I often find myself talking with friends and neighbours about simple, temporary solutions for the rather, ahem, uninspiring active transportation routes we frequently find in Orleans. Look, I get it. There are grand plans, often tucked away in some corner of the city of Ottawa website, to eventually build safe and accessible infrastructure. But “eventually” in city planning can feel like a geologic epoch – we’re talking years, sometimes even decades. And with endless suburban sprawl showing no signs of slowing, city finances are only going to get tighter. When it’s finally time to rebuild something, the mantra often becomes “how little can we spend to make it ok,” which usually means keeping the existing curbs and main aspects of the design intact.
Take the Highway 174 overpass at Orleans Boulevard, for example. This was a golden opportunity for a complete redesign during the LRT construction. A chance to create a more balanced road that actually served everyone – drivers, cyclists, pedestrians – not just those behind the wheel. But, alas, the city couldn’t get a more sensible design through the necessary bureaucratic hurdles before construction had to start. So, what are we left with? Exactly what we had before: a four-lane design that’s hilariously overbuilt for the actual traffic volume. And, after all the work the city and community put in lobbying, no structural accommodation for cycling or public transit, beyond a pair of signposts for the bus stop at the LRT station that will for now mostly serve as a good place to contemplate your life choices while waiting for a transfer (it’s a narrow sidewalk, folks).
Here’s where my frustration lies: For the better part of the last five years, during the ongoing LRT construction, two lanes of this overpass have been pretty much constantly, or at least intermittently, closed to car traffic. Think about that for a second. This has, in effect, been a two-lane road, and the only time traffic has become an issue even a little bit is when heavy machinery is active, and the “slow” and “stop” signs come out to guide vehicles around the construction. Otherwise, it just… works. Without the apocalyptic traffic jams some have definitely predicted.
Now that most of the heavy lifting (literally) for road and sidewalk construction is done, you’ll often see traffic pylons blocking off part of the bridge. This happens when construction vehicles are parked on the overpass to allow workers to more easily access the stations. And every time this happens, it’s not just a reminder that four lanes are utterly superfluous, but it also creates an impromptu, glorious bike lane! Cyclists (like yours truly, who frequents this stretch) can easily use this blocked-off lane to glide across the overpass, completely out of the way of car traffic. It’s like a little taste of urban planning heaven, a tiny, orange-coned paradise.
This, my friends, is why the City of Ottawa needs to be far more willing to “pilot” road network changes in a cheap, reversible way. We’re not asking for permanent, concrete barriers or polished urban planning perfection right off the bat. We’re asking for a little experimentation, a bit of daring. Waiting for those invasive, eye-wateringly expensive (and often elusive) “perfect” road designs to materialize only leads to endless frustration and roads that desperately need fixing being delayed for years. Let’s just try things, shall we? What’s the worst that could happen? A slightly less wide road? The horror!
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