramp of the Macdonald-Cartier bridge, Société de transport de l'Outaouais (STO) spokeswoman Céline Gauthier said Tuesday.

In addition, the STO is looking into rerouting some of the buses in the morning, and is in discussions with Ottawa's transit service, OC Transpo, about the issue.

The announcement came as Georges Bédard, councillor for Rideau-Vanier, prepared to call for a ban on bus lay-bys on King Edward Avenue, George Street and York Street, where STO buses have 21 parking spaces used while they wait for the start of their afternoon routes.

The proposal was to go before the city's transportation committee on Wednesday, and is a ban that Lowertown residents have been pushing for.

Michel Vallée, vice-president of the Lowertown Community Association, said the pollution from the buses is affecting the health of local residents, and there is a daycare centre next to where the buses wait.

Bédard's report to the transportation committee said the buses expose people in the neighourhood to "dangerously high levels of toxic emissions" as they are almost constantly idling.

In addition, the buses block the view of drivers trying to turn, especially parents trying to pick up their children at the daycare centre, the report said.

Bédard said the City of Ottawa has done its part by constructing the new terminus and is now asking the City of Gatineau and the STO to do theirs.

[Acajack]

In French only, but this should make some Lower Town Ottawa people happy. STO is taking steps to address the idling buses problem:

http://www.info07.com/article-243576...de-la-STO.html