The city sends mixed messages about the values that inform the design of transportation projects. For each project design, city staff should rank the priority of: * Project cost * Vehicle speed (travel time) * Volume (how many people it moves) * Safety

Needed infrastructure work is being deferred because of your low tax increases, with the backlog growing every year. There's a $2.6-billion backlog just in road resurfacing. At some point we will need to pay for it, and that ENORMOUS tax increase will be YOUR fault, not a future mayor's.

And let's not forget about all the car vs. car collisions that happen because of right turn on red. I've personally seen 6 collisions at Bronson and Catherine in just the past few years, but not a single one since they added a no right on red sign. It's a really stupid maneuver to allow.

Imagine adding onto the cost of every apartment tower going up in the core millions of dollars in DCs to pay for new suburban roads, and then also admitting that those same roads have zero benefit to anybody else in the city except for those suburban growth areas. When are they going to fix this?

One of the more disturbing sections of the city's report on right turns on reds : they say that banning right turns on reds will lead to worse safety because drivers will be impatient and kill/injure people due to being inconvenienced. We can't seriously be hiding behind this right?

The agenda for February's Public Works and Infrastructure Committee is up and still no Bank Street bus lanes. It was supposed to be on the agenda for this meeting, but has been delayed yet again. This "pilot project" has been in the works for over 4 years, and is now over a year behind schedule.

Taking guesses on how much people think the recently approved Greyhound station redevelopment will need to pay in Development Charges to the city.

Shoutout to @stephanieplante.bsky.social for speaking out on unfair transit reliability issues downtown. Thank you for stating your commitment to bus-only lanes and transit priority signals. Let’s speed up the 6, 7 and more urban routes! cc: @arieltroster.com @shawnmenard.bsky.social

I'll pass on a hold-the-date. Thanks @railfans.ca and @bettertransitottawa.ca for talking transit data with me on February 2. Notez bien cette date. Merci à @railfans.ca et @bettertransitottawa.ca pour nos échanges sur les données de transport en commun le 2 février.

@mayormarksutcliffe.bsky.social I campaigned on fixing transit CBC: And it’s not fixed, when can you say it will be fixed? Mayor: that’s a great question

This does not give me confidence for the eventual opening of Phase 2 East.

The #ManorPark sidewalk issue is not over yet…. still signs up in the snow! It will come to @en.ottawa.ca Public Works &Infrastructure Committee in Feb - a staff report is expected. @ecologyottawa.bsky.social @cafesottawa.bsky.social @horizonottawa.bsky.social @cafesottawa.bsky.social 1/

Yesterday's memo on bus cancellations asserts hundreds of millions in new spending that at the end of the day has little to do with cancelled buses. Let's separate the spin from the solutions.

Thank you, Ottawa Citizen, for publishing my op-ed today on the financial crisis that municipalities across the country are facing due to aging infrastructure. To read the story, please visit the Ottawa Citizen web site and look for the Opinion section. @OttawaCitizen.com

We are building near transit. In 2025, a record high of 30% of homes were permitted within 800m or a 15-minute walk of an LRT station. In fact, the entire cumulative distribution of homes is bowed out and to the left, meaning even more homes within a short bus or bike ride.

If you don't try to draw a map of a bus network, decision-makers will never see how complicated it is. Our firm often draws an agency's first clear map. Its effect is sometimes to show that the service doesn't make sense, which starts the process of improving it. Apps are helpful but maps matter.

The scary thing is that this pipe is only from 1959 and failed prematurely, a growing trend. There are still pipes downtown from the 1870s to be replaced. We currently replace about 20km of pipe each year, but we laid down 1800km of pipe in the 50s and 60s. 5X our current replacement rate.

I love a good Strong Townsy speech! #Ottcity councillor and mayoral candidate @jleiper.bsky.social makes the case for financially and environmentally sustainable development patterns. Ottawa's New Zoning Bylaw goes to council for final approval in Jan @strongtowns.org

Barriers.

I wonder how many days after the new year it will take for wine bottle recycling to be first provincial/municipal issue of 2026. Tic...toc...

What does it take to move 1000 people? Smart infrastructure supporting choices that don’t take up so much space (or produce so much emissions/pollution, cost so much public money etc). Mobility in cities is about space. Graphic via @seattlesubway.org based on a Sydney graphic I spread years ago.

The beast must feed #Autowa www.ctvnews.ca/ottawa/artic...

This wonderful piece, about new incremental housing going up, written by Sharon Nyangweso was shared in our group. We really think this couldn't have been said better. We cannot lock our neighbourhoods into stasis if we want them to thrive. We need to be adaptable and allow for incremental growth.

@humantransit.bsky.social presents the ridership vs. coverage trade-off facing transit planners. You can't do both. You must choose. Transit enthusiasts often demand high-ridership and frequent service, but this story is a stark reminder of when even infrequent transit is worth protecting.

🧵 Slides from my delegation as #OttCity considers Draft 2 of the New Zoning Bylaw Ottawa's 2008-250 Zoning Bylaw had 446 core zoning codes (ignoring exemptions and other modifiers).

Wow, what a terrible motion from Councillor Kitts. WIDER streets in front of schools. The complete opposite of what we need. This needs to be rejected.

Come and warm up from the cold on Saturday night at the Rainbow Bistro with Barry and the Blasters and moi, Ottawa's okay-est trumpet player. All band proceeds are donated to @ottawafoodbank.bsky.social Sat Dec 6 The Rainbow Bistro (76 Murray) Doors 630 Music 730 therainbow.ca

Latest from me — how not to be a jerk. ottawacitizen.com/opinion/jerk...

Trying an experiment in suburban Ottawa on my street, clearing a path with the plow as a sidewalk (which we don’t have). Bonus, the sidewalk connects two multi use paths, making it easier to walk through the community, at least until the city plows come through to do the road.

Doug Ford: "Hey we said no bike lanes!" City: "They're bus lanes." Doug Ford: "They're only 2m wide!" City: "The bus."👇

Minimum parking requirements create financially insolvent land use patterns. The two apartment buildings on the right generate six times more in property taxes than the big box store on the left, while occupying almost half the space! #BlackFridayParking

If your transit fare is so expensive that you need multiple different carve-outs for disadvantaged groups, maybe reconsider the price of your basic fare. Transit shouldn't be a service of last resort, it should be the primary mode for everyone, and it should be priced to achieve that goal.

A bad day for Canada, and therefore the world. Ontario (population 16 million, 40% of the country) has passed new legislation prohibiting bike lanes that take a lane from cars. An escalation from Bill 212, which required municipalities to get approval.

Do we think there is enough off-peak ridership to justify a return to 5-min headways on L1? 1130 train getting busier and busier as it approaches the core. Standing room only now. Transit Commission budget meeting Monday Nov 24. Time to write your Councillor to demand better off-peak frequency.

🚨No loss of life or serious injury on our roads is acceptable. 📣 We want those who govern our transportation systems to fully embrace Vision Zero 👇Join the Vision Zero Ottawa project! 📅 December 2nd 6:30-8:30pm For details on Day Zero of Vision Zero schoolstreetsottawa.ca/day-zero-of-...

Over the last 30 yrs, #OttCity has seen inner greenbelt neighbourhoods move the suburbs. Probably for more affordable housing. As Ottawa considers changes to its zoning bylaw, we should be increasing densities and housing options in these struggling areas. Inspired by: bsky.app/profile/alex...

Critics of speed cameras challenge the claim that compliance lowers accidents and injuries Below are #OttCity collisions within 30s of a camera and normalized to age of camera (-'ve = prior install) Collisions and injuries dropped. Will they go up again? Tx for helping @sjamieit.bsky.social

I've filtered Ottawa's traffic collision data to show only collisions with injuries for each year, and then added the speed camera locations present in those years. It looks like speed cameras have made the roads much safer.

There are two speed cameras on Walkley Rd between Bank and St Laurent that were installed in 2024. In 2022 that stretch of Walkley had 34 collisions with injuries. In 2024, after the cameras were turned on, there were just 4 collisions with injuries. Speed cameras work.

Rip speed cameras 🪦

#OttCity keeps trying the same thing over and over expecting a different result. We're asking upper levels of government to cover an additional $47-million for transit. We've tried this before. It's never happened, leading to funding shortfalls. What makes us think it will be different this time?

As the Germans wisely said. "We don't have charities, because the need for charity is a failure of the obligations of a good government."

Ottawa's 2026 Draft Budget has $92.8M allocated for road resurfacing and rehabilitation - a drop in the bucket when we have a $2.3-billion backlog in resurfacing.

City of Ottawa is so broke we are literally asking for public donations to fund our infrastructure and debt servicing. No joke ottawa.ca/en/city-hall...

🚨 @mayormarksutcliffe.bsky.social - we expect you to stand up to Doug Ford and fight for our Speed Safety Cameras 🧑‍🧑‍🧒‍🧒Our kids and families deserve safe school zones - ASE cameras work! Speed humps and roundabouts won’t fit on arterials 📝Sign our petition today schoolstreetsottawa.ca/get-involved...

One of the strategic failures of #OttCity Road Safety Action Plan is the lack of communications about where speed camera revenues are spent. I got the list via #ATIP. Here are some projects that were only made possible because of these revenues. Full data at tinyurl.com/4brrmh9j #Rideau-Jock

Ontario property assessments haven't been done since 2016 and it's getting ridiculous. Suburban homes are paying much lower property taxes than they should be. Annual property taxes: ↙️ $8575 | $6360 ↘️

It was a joy to join @strongtownsottawa.ca for this month’s Urbanism Book Club and to honour @derricksimpson.bsky.social for his 2025 Eco Award for Active & Accessible Champion. Congratulations, Derrick, and keep up the excellent work! #Ottawa #EcoAward #Community #Environment

Walkable city baseball edition: Andrés Giménez on how you get the feeling of a city by walking it.