Alayne McGregor
The City of Ottawa is asking residents to give thumbs up or down to possible pedestrian and cycling changes across Ottawa.
In Centretown, this could include bike lanes on Elgin Street north of Laurier, a pedestrian crossing of the Queen Elizabeth Driveway at Argyle, a segregated bike lane on O’Connor north of Laurier, and more.
These possible projects are proposed to be implemented from 2023 to 2046. The city says they will “address critical missing links in the City’s active transportation networks,” and are in addition to upgrades to be delivered through already-planned projects like road resurfacing, road construction, or rapid transit projects.
Surprisingly, though, Centretown has comparatively few proposed projects compared to areas like Ottawa West or Vanier.
You can vote on the projects via the city’s Engage Ottawa web page for the Transportation Master Plan.
Voting opened December 9 and closes February 18. Staff urge early voting as they will check on the results partway through.
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There are three maps – for pedestrian projects, for cycling projects, and for feasibility study projects. On each map, you can vote whether a project is “important to you” and submit comments on it. You can only vote yes on five projects per map. but can comment or vote no on as many as you want.
You can also send longer comments to or get more information from tmpupdate@ottawa.ca.
Based on the results of this survey, city staff say they will present a list of projects to the city’s Transportation Committee this spring.
“The order of implementation of projects from 2023 to 2046 will be based on opportunities to coordinate with other projects, alignment with network criteria, equity considerations, and geographic coverage factors.”
The projects are approximate: their exact limits and design are to be determined through further planning, design, and public consultation.
Pedestrian Projects
Staff say these projects would be subject to a technical feasibility and a warrant review (the point evaluation system to determine if a traffic signal would be installed). The two proposed Centretown projects are:
- the crossing of the Queen Elizabeth Driveway at Argyle Avenue
- a sidewalk along Metcalfe Street from Argyle Avenue to McLeod Street, next to the Museum of Nature.
Cycling Projects
These could include bike lanes, separated cycling facilities, and multi-use pathways. The three proposed Centretown projects are:
- a westbound bike lane on Gilmour Street from Percy to Cartier
- separated cycling facilities on O’Connor Street from Laurier to Wellington.
- separated cycling facilities on Wellington Street from Sussex to the Portage Bridge. This would be a proposed shared project between the City of Ottawa and the National Capital Commission.
Nearby cycling projects
- westbound bike lanes on Lees Avenue and Hawthorne Avenue from the Lees LRT Station to Main Street, and an eastbound bike lane just east of Lees Station.
- a northbound bike lane on Sussex Drive from Rideau to George, including removing the left turn lane.
Feasibility Study Projects
These are locations where the city will explore “possible solutions to important but challenging missing links. These often require significant trade-offs, property or partnerships not currently in place. If a project is determined to be feasible, then implementation may be pursued pending available funding.”
Centretown projects:
- cycling facilities on Gladstone Avenue from the O-Train Pathway to Percy Street. The project would include conversion of the southbound bike lane on Percy to a northbound contraflow bike lane from Flora to Gilmour.
- cycling facilities on Elgin from Laurier to Wellington
Nearby:
- southbound cycling facilities on Main Street from the Hwy 417 bridge to Lees.
- cycling facilities on Nicholas Street between Rideau and Laurier, and on Daly Avenue east of Nicholas.
Who chose the projects?
Project suggestions came from the public in a fall 2020 survey of active transportation missing links. A staff report said that the public dropped over 4,000 “pins” on a map of the city identifying their concerns. The public also identified three implementation priorities:
- enabling community trips;
- addressing network connectivity; and
- improving connections to transit.
As well, many suggestions were submitted directly by email. City councillors were also asked for the highest priority projects in their wards.
Staff then conducted a city-wide review of the walking and cycling networks, looking at “network connectivity; origin-destination data; routes to community destinations and transit; and ‘missing link’ map markers from consultation. The review also considered geographic differences in existing walking and cycling facilities (exposing different standards for active transportation facilities that were in place at the time that different areas of the city were developed).”
Each project was judged according to its importance to the network, its contribution to safety, and its overall cost-effectiveness. The entire portfolio of projects was reviewed for appropriate geographic coverage relative to an area’s existing pedestrian or cycling facilities and for adequate investment in “TMP priority neighbourhoods” with strong equity needs, staff said.