I want this for us

This is why we need bus lands on Bank Street. We don’t need extensive consultations or debates or both side-ism to find a “balance;” we need bold action, bold leadership to design public space in the public interest and just do it. @strongtownsottawa.ca

An adult driver angry at a child they hit with their car. Our car culture summed up in one video.

People sometimes think Bank Street needs bus lanes only during "peak" hours. The data shows otherwise : the largest delays are during the hours outside of "peak", when buses weave in and out of parking lanes. Our city deserves reliable service all day, for all kinds of trips, with 24/7 bus lanes.

Ottcity did the Spiderman meme with an attempt at a pedestrian detour!

You know, when you really think about it, does all that driving and car dependency really make sense? @adamconover.net weighed in.

As always, there's a @tomflood.bsky.social (/ @thebikinglawyer.bsky.social) graphic to explain. A route is only as strong as its weakest (or missing) link. The survey is open until Sept 29. Take a look & share your feedback too: engage.ottawa.ca/gladstone-an...

Banning right turn on red led to a 97% drop in vehicle conflicts in pilot. 97%! Ottawa can do pilots too. 💪 @arieltroster.com

Trying to come up with an equivalent to this speed camera story but for transit riders. Imagine if, in wake of hypothetical reports of people getting mad about fines and vandalizing Presto readers, the gov was just like, well, I guess we should stop fare enforcement. www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

spotted in Halifax

The thing about investing in public transit is that it *scales* — the more people use it, the better it gets. For everyone. Whereas the more cars there are, the *worse* everything about driving gets. Traffic. Parking. [Ever noticed that in just about every car ad it’s alone on the road? Yeah.]

“Protection”

I'm a bit of a nervous flyer, and people LOVE to tell me that "you're more likely to die in a car crash on your way to the airport than to die in a plane crash!" And it's like okay, thanks, I am nervous in cars too. Society's normalization of car violence is not as reassuring as you think it is.

Is this how we get more car-brained Americans to support rapid funding and building of rail infrastructure for local, regional, and interstate purposes? It can't hurt.

Because the average car only has about 1.5 people in it, the number of people in each lane of this photo can fit in a single TTC streetcar.

This is a great example to keep handy for when people say “we don’t need a bike lane on this street, there’s already one a few blocks away”. (And funny how they seldom apply the same argument for cars.)

Nothing is certain except death, taxes, and highway engineers surprised by induced demand

I know we're in the sixth circle of transit death-spiral hell here and we've said this over and over but: FUND PUBLIC TRANSIT SO IT'S EFFICIENT, RELIABLE, AND AFFORDABLE AND PEOPLE WILL TAKE IT. ottawacitizen.com/news/ridersh...

I don’t need a self driving car. I need a vehicle that runs between major areas and can transport large numbers of people at once to reduce environmental impact…wait it’s a train. I’m describing trains. Build more goddamned TRAINS, America.

"Respecting all taxpayers means investing in the services that make life sustainable and livable: reliable transit, affordable housing and resilient infrastructure. These are not luxuries. They are the foundation of a city that works."

In the US, you're not even safe from cars while exercising indoors.

Car-dependent suburban sprawl is the most publicly expensive, publicly subsidized, and publicly consequential form of human habitation in human history. #SuburbanSprawl #CarDependency

How about a tour of the city by taking the top 10 bus routes?

In today’s Ottawa Citizen, Catherine McKenney and I explain how the Ford government’s forced closure of the supervised consumption site in Chinatown has led to an absolute crisis. ottawacitizen.com/opinion/mcke...

Honestly @mayormarksutcliffe.bsky.social , this overspending on police would be laughable if we could afford it. Our infrastructure is crumbling, our transit is crumbling, our faith in our municipal government is crumbling. This is not the way Ottawa should be going.

Cars create dead space in cities. Brussels is learning it’s better to fill that space with life.

Remember, whenever you hear that “speed wasn’t a factor” in a deadly crash, what they mean is that the car involved wasn’t technically speeding. At least “not by much.” It presumes that the speed limit wasn’t too high to begin with. When it comes to death from collisions, SPEED IS ALWAYS a factor.

When the Ford government announced that it was forcing the Somerset West Community Health Centre to close its supervised consumption site, they quoted unsourced stats about local crime rates. They lied. Crime actually went down significantly when the CTS was open.

“They cut speed limits, changed street design, removed space for cars… Now it appears that work is paying off. #Oslo & #Helsinki are reaping the rewards of committed action on making their roads safer, reducing pedestrian fatalities to zero last year.” #VisionZero #SpeedKills

“It’s every light & every corner & every time a car almost turns into you — it’s really scary & it’s just time to consider something a little bit radical to save people from getting hurt … It shouldn’t take another fatality to motivate change.” It’s not radical at all. It’s actually common sense.

“Just leave the roads as they are!” says angry motorists driving on roads that weren’t left as they were when they were pleasant places to be on, enjoyed by people on foot, bicycle and horse, before the car was even dreamt of.

How many ppl in Ottawa have been dedicated lifetime transit users, and have seen, in a decade/15y, the quality of service decline while the price skyrockets. How many have planned an exit from regular use of public transit because they can afford to do so? Leaving those who have no other option. 1/

Important to remember that public transit provides freedom to people. Let's support people being able to get around in their communities. www.insideottawavalley.com/news/not-hav...

In late 2023, Amsterdam introduced a 30 km/h limit. A large number of arterials were lowered from 50 km/h, 4,500 signs installed, 140 lights reconfigured, and 200 km of markings adjusted. Aiming to improve safety, liveability and accessibility, 80% of the road network is now at this critical speed.🧵

Folks need to walk the fuck up to the reality that cities and provinces are explicitly making this happen more often. If the cultural foundation of your urban area is premised on “travel times for people driving” then these deaths are not an aberration but just built into the norm #cdnpoli

OC Transpo: “let’s do the opposite of that”

People will be like "I would do anything for my kids!!!" right up until you suggest dropping the speed limit to 20mph.

Raleigh increased bus service from every 30 min to every 15 min on its route serving Glenwood Ave. Ridership then doubled in the year that followed. Over last year, city’s high-frequency routes have had 89% ridership growth. People will ride when you give them service that they can rely on!

“Air pollution fell substantially as Paris restricted car traffic and made way for parks, people-streets and bike-lanes.” Better for the climate, better for health, better for livability & quality of life. Common sense. Such a no-brainer, it’s remarkable that more cities HAVEN’T done the same.

This iconic Fabian Todorovic cartoon is still one of the best I’ve seen at illustrating the remarkable amount of space we surrender to cars, leaving little space left for everyone and everything else. The text added later makes the bonus point that many drivers still manage to complain about it.

This move only saves the average residential taxpayer 84¢/month on their property taxes. $10/year. Meanwhile, the families affected by this will be paying an additional $372/year, per kid, on top of the $1248/year they're already paying. I bet many will just not buy passes and drive istead.

Riding transit teaches independence & so many important skills for kids and teens. What a sad decision.

If #OttCity invest in year round cycling infra (and related) instead of the hundreds of millions we spend on roads we’d save money. Worried about your taxes? Start thinking about where it all goes and how we could do better, deliver better, live better.

Horrible decision. Will result in less ridership, lower revenues, more driving and worse vehicle congestion (with all the corresponding costs and consequences). Either they don’t understand that, or they’re ok with all that.

Ottawa's climate targets rely on 20-30% of all trips in the city to be taken on OC Transpo. Currently it's 8.5%. How do they plan to get there? I'd recommend nurturing young riders - something I spoke about at transit commission today and wrote about here: www.envirocentre.ca/the-future-o...

Today’s the day! The new mobile-friendly Ottawa bike maps are ready. Plot the safest bike routes on your phone. We’re a proud sponsor of the Cycling Guide app w/ @thebikinglawyer.bsky.social. Your donations helped us get to the finish line. Thank you! Download it for free now bikeottawa.ca/blog/

June 27 - cyclist, Byward Market July 8 - cyclist, Kanata July 8 - pedestrian, Elgin/Laurier July 23 - cyclist, Stittsville July 23 - 2 children riding bikes, Stittsville & Barrhaven July 26 - cyclist, Manotick July 26 - 2 e-scooter riders, Lowertown July 30 - cyclist, Lisgar/Elgin

Parking mandates aren't the only reason why your city has so much asphalt. Check out the hidden reason why so many businesses build way more parking than they need.

Could we also get no rights or lefts when the light is green? Cars should have their own lights separate from when pedestrians, cyclists and oncoming cars are trying to use the same space. Germany has had it for over 40 years and it is much safer for everyone.

“Every act of road violence is a policy failure, but, with proper road design and proper regulation and policy, an accident or a mistake doesn’t have to become fatal” - @arieltroster.com