Having lived in Centertown and Old Ottawa South for the better part of a decade, I’ve spent more than my fair share of time on a bus stuck in traffic on Bank Street. I’ve been late to meet friends downtown, and I’ve missed more transfers at Billings Bridge than I can count. I’ve given up and gotten off the bus – joining the overflowing crowds on the sidewalks – trying to get to a weekend event at Lansdowne. You might be reading this while stuck in a bus on Bank Street. It doesn’t have to be this way, but recent redesign proposals fall short.
A long overdue city feasibility study is exploring ways to redesign Bank between the Queensway and the Canal bridge. Any changes that result from it will have implications for transit along the street as a whole and indeed could set a precedent for future changes to other sections of Bank Street.
The current design of Bank Street – generally four lanes with the two outside lanes devoted to parking except during rush hour – uses the street as a thoroughfare taking people to and from the downtown core in private cars. But Bank Street is also a designated transit corridor with three major OC Transpo routes (the 6, 7 and 11) that are heavily used by residents of Centretown.
OC Transpo data shows that the 6 and 7 buses are late 40% of the time, and much of the street freezes before games or other large events at Lansdowne. This lack of reliability is made worse by the fact that few bus stops provide shelters or benches.
Additionally, Bank Street serves as a community space where residents go to shop, meet up with friends, or have a drink. Unfortunately, being a pedestrian on Bank Street is about as pleasant as waiting for a bus on it. The sidewalks are too narrow to stop and talk, let alone for patios, and bike lanes are few and far between.
The redesign of Bank Street must make other forms of transportation – public transit, walking and cycling – more appealing. This will require making choices as these forms of transportation can’t be improved without reducing the space currently given to cars. The key to making public transit more appealing is to create dedicated bus lanes operating 7 days a week. This can cut trip times by 50 percent during rush hour and by 15 to 20 percent otherwise, according to a 2021 study by the National Association of City Transportation Officials.
Research from NACTO has also shown that dedicated bus lanes are also good for local businesses; they can bring five times more people to an area per hour than cars can. Surveys of Montreal and Philadelphia found retail did better on streets without parking. Cars may take up a lot of space but they don’t carry that many people, leading small-business owners to vastly overestimate how many patrons actually drive.
Studies from Toronto, Los Angeles, and Berlin show most shoppers live locally and walk, 20 to 30 percent take transit, and less than ten percent drive. Admittedly, these places have higher density than Ottawa — but that really says it all. We don’t need parking to have vibrant communities; city planning has simply failed to deliver it by any other means. In any case, there is lots of parking on the side streets off Bank Street, according to city figures Bank Street provides only 7% of parking in the Glebe.
At an open house in early June, the city presented three milquetoast redesign options that largely preserve street parking over providing a better experience for people. The first option offered tiny bike lanes with a parking lane and two car lanes with no transit priority. Another option included four car lanes, with two being used for transit priority during rush hour. The final option offered one parking lane and three car lanes with one being used for transit priority during rush hour. City staff would not explain how transit priority on these lanes would be enforced. Overall, the options being presented are at best a very minor improvement, and at worst they provide more lanes for cars which will worsen the pedestrian and cyclist experience.
Other modest changes to the transit system could reduce the dependence on cars. Small “local” buses could make it easier for residents to shop in the area. Developing programs such as “Park and Rides” in the Bank-Hunt Club area would make taking the bus into the centre of the city or to Lansdowne more appealing. Eliminating parking on Bank Street won’t eliminate the need to make choices. It still won’t be possible to have wider sidewalks, patios, bike lanes and bus lanes. Except where it comes to bridges crossing the river or canal, bike lanes can be located on side streets and those parallel to Bank.
This study is a real opportunity to improve Bank Street, and the city should take advantage and push for better. They should expand the scope of the study to cover Bank Street from Wellington to Billings Bridge. They should also explore more radical options to give Ottawans a chance to envision what is possible on such an important street.
Originally published in the Centretown Buzz by FTO member Missy Thomas