Chapter 7 – Public Transit
Ottawa has achieved greater levels of transit ridership than other North American cities of its size, but must become even more transit-oriented. The City’s growth management strategy aims to increase transit’s peak hour share of motorized person-trips to 30%. This is almost twice today’s level, and compares well to many large European cities. Such an ambitious objective requires the City to improve the competitive position of transit, relative to the automobile. To make transit the preferred choice of even more residents, the City must make a deliberate series of improvements to the transit system as well as to its physical, social and economic context. To achieve a peak hour transit modal split of 30%, all measures identified in this chapter are required. Partial implementation will lead to inadequate transit ridership, greater air pollution and the need for more road infrastructure to prevent unacceptable congestion and road safety risks. The City’s transit strategy recognizes that substantial increases in ridership call for greater availability, reliability, speed and comfort of transit service. All of these will be achieved or enabled by expansion of Ottawa’s rapid transit system — the cornerstone of Ottawa’s transit strategy. This chapter discusses a number of key elements within the overall strategy:
7.1 Essential Supporting Measures A variety of measures are required to maximize transit’s competitiveness with automobile use, as described in the following paragraphs. Land use planning. Through the Province of Ontario’s Planning Act and its own Official Plan, the City has the authority to shape land use within its borders. It controls the land uses that are permissible in various areas, and can establish conditions on new developments including the extent, type and location of automobile parking. Section 4.1 of this plan summarizes many of the transit-supportive land use policies that are contained in the City’s Official Plan. Parking management. The availability and price of parking are major determinants of the attractiveness of transit in reaching a destination. Section 4.1 and Chapter 10 of this plan identify a number of measures through which the City can limit the challenge that abundant, free parking poses to achievement of transit ridership objectives. Examples of such measures include limiting parking supply in the vicinity of rapid transit stations, encouraging shared and/or structured parking to enable more compact development patterns, and pursuing the ability to impose levies on non-residential parking spaces. Transportation demand management. Chapter 4 identifies a framework for the City’s transportation demand management (TDM) program. There are a number of TDM efforts that can help increase transit ridership, including partnerships with various groups to raise public awareness of transit options, build positive attitudes towards them, and promote their use. Financial incentives. Transit faces several areas of competitive disadvantage related to the price of travel. Free parking (especially at workplaces) is the most significant, since it reduces the out-of-pocket costs for most automobile trips to below the cost of a transit fare; the considerable fixed costs of automobile ownership and operation do not influence individual trip-making decisions. The City currently has virtually no ability to influence the provision of free parking but will pursue the required authority, possibly through the power to impose a levy on non-residential parking spaces such as that being considered by the Quebec government. The City will also urge the federal government to enforce the taxability of employer-provided parking benefits, and to make employer-provided transit benefits tax-exempt. The City will also consider whether transit incentives such as a fare-free zone would help to achieve key objectives. Intermodal integration. Transit users rely on connections with other modes to make their trips as convenient and comfortable as possible. City initiatives to improve modal integration include linking transit to walking (via pathways and sidewalks), cycling (via bike parking at rapid transit stations, and provision for transit vehicles to carry bicycles), automobile use (via Park & Ride lots, passenger drop-off zones at rapid transit stations) and intercity carriers (via service to air, rail and bus terminals). Infrastructure priority setting. The City can improve the competitive balance between transit and automobile use by placing a higher priority on the provision of infrastructure that improves transit service, relative to infrastructure intended to improve service for automobile users. Importantly, this is not an issue of rapid transit lines versus roads — in fact, new road infrastructure can be favourable to transit, particularly when it provides priority to transit vehicles or otherwise improves the speed and reliability of transit operations. The phasing of new infrastructure can also influence the travel patterns of residents in new developments, and whatever infrastructure is needed to provide high-quality transit service to such areas should be a high priority. Chapter 14 describes the infrastructure priorities established by this plan. The City will:
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