Alayne McGregor
The City of Ottawa wants you to endorse 70 generally climate-friendly transportation policies now – and wait for two years to see how they translate into road budgets.
In early December, staff released the first draft of the city’s new Transportation Master Plan (TMP). It’s designed to support the city’s recently-passed Official Plan, and its draft policies do indeed follow that plan’s emphasis on climate resilience, active transportation, and 15-minute neighbourhoods.
For example, the Complete Streets section says that “Street space is a scarce resource, and it needs to be designed and managed for the greatest public benefit.”
The TMP provides the direction – for the next ten years at least – on how the city’s transportation network will evolve and grow, whether you walk, cycle, take the bus, or drive. The draft TMP is wide-ranging, covering everything from Autonomous Vehicles (AVs) to Winter Maintenance. Many of the chapters concentrate on changes to current city policies, and there’s substantially more space devoted to cycling and walking than driving.
What there’s not a lot of in this plan is numbers. Nor does the plan contain what is usually its most contentious section: the multi-year list of road and other transportation projects and their costs, in priority order.
The plan says that section will come next in part 2: the Capital Infrastructure Plan. That plan, due in 2024, will review the effectiveness of current networks and propose changes to achieve the city’s transportation vision and accommodate anticipated growth.
It will set different modal share targets for different areas of the city, aiming to have at least half of trips made by sustainable modes by 2046. This could mean that, in Centretown, non-car trips would get priority.
This fall, a new Origin-Destination telephone survey will measure weekday trips in the National Capital Region. It’s designed to capture evolving travel trends and will be used to update the city’s transportation network, determine future demand for new or widened facilities, and priorize projects. The plan said the survey will capture uncertainty by developing scenarios to assess the potential impact of factors such as changing work patterns or the introduction of AVs.
Residents have until February 18 to comment on the 142-page plan. You can send comments to tmpupdate@ottawa.ca, and fill out a series of surveys.
You can also ask questions at an online open house on Feb. 15 at 6:30 p.m., although city staff are “strongly encouraging” you to submit the questions in advance.