This page contains the information provided in a handout at the March 30th Citizens for Healthy Communities (CHC) Alternatives Open House meeting:
- Overview of CHC concerns: Smart Growth or Smog Growth?
- What you can do
- Details about what is missing in the consultant's assessment and preferred alternative
- Alternatives to a four lane road
SMART GROWTH OR SMOG GROWTH ?
The new Official Plan for the City of Ottawa calls for Smart Growth to improve quality of life. The priorities are supposed to be pedestrians first, cyclists second, transit third and the single occupant vehicle last. The current city budget made big cuts to transit. It still has tens of millions of dollars proposed for road expansion projects. For years, the provincial ministry of transport has spent 10 times as much on roads as on transit in eastern Ontario.
The Alta Vista Transportation Corridor Environmental Assessment is an opportunity to start on the path to Smart Growth. We do not need another 100 million dollar road project. We need healthier choices (walking, cycling and transit) first!
Where are we now with the Alta Vista Corridor?
City staff and Delcan are collecting public input on their preferred alternative: a four-lane roadway (two High Occupancy Vehicle lanes and two regular lanes) in the Alta Vista Corridor, which would extend Conroy Road north all the way to the Queensway. On May 19th they plan to present their preferred alternative to the Public Works, Transit and Infrastructure Committee of the City of Ottawa. If approved the remainder of the Environmental Assessment will only look at how to design the 4-lane road and all other options will no longer be considered.Why are we concerned?
The alternative of a four-lane roadway will be detrimental to the surrounding communities. It will bring more traffic, more air and noise pollution. A roadway in the corridor will compromise better uses which could be made of the greenspace such as recreational facilities, cycling routes and rapid transit. Rapid transit means dedicated transit lanes or light rail. Buses that share roadways with cars are not rapid because they get stuck in traffic.Furthermore, this Environmental Assessment is incomplete and biased in favour of a road. It was supposed to consider all alternatives including a transit-only option. Not only was the transit-only option removed but it did not evaluate the impact of a roadway properly (see details about what is missing in the consultant's assessment and preferred alternative).
What do we want?
Smart Growth principles need to be applied now. Transit-only solutions for the Hospital and southeast sector need to be in place before we invest more effort into any roadway recommendations. This Environmental Assessment must include the transit-only option in its comparisons. The true effect of a roadway (more traffic and more pollution) must be properly evaluated. If this Environmental Assessment cannot deliver on these wishes it should be shelved until after all transit projects have been completed.
E-mail, phone or write to the Mayor, to members of the Public Works, Transit and Infrastructure Committee and to your city councillor. The message to send them can be brief and along the lines of the following:
Dear ________,
I am unhappy with the consultant’s preferred alternative in the Alta Vista Transportation Corridor Environmental Assessment. I do not want a roadway in the corridor.
This city deserves Smart Growth. I want the transit-only alternative fully evaluated and the full impact of a roadway properly evaluated. I want transit-only solutions for the Hospital and Southeast sector in place before any roadway is contemplated. If this Environmental Assessment cannot deliver on these wishes I want it stopped.
What is your position and what will you do about it?
Sincerely,
_____________The contact information for our elected officials:
Mayor of the City of Ottawa:
Bob Chiarelli 580-2496 Bob.Chiarelli@ottawa.caPublic Works, Transit and Infrastructure Committee:
Chair: Janet Stavinga 580-2476 Janet.Stavinga@ottawa.ca
Vice-chair: Clive Doucet 580-2487 Clive.Doucet@ottawa.ca
Jacques Legendre 580-2483 Jacques.Legendre@ottawa.ca
Georges Bedard 580-2482 Georges.Bedard@ottawa.ca
Rainer Bloess 580-2472 Rainer.Bloess@ottawa.ca
Eli El-Chantiry 580-2475 Eli.El-Chantiry@ottawa.ca
Alex Cullen 580-2477 Alex.Cullen@ottawa.ca
Maria McRae 580-2486 Maria.Mcrae@ottawa.ca
Doug Thompsom 580-2490 Doug.Thompson@ottawa.caOther City Councillors in the areas affected by the Corridor:
Peter Hume 580-2488 Peter.Hume@ottawa.ca
Diane Deans 580-2480 Diane.Deans@ottawa.ca
Diane Holmes 580-2484 Diane.Holmes@ottawa.caAll of the above, have the same street address:
City of Ottawa, City Hall
110 Laurier Avenue West
Ottawa, Ontario, K1P 1J1
The current Assessment is incomplete!
This Environmental Assessment (EA) was supposed to consider and evaluate all alternatives for the Alta Vista Transportation Corridor (AVTC).
Omission #1: Deficiencies in the EA traffic forecasting minimizes the impact of a roadway.
This EA ignores induced traffic. Induced traffic is the number of additional trips taken when more road capacity is added. Previous studies that ignored induced traffic grossly underestimated congestion. Forecasts of traffic increases for Hunt Club ramps to the Airport Parkway were too low by over 50%, as documented in Airport Parkway Extended Traffic Impact Study in 1999. Traffic modeling suggests actual traffic with a roadway will be in the range of 600 to 1100 vehicles greater. Refusing to incorporate this into the evaluation creates a bias for roadway development.The failure to forecast traffic accurately also hides negative impacts such as increased pollution and green house gas emissions (see Omission #3: Health impacts are not adequately analyzed).
Omission #2: The EA report does not evaluate traffic flows into the city from the south in morning rush hour traffic.
The central design flaw of the roadway proposal is that there is higher capacity for traffic in the South and lower capacity at the Nicholas/417 interchange. Congestion and backup will occur. The EA report only uses P.M. traffic data. In the A.M., bottlenecking at the north end would occur, leading to more congestion, more air and noise pollution, back-up of traffic, and more cut-through traffic.To make this worse, this EA assumes that Conroy Road and Walkley Road will be widened while it does not assume changes to downtown road systems at the north end of the AVTC. Traffic modeling of the A.M. shows congestion to the point of failure on Riverside, Main and Alta Vista with a roadway in the corridor.
Omission #3: Health impacts are not adequately analyzed
Ottawa’s air pollution is mainly from exhaust emissions from vehicles. In 2004, poor air quality in greater Ottawa is estimated to result in 107 premature deaths, with an economic impact of $225M (OMA). In 2004, poor air quality in Ottawa is estimated to cause 149,000 asthma-symptom days with an associated cost of $64.5M (OMA).This EA has failed to account for the true impact of a roadway (see Omissions #1 and #2) and therefore, has underestimated the effects on pollution and health.
Omission #4: What happened to transit?
The transit-only option was removed as a distinct alternative and never evaluated in comparison with the other alternatives.City Council instructed the study to evaluate the transit-only solution as one of the options. Minutes of RMOC Council meeting of September 13th, 2000 direct consultants “...to ensure that when doing the Environmental Assessment, the Alta Vista Parkway be studied as a "bus/light rail only" route and as a "transit/vehicles" route”. Instead the consultant chose to evaluate whether transit should be an option for further study prior to the formal evaluation of alternatives. A separate report and study (done without public input) were used to remove the “bus/light rail only” option prior to the comparing all the alternatives.
There have been two very different perspectives on the value of a transit solution. The consultants have given much lower importance to transit in their evaluation of the alternatives, while the public advisory group gave very strong weighting to transit.
There are additional omissions in the evaluations process. The AVTC EA is supposed to help find solutions for traffic to the hospital but a dedicated transit link to the hospitals has not been evaluated.
Citizens for Healthy Communities’ Alternatives to a Four-Lane Roadway!
Increase Bus Frequency
Increased frequency of existing routes during peak hours would generate much greater ridership.
Build a Transit Link to the Hospital
Transit-only lanes to the hospital is a much lower cost solution than a 4-lane road from Smyth to the Queensway. A transit only solution is required to service one of Ottawa's largest employers.
Study the Transit Link from the Hospital to the East (via Innes/Blair/Cumberland)
The Rapid Transit Plan currently has indicated a route running east from the Hospital complex, but that is currently being contested by nearby residents. If this route is eliminated before an EA can be done, there may be no east link. This would leave the hospital poorly connected to the east end, which represents the largest population of hospital commuters (2001 Census).
Light rail should be evaluated further and could connect to Hurdman station. The Rapid Transit Plan assumes that buses are the best option for transit to the hospital. However, electric light rail is environmentally better for the hospital corridor and will be less intrusive for neighbouring communities.
Implement the O-Train Extension to Letrim
This project would serve to provide a real alternative to commuters south of the study area.
Transit Link South (in Alta Vista Corridor) to Conroy and to East-West Light Rail If Required
This is currently not in Rapid Transit Plan but may be needed if east link dropped. It would provide efficient connection from all transitways to Ottawa Business Park. It could complement the existing O-Train and Transitway.