NCC interprovincial transit plan MIA?

[blackjagger]

Originally Posted by Dado

At any rate, this is a little off-topic...

True, the report still is not up on their site. I would expect to see it after the Public Consultations on July 6th & 7th. Though sooner of course would be better.

[d_jeffrey]

Originally Posted by Uhuniau

Curiously, there's a huge market demand for old-style urban neighbourhoods, if home prices in the Glebe, Sandy Hill, New Edinburgh, the Golden Triangle, and Westboro are anything to go on... yet the developers aren't building them any more.

Blame the bylaws. Most bylaws encourage sprawl to no end.

[lrt's friend]

Originally Posted by Uhuniau

Curiously, there's a huge market demand for old-style urban neighbourhoods, if home prices in the Glebe, Sandy Hill, New Edinburgh, the Golden Triangle, and Westboro are anything to go on... yet the developers aren't building them any more.

The problem is that the success of those neighbourhoods is based on their location. They are close to downtown. A lot of these neighbourhoods were either within walking distance of downtown or were streetcar suburbs. It is difficult to recreate this where a car is an absolute necessity, just because of their distance from downtown.

I find it peculiar that these arguments are presented yet when we tried to develop a modern streetcar suburb, namely Riverside South, we soundly rejected the idea. If you want modern dense neighbourhoods to be developed, you need to provide quality transit as an alternative to using a car. This needs to be in place from near the beginning otherwise, massive boulevards are needed to handle the cars which in turn destroys any possibility of density.

I just cannot believe those here who say, why not develop new dense neighbourhoods, but then also say, we can't provide the transit alternative until after all the land is already fully developed. This is self defeating, creating impossible goals.

[jeremy_haak]

Incidentally, a lot of the new suburban developments are actually higher density then the old pre-war neighbourhoods we all idolize except in the cases where intensification is or has taken place, in which case, they are hardly comparable.

[Uhuniau]

Originally Posted by jeremy_haak

Incidentally, a lot of the new suburban developments are actually higher density then the old pre-war neighbourhoods we all idolize except in the cases where intensification is or has taken place, in which case, they are hardly comparable.

Higher residential density, in some cases, yes. But on piss-poor layouts, and with no admixture of tightly-bound non-residential uses. Any similarity to pre-war neighbourhoods is superficial.

[waterloowarrior]

open house display boards
http://www.interprovincial-transit-s...W8%3d&tabid=38

[Aylmer]

Awesome, but is there any chance this will lead to anything?

[Uhuniau]

Originally Posted by waterloowarrior

open house display boards
http://www.interprovincial-transit-s...W8%3d&tabid=38

I wonder why the NCC doesn't publish these things in advance of the open house events? Why the secrecy (other than force of habit?)

[Jamaican-Phoenix]

For some reason, it's giving me a prompt saying it's password protected.

[Aylmer]

Try this

[lrt's friend]

Interesting to look at the chart suggesting that all outcomes are negative unless direct transit service between Gatineau suburbs (Rapidbus corridor) and downtown Ottawa is maintained. This includes all options making use of the POW bridge that does not include direct service into downtown (without a transfer) and a downtown rail loop. This only makes sense in my opinion.

[Uhuniau]

Originally Posted by lrt's friend

Interesting to look at the chart suggesting that all outcomes are negative unless direct transit service between Gatineau suburbs (Rapidbus corridor) and downtown Ottawa is maintained. This includes all options making use of the POW bridge that does not include direct service into downtown (without a transfer) and a downtown rail loop. This only makes sense in my opinion.

It makes me question their input assumptions.

[Dado]

I love how they come to the realization that LRT all the way out to Lorrain in Gatineau is the best long term solution.

Well, duh.

It's kind of too bad that someone didn't figure this out before starting to build Rapibus. Oh, wait, plenty of groups on both sides of the river figured that out. They just weren't listened to until it was too late. So instead, we take a rail corridor, convert it to BRT (including moving the track to one side), and then we'll plan to convert it to LRT. Wouldn't just adding a track or two to an existing rail corridor be a lot simpler?

At least it's not like the same consultants were involved in recommending Rapibus who are now recommending LRT to Lorrain in the long term.

Oh, wait.

[Uhuniau]

Originally Posted by Dado

At least it's not like the same consultants were involved in recommending Rapibus who are now recommending LRT to Lorrain in the long term.

Oh, wait.

The consultant's creed: If you can't be part of the solution, there's plenty of money to be made in perpetuating the problem.

[Jamaican-Phoenix]

Originally Posted by Aylmer

Try this

Nope. Still asks for a password.

[Kitchissippi]

Why is it that they can make blind statements like:
"The Macdonald-Cartier bridge is not appropriate (for transit) because it provides an important auto link and is too far from the Gatineau Core Area."

So LRT were to run on Alexandra Bridge an auto link will not being lost? If transit was being planned for success, wouldn't it be great to move more people across the Macdonald Cartier bridge with less vehicles? Reducing auto traffic by converting it from a freeway-type bridge to an urban bridge would do wonders to improve the liveability of Lowertown and the Byward Market.

Also, under the "User Focus" section, I find it ludicrous that a common fare and smart card system are considered to be in the mid- and long-term horizon. C'mon, folks, people in Europe and Asia are paying for tickets wirelessly via their cell phones, and here in what was once touted as "Silicon Valley North", 20 year old smart card technology is still years away?

[Uhuniau]

Originally Posted by Kitchissippi

Also, under the "User Focus" section, I find it ludicrous that a common fare and smart card system are considered to be in the mid- and long-term horizon. C'mon, folks, people in Europe and Asia are paying for tickets wirelessly via their cell phones, and here in what was once touted as "Silicon Valley North", 20 year old smart card technology is still years away?

And at the same time, transit on the imaginary east-end bridge is a "short- to medium-term" project.

Must be great to live in the NCC consultant's universe where the sky is green and the wooly mammoths have their daily parade each morning at 10:30.

[jeremy_haak]

To the NCC's credit, I didn't notice anything about planters along streets or seasonal festival banners on rapid transit vehicles. It's just a little bit strange to see a report from them which isn't entirely preoccupied with aesthetics.

[Ottawan]

Just got this friendly email from the interprovincial transit study:

Please note that the Report for Phase IV of the Consultation Program is now available on the project website at www.interprovincial-transit-strategy.ca.
During Phase IV, consultation activities were broadened to include members of the public, who were encouraged to provide their input and help validate a number of interprovincial transit solutions that were explored at Phase III. Opportunities during this phase of consultation to provide comment included two public events and an online exercise.
The study conclusions and recommendations regarding the Strategy will be made public in late 2010 or early 2011.
Thank you for your continued interest in this Strategy.
-The Interprovincial Transit Strategy Project Team

I'm off to read the new report. Expect commentary thereafter.

[Ottawan]

Not too much to say about it. It definitely looks like we'll be seeing first and foremost a recommendation for a LRT transit loop coming out of this study. I look forward to the final (recommendations) report being released.