Tom Tom Study ranks Ottawa as 3rd worst traffic in Canada

[phil235]

Originally Posted by 1overcosc

No this study just proves that the difference between peak-period and non-peak-period congestion is big. Not that traffic itself is bad. See my critique above.

Ottawa is congested at rush hours, but this city is congestion free outside of those hours. Having been around Toronto and Montreal which have congestion at all hours, it's quite amazing to know that you'll almost never be held up in traffic if its not rush hour.

As for the 75% comment... judging by the fact that about half of all people who work downtown get there by transit (in Toronto, it's 75%!), whatever the hard cap for transit usage is (ie. excluding those who are absolutely stubbornly opposed to not driving at all costs), it's a lot higher than 25%.

I'd also note that there are lots of cities in the ranking that aren't over 3 million people. Just looking at the cities around Ottawa, Cologne and Vienna are both Ottawa-sized.

This is certainly not conclusive evidence that Ottawa has bad traffic for a city of its size.

[DubberDom]

Originally Posted by 1overcosc

As for the 75% comment... judging by the fact that about half of all people who work downtown get there by transit (in Toronto, it's 75%!), whatever the hard cap for transit usage is (ie. excluding those who are absolutely stubbornly opposed to not driving at all costs), it's a lot higher than 25%.

StatCan:
http://www12.statcan.gc.ca/nhs-enm/2...1003_1-eng.cfm

Just over 20% use public transit to get to work, most people do not work downtown, and in Ottawa's case, with DND moving 8500 people to Carling Campus, Ottawa's numbers will likely fall. Also note that Ottawa has an "artificial" economy and labour market where we can create huge complexes, the more non-government growth we see, more jobs are moving away from downtown.
I don't work for Government and I would seriously consider not taking a job in Downtown

[1overcosc]

Originally Posted by DubberDom

StatCan:
http://www12.statcan.gc.ca/nhs-enm/2...1003_1-eng.cfm

Just over 20% use public transit to get to work, most people do not work downtown, and in Ottawa's case, with DND moving 8500 people to Carling Campus, Ottawa's numbers will likely fall. Also note that Ottawa has an "artificial" economy and labour market where we can create huge complexes, the more non-government growth we see, more jobs are moving away from downtown.
I don't work for Government and I would seriously consider not taking a job in Downtown

But that's my point. 20% of the whole city uses transit to get to work, but that's >50% for downtown commuters. This means that the reason why transit is at 20% isn't because people refuse to take buses, it's because fewer people work downtown. You said that transit ridership couldn't go beyond 25% cause the remaining 3/4 refuse to ever take the bus. But in a hypothetical world in which every single job was downtown, the city would have 50% transit ridership citywide. Meaning that the statement "3/4 refuse to ever take the bus" is incorrect. Rather, it's 3/4 have commutes that they choose to do by car. Big difference. The latter means you can get people onto transit by nudging them (with parking fees/worse congestion/better buses, etc.), the former means you can't.

Also I'm not sure you're right when you say that downtown employment will decline. It's not just government that's downtown. Many white collar private sector jobs across North America are being increasingly driven downtown. North American IT, for example, is in the middle of a significant refocus away from suburban lab campuses and towards downtown office space. This trend is starting to happen here too, with companies like Shopify deliberately choosing to set up shop in the core. Downtown employment will remain steady at worst.

[1overcosc]

Like many others on here, I am against anything that makes it easier and cheaper for people to drive cars. If people want to drive, they should have to suffer for it.

[Acajack]

I believe that the transit share for downtown workers in Ottawa is actually around 70%.

[flar]

Ottawa has bad traffic, it's frustrating to move around the city. OCTranspo is a good rush-hour commuter system depending where you live, but it's terrible for anything else. Ultimately, the greenbelt screwed the city up, causing it to sprawl all over the place and make transit trips prohibitively long. Parking is already scarce and expensive downtown, but it's not enough to deter people from using cars in non-peak times. The rest of the city is so auto-dependent, it's almost a lost cause.

[1overcosc]

Originally Posted by Acajack

I believe that the transit share for downtown workers in Ottawa is actually around 70%.

That high? That would be quite something... Toronto is 75%. Anyone have exact numbers?

[daud]

Originally Posted by phil235

I'd also note that there are lots of cities in the ranking that aren't over 3 million people. Just looking at the cities around Ottawa, Cologne and Vienna are both Ottawa-sized.

This is certainly not conclusive evidence that Ottawa has bad traffic for a city of its size.

Exhibit A: Hunt Club-Riverside
Exhibit B: Rideau-King Edward
Exhibit C: Walkley-Hawthorne
Exhibit D: St Laurent Blvd
Exhibit E: Merivale

And pretty much everything else. It's bad, not the worst but not good by any measure.

[flar]

No hard numbers, and I'm in Hull rather than downtown Ottawa, but hardly any of my co-workers drive.

[Aylmer]

Congestion is like ageing: it's better than the alternative!

If little congestion were an indication of a well-functionning city, Detroit would top the list.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by 1overcosc

That high? That would be quite something... Toronto is 75%. Anyone have exact numbers?

The 70% for downtown Ottawa has been thrown around for years.

Unfortunately the only reference I found is a transit study for the region of Waterloo, which talks about Ottawa's success and gives this as an example.