Carling Avenue Transit Corridor

[J.OT13]

The thread is for discussions on the Carling Avenue transit priority measures and any discussion on any future rail network, be it tram or light-metro. A tram has been on the TMP for about a decade but never actually studied or discussed beyond the studies to extend the Confederation Line west, for which the Parkway-Richmond-Byron were chosen as the best way forward.

For starters, here's the City's website: https://ottawa.ca/en/parking-roads-a...ority-measures

PDF presentation: https://documents.ottawa.ca/sites/do...hboards_en.pdf

Maps of bus lane placement, west and east of the 417:

https://documents.ottawa.ca/sites/do...urchill_en.pdf

https://documents.ottawa.ca/sites/do...bronson_en.pdf

[Badlands]

Currently the 85 is the only bus running on Carling Avenue between Churchill Avenue and Carlingwood Shopping Centre (the 50 runs for one block) with a frequency of approximately 15 minutes during rush hour. What buses will be using these bus lanes? Is the city planning on adding new routes on Carling Avenue or increasing the frequency of 85?

[TransitZilla]

Originally Posted by Badlands

Currently the 85 is the only bus running on Carling Avenue between Churchill Avenue and Carlingwood Shopping Centre (the 50 runs for one block) with a frequency of approximately 15 minutes during rush hour. What buses will be using these bus lanes? Is the city planning on adding new routes on Carling Avenue or increasing the frequency of 85?

Wouldn't be surprised to see the 55 use Carling west of Kirkwood once there is no Queensway station to connect to.

[J.OT13]

Project should start summer 2021 and be complete by this fall.

https://www.baywardbulletin.ca/carli...ority-project/

https://ottawa.ca/en/city-hall/publi...n-improvements

[roger1818]

Originally Posted by J.OT13

Project should start summer 2021 and be complete by this fall.

https://www.baywardbulletin.ca/carli...ority-project/

https://ottawa.ca/en/city-hall/publi...n-improvements

There don't seem to be a lot of details as to what exactly they are doing in terms of transit priority measures.

[J.OT13]

Originally Posted by roger1818

There don't seem to be a lot of details as to what exactly they are doing in terms of transit priority measures.

The PDFs I posted in March have more info:

Originally Posted by J.OT13

PDF presentation: https://documents.ottawa.ca/sites/do...hboards_en.pdf

Maps of bus lane placement, west and east of the 417:

https://documents.ottawa.ca/sites/do...urchill_en.pdf

https://documents.ottawa.ca/sites/do...bronson_en.pdf

[J.OT13]

For anyone interested in seeing if/how much it was value engineered, Westsideaction had a series on the project in 2017:

https://www.westsideaction.ca/carlin...econstruction/

[roger1818]

Originally Posted by J.OT13

The PDFs I posted in March have more info:

Thanks. Is that the plan they are actually going with? It was presented over 4 years ago, so I would have expected it to have changed since then.

Regardless, it seems extremely disjointed primarily giving buses priority between intersections, where there isn't much congestion and then having the buses mix with traffic at the intersections, where there is the most congestion.

[J.OT13]

Originally Posted by roger1818

Thanks. Is that the plan they are actually going with? It was presented over 4 years ago, so I would have expected it to have changed since then.

Regardless, it seems extremely disjointed primarily giving buses priority between intersections, where there isn't much congestion and then having the buses mix with traffic at the intersections, where there is the most congestion.

I didn't realize those PDFs were so outdated. No surprise the City has no updated material. I guess the final product will be a surprise.

[OCCheetos]

This doesn't seem to be the full plan since it seems to only go to Bayswater, while the full transit priority plan is supposed to go all the way to Bronson. I can only guess that the rest might be completed following the reopening of the Trillium Line, since it was originally noted (by Riley Brockington IIRC) that these lanes weren't going to be implemented until 2022, after the line reopens.

The Champagne to Bronson part is the most expensive anyhow, with that one eastbound median lane.

Still, a much needed improvement.

[phil235]

Originally Posted by J.OT13

For anyone interested in seeing if/how much it was value engineered, Westsideaction had a series on the project in 2017:

https://www.westsideaction.ca/carlin...econstruction/

On a side note, does anyone know what happened to Eric Darwin?

[J.OT13]

Originally Posted by phil235

On a side note, does anyone know what happened to Eric Darwin?

I wonder the same thing...

[Badlands]

Originally Posted by bradnixon

Wouldn't be surprised to see the 55 use Carling west of Kirkwood once there is no Queensway station to connect to.

The 55 no longer travels west of Westgate so it won't be using the Carling Avenue Transit Priority Lanes west of Westgate. So unless the city has other plans the 85 will be the only bus running on the Carling Avenue Transit Priority Lanes between Churchill Avenue and Carlingwood Shopping Centre (the 50 runs for one block) with a frequency of approximately 15 minutes during rush hour.

The $2,200,000 project will lead to improving safety at three intersections. One is near a lot of proposed development and the other close to schools with students taking the bus on Carling.

As for cyclists I am not so sure about the usefulness of the shared bus/bike lanes as they will appear and then disappear all along Carling. You will be changing between lanes you share only with a bus to lanes you share with buses and speeding cars.

[613Steve]

Is there any reason why the 55 now ends at Westgate? As someone who lives in South Centretown that route was critical to connecting to places like Bayshore and the Transitway in the west end. Now that same trip requires taking the 14 to Tunney's Pasture and transferring or taking the 55 and then transferring to the 85. Transit to Bayshore takes 45+ minutes when driving takes 10. Frustrating to see how difficult this city makes it for transit users.

[Badlands]

Originally Posted by 613Steve

Is there any reason why the 55 now ends at Westgate? As someone who lives in South Centretown that route was critical to connecting to places like Bayshore and the Transitway in the west end. Now that same trip requires taking the 14 to Tunney's Pasture and transferring or taking the 55 and then transferring to the 85. Transit to Bayshore takes 45+ minutes when driving takes 10. Frustrating to see how difficult this city makes it for transit users.

I'm not sure why the 55 now ends at Westgate. But it is frustrating. Potentially you could get off the 14 at Preston and transfer to the 85 Bayshore. It may save you a bit of time.

[TransitZilla]

Originally Posted by 613Steve

Is there any reason why the 55 now ends at Westgate? As someone who lives in South Centretown that route was critical to connecting to places like Bayshore and the Transitway in the west end. Now that same trip requires taking the 14 to Tunney's Pasture and transferring or taking the 55 and then transferring to the 85. Transit to Bayshore takes 45+ minutes when driving takes 10. Frustrating to see how difficult this city makes it for transit users.

Mostly cost-cutting during COVID I imagine, and possibly ridership. The 55 only had 3 stops west of Kirkwood (Queensway, Pinecrest, Bayshore) and all of them are served by other routes. The justification is that there are still alternatives to making the same trips.

I wouldn't be surprised to see the 55 extended to Lincoln Fields (via Carling) at some point to give better connectivity to the west end. But I don't ever see the route along the 417 coming back because a) Queensway station is going to be removed, and b) there is no ridership along the 417.

[MountainView]

Originally Posted by 613Steve

Is there any reason why the 55 now ends at Westgate? As someone who lives in South Centretown that route was critical to connecting to places like Bayshore and the Transitway in the west end. Now that same trip requires taking the 14 to Tunney's Pasture and transferring or taking the 55 and then transferring to the 85. Transit to Bayshore takes 45+ minutes when driving takes 10. Frustrating to see how difficult this city makes it for transit users.

I'm not sure what OC's deal was with these cost cutting measures. They also recently cancelled the 74 between Nepean Woods and Riverside South. So for people along that stretch of Strandherd and Riverside South they now have to take the 99 to Nepean Woods, and transfer to the 74.

Also, Nepean Woods doesn't have a driver rest station. I have seen, since this change, the 74 end its route at Nepean Woods, and drive to the Riverview PnR to use the driver rest building. I don't blame the driver - they need a place to use the washroom and get water...but talk about cost savings?

[J.OT13]

Can't speak to the 55, but my suburban route continues to run at its full schedule as far as I can tell and it's empty 90% of the time, with artics, at least on my end (which admittedly is along the first/last 25% of the route).

[JCL]

Originally Posted by 613Steve

Is there any reason why the 55 now ends at Westgate? As someone who lives in South Centretown that route was critical to connecting to places like Bayshore and the Transitway in the west end. Now that same trip requires taking the 14 to Tunney's Pasture and transferring or taking the 55 and then transferring to the 85. Transit to Bayshore takes 45+ minutes when driving takes 10. Frustrating to see how difficult this city makes it for transit users.

OC Transpo presented a Staff Report to the Transit Commission in late-March on a list of service adjustments (cuts/suspension, whatever you want to call it) as a result of COVID-19. One aspect of the adjustment is to remove duplication/parallel bus routes.

From OC Transpo's perspective, Route 55 and 85 between Bayshore and Westgate is duplication, even though Route 55 operates on the Queensway which is more direct, while Route 85 remains on Carling Avenue.

[J.OT13]

Start of transit priority measures.


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