Peace and Environment News* September 1994
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Peace and Environment News * September 1994 |
by Robert Smythe
Ottawa City Council and Regional Council have finally approved the Central Area Transportation Strategy (CATS): the document that dares to suggest reducing the number of cars entering the downtown, and that wants to make Ottawa's Central Area more pedestrian, bicycle and public-transit friendly.
Planners have questioned the priority now given to private cars and commuter parking, and the environmental impacts of a downtown under asphalt. Their recommendations include bike lanes and parking facilities dedicated to Ottawa's growing number of cycling commuters, more frequent and convenient transit access to the core, and the redesign of narrow, featureless and pedestrian-hostile sidewalks.
The CATS Report represents the first "Common Vision" for managing transportation in the Central Area to be jointly designed and endorsed by all of the following: the City of Ottawa; the Regional Municipality of Ottawa-Carleton; the National Capital Commission; the Regional Government of the Outaouais; the Transportation Ministries of both Ontario and Quebec; the Outaouais Transit Commission; and OC Transpo.
This long list of bureaucracies and governments demonstrates why it has been difficult to achieve even a modest consensus on how to state the problem: that pedestrians, cyclists, and transit riders in downtown Ottawa are given harsh treatment. The urban design disaster that has been created by this neglect has left a downtown that is (with minor exceptions) bleak, treeless, congested with cars during business hours, and desolate once office workers have fled back to the suburbs.
What is needed? The CATS strategy establishes a long-term vision for a downtown with streets that are traffic-calmed, emission-free, and landscaped into long linear urban parks. The vision remains a fantasy without the inclusion of firm targets for car-use reduction and an action plan for implementation. Here the strategy is weak. The only short-term actions will be more planning studies to work out the details.
Business response
The Ottawa-Carleton Board of Trade, representing downtown business areas, have mounted strong opposition to any limits to car access to the downtown. The Board's Downtown Business Network vigorously opposes reclaiming any part of the cars' portion of roadways for widening sidewalks, and states that pedestrians probably like narrow sidewalks located beside heavily trafficked streets. Concerns about the hazards of vehicular emissions have been dismissed as "unfounded," although the Board's brief to Ottawa's Planning Committee was presented during a week of air-quality alerts and high levels of ground-level ozone.
And yet, car drivers account for a minority of downtown commuters, shoppers, and visitors. Seventy-five percent of people in the downtown core come by bus, bicycle or on foot. Why cater to only 25 percent of downtown visitors?
Previous proposals
CATS is old news. Ten years ago a Report entitled "Pedestrians Downtown," prepared for the City of Ottawa and the National Capital Commission by duToit Allsopp Hillier, found that:
"The pedestrian in Ottawa's Central Area is not well served. Many sidewalks are extraordinarily narrow by the standards of other cities. In the competition for space between people in vehicles and people on foot, the pedestrian's case is not as clearly understood, nor are the needs as systematically met as are those of the drivers."
That Report was presented to City Council in 1985. Since then the situation has worsened, with more lanes for vehicles at intersections, reductions of sidewalk widths, wider turning lanes, and more dangerous vehicle/pedestrian conflicts at loading zones, lay-by's, and parking garage exit ramps.
Standards for sidewalks
Do pedestrians enjoy narrow sidewalks? Is being forced into the vehicular portion of the roadway an authentic part of a vibrant downtown experience? For practical purposes a five foot sidewalk is considered to be a minimum width. Many sidewalks within the Central Area are actually below this standard. Additional obstructions such as road signs, utility poles, and sandwich boards often reduce the sidewalk width to less than three feet—barely sufficient to permit two pedestrians to pass one another.
The manual "Designing the Successful Downtown" by the Urban Land Institute recommends that: "A minimum sidewalk width of fifteen feet is desirable along the pedestrian spine and primary connectors. One fifteen foot zone provides for both a ten foot pedestrian zone adjacent to storefronts to accommodate both window shopping and through movement and a five foot amenity zone [newspaper boxes, bike racks, etc.] adjacent to the curb. A twenty-foot wide sidewalk will allow seating to be incorporated into the streetscape without encroaching on the pedestrian zone. Transit streets require broader sidewalks to accommodate queuing areas and shelters at the curb."
Congested sidewalks
Pedestrian traffic counts taken over the one hour midday peak at the corner of Metcalfe and Queen (before the construction of the World Exchange Plaza) show in excess of 3680 pedestrians in a one-hour period. When the pedestrian volumes are calculated with sidewalk capacity using the American Transportation Board's Pedestrian Time-Space Concept for Analyzing Corners and Crosswalks, the corner falls below Level of Service C, a level at which normal walking speeds are restricted and reduced, with frequent stoppages causing momentary stoppages in flow. When transportation engineers are presented with failing levels of services for roadways, they invariably call for road widening. In the green transportation hierarchy, which puts walking, cycling, and transit—in that order—ahead of cars, this same principle must be applied to pedestrian traffic on sidewalks.
As for the Ottawa Board of Trade's assertion that congested sidewalks contribute to economic vitality, as in the Byward Market perhaps, the Urbanics Market Analysis of businesses located in the Market refers to current levels of congestion on crowded sidewalks as a deterrent to regular customers of many businesses.
Of the 305 resident and business respondents to the March 1994 Centretown Traffic Calming Survey as analyzed by Catalyst Research and Communications, the key issues identified were, in descending order: traffic noise and air pollution, speeding traffic, unsafe pedestrian street crossings, intersection safety, and ability to walk safely on sidewalks. Of the twelve issues listed, the top six related to pedestrian concerns. Of the business respondents, noise and air pollution from traffic, enforcement of traffic regulations, intersection safety, and sidewalk safety ranked first.
Other examples
It is enlightening to look at what several North American experts have cited as the most important elements in creating a successful downtown. John Fondersmith, Chief of the Downtown Section, District of Columbia, says: "A successful downtown requires successful transportation both in terms of bringing people to downtown and in providing internal movement." [Public transit is the most efficient way of bringing people downtown.] "People on foot comprise by far the predominant movement system within a central area."
Seattle is considered to have one of North America's most vital downtowns. Richard Yukubousky, the city's Director of Long Range Planning, puts the following criterion at the top of its ranking for assessing all new downtown projects: "The project must establish a high quality pedestrian street environment...this includes street furniture, landscaping, weather protection, well proportioned and well defined street space for pedestrians." He adds: "The project must minimize impacts on traffic congestion by accommodating growth in peak hour travel primarily by transit or other high occupancy vehicle modes."
Survey results
And a next-to-last word from the primary stakeholder in the Central Area—the office workers, shoppers, and visitors who support the downtown's economic base: the "Survey of Public Open Space Users in Ottawa's Downtown" prepared in June 1990 for the City of Ottawa by J.M. Sabourin, Ph.D., found that most users of public open space are people who work in the downtown area. Seventy-eight percent of respondents worked within a one-block radius of the survey sites, and 53 percent reported using the sites regularly. The survey reveals that people strongly endorse the need for open spaces in Ottawa's downtown area. An overwhelming 97 percent felt that open spaces contributed to their appreciation of the outdoors in the downtown area.
When asked about the design of future open spaces, interviewees supported the idea of more pedestrian open space in the downtown. About 50 percent emphasized the need to provide comfortable seating. Natural features such as grass, trees and flowers were also high on the list. This is not possible on the under-five-foot sidewalks that abut a busy Regional roadway.
The next step
The Central Area Transportation Strategy is supported by the City of Ottawa and Regional Municipality Official Plans, already approved by both City and Regional Councils. Its green directive for the Central Area was developed after lengthy consultation over a number of years. This included the private development sector, the Building Owners and Managers Association, the retail communities, other levels of government and transportation specialists, and area communities. The sustainable approach to building and managing a successful downtown transportation network reflects the positions of the Government of Canada, the Province of Ontario, transportation industry lobby groups, and numerous international agencies and commissions with access to data that proves the negative impact of unrestricted growth in private car use.
Ottawalk, a local pedestrian advocacy group, believes that the pedestrian-related recommendations in the CATS are, if anything, too timid and lack a real timetable for commitment to action. The group nonetheless is encouraged by the Strategy's call for a better pedestrian environment, and urges all municipal governments to finish the policy debate and begin the implementation of this long-overdue initiative.
Robert Smythe is the President of Ottawalk, an advocacy organization to promote pedestrian safety, mobility and infrastructure established in 1988.
Converted December 3, 2000 - Lg
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