It was a dark and stormy night…at least it was last Friday night. I am writing this piece as I am a firm believe that not reinventing the wheel or ignoring an idea just because of who it may be publically attributable to is foolish. What I would like to do is to discuss some points related to the current municipal campaign, those being the “Ring Road” and the ‘glimmer in my eye’ community which I will refer to as Bickerville, because that’s what discussion about it will cause.
I like the idea of a ring road if it is just that, a road designed to assist the flow of traffic around the city and not the commuter’s new best friend. First, let’s point out that this would be a Provincial Highway and as such would/should be primarily funded by the Province. An item like this, if supported by the city might be an interesting item for a Provincial Party to champion, if for example, an election was happening in November 2011.
I have seen first hand what a bypass road can do if implemented correctly. My dad is from Sudbury and the highway configuration there is almost identical to Ottawa. In both cases, Highway [4]17 ran through the heart of the city and Highways 416 and 69 ran south from the city. Woe be the unfortunate transport driver or traveler who attempted to get through the city of Sudbury during the rush hours (because of the amount of shift work, there were 3 every day). What the province did was to create a new bypass and reassign it as Highway 17. It has 1 T intersection with lights at its easternmost point, one light which is being replaced with a cloverleaf and provides a more efficient access to the south of the city and 2 other cloverleaf interchanges, one for Highway 69 and one for the western termination. Now, regardless of when you are in the area, traffic is extremely more efficient and the only transports in town are going in town. Movement both around the perimeter of the city, and through the downtown core is much easier and faster.
What is needed is for some initial front end work to be done. Should the bypass run along an existing road or should it be, pardon the pun, a green field build? It would need a minimum of 3 interchanges. How many more, where, and why would be needed? Would/should it be a toll road like the 407 in Toronto? Are variable message signs needed, where and why? Start lobbying the provincial parties and local candidates now! I also propose that the road be named the Wilbert Keon Parkway.
Should the ‘ring road’ provide easy access to the community of Bickerville, a categorical No! The concept of this new are is to accommodate anticipated growth in the city, but also to avoid burden on existing infrastructure. What would I like to see investigated on this concept, a number of things. Lets look at three key issues in the campaign, Transit, Trash and Taxes.
As a ‘planned community’, Transit MUST be factored in at day 1. For example, one or more LRT stations would be required with the first to be in place and operational prior to the first occupant moving in. Roads would be laid out facilitating a hub and spoke residential bus system, Kiss and Ride as well as Park and Ride stations would be provided. All roads would have bike lanes and bicycle paths would also be required. Linkage to existing streets/ roads and ensuring their growth potential would be required. That’s a good starting point for discussion on transit.
If this is going to be a new community, lets ensure it has state of the art Waste to Energy conversion ability. Written into the documentation for the community would be the mandatory requirement for it to handle all of its waste, both sewage and garbage with its boundary. If we assume a hugely optimistic lead time of say 5 years it would be possible for the urban conceptual designers to allocate space for these types of facilities using current industry norms, As an example, the Plasco system does have a basic size envelope. The created energy could be used to power the LRT. Again a start point for discussion.
Taxes would of course be an issue. What would be needed is a build to anticipated tax revenue stream model. Yes, there is a development fee charged by the city but as has been well documented; it doesn’t go far enough to cover all costs. One solution is to examine the viability of front end loading the revenue stream by having the early arrivers pay more for the privilege. For the moment, lets presuppose that adjacent to the LRT station, and shielded from the environment is access to one or two mixed use residential/commercial high rises, a shopping mall with restaurants, grocery store and entertainment. We now get a symbiosis where it becomes a place to live, work and play, and guess what, a car isn’t needed. I haven’t done the business case, I am throwing out ideas for thought!
As a new build community, it would allow the City to specify things such as the provision of accessible social housing. I firmly believe the city has to provide social housing, what I don’t believe is that it has to be in areas where the per square foot cost is the highest, ie downtown. Also, lets make sure that some of the less obvious but important items are addressed. Lets make sure tht early on in the site selection process, factors such as a high rise directly on the approach path to Runway 07 doesn’t slip past.
In summary, I won’t support Bickerville yet as right now, it hasn’t had enough of a look. On the other hand, the current council seems unable to look at out of the box ideas and will disregard them. For those who would like an example of this, at my last all candidates meeting the incumbent, Mr. El-Chantiry took me to task over my suggestion of the city INVESTIGATING the implementation of a Congestion Charge for vehicles in the downtown core when LRT became operational. His comment, as reported in the media was: ”charging a toll for driving downtown isn’t possible. “Everyone has the right to drive their car,”
It works just fine in Singapore and London and Sydney is considering it. Plagiarism anyone?
