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.

Reverence.

College Ward has a really good Councillor.

Municipal budgets are difficult to read, but they don't have to be! I think most people want to know the basics; where does the money come from, and how do we spend it? Here is my attempt to simplify #OttCity 2024 Operating Budget. Revenues on the left, expenses on the right. Simple. #DoTheMath

Hey Ontario! You've heard of the disastrous Ford bill to destroy tenant rights, but did you know that Omnibus Bill 60 would entirely wipe out the ability of cities to right-size their roads by reducing lanes _at all_, not even just for bike lanes? #onpoli #OttBike #ontario #ottawa

Why can't our have nice things? It is probably because we stopped building our cities efficiently after WWII with the wide adoption of the family automobile. Here is a great video from Halifax using 100 years of property tax data. #OpenData #DoTheMath

Financially productive land isn't just found in downtown #OttCity. Transit can act as a wealth accelerator and increases the productivity of nearby properties. Here @strongtownsottawa.ca shows how today's highest productive land still remains generally aligned with 1929 streetcar routes.

I've been analyzing the cost of different development patterns in #OttCity. Using the city's open data and the 2021 Census, I was able to calculate how much stuff we build (and maintain) per dwelling. Here is an initial look at the data.

We have sent out a letter to the premier of Ontario, Doug Ford, opposing his plan to remove speed cameras, which have been shown to overwhelmingly increase safety on our roads. Thanks @hansonthebike.bsky.social for putting the letter together, and @pbickerton.bsky.social for the great graphics!

Some initial figures on the cost of different development patterns in #OttCity. But we all new this, right? #DoTheMath Sources: City of Ottawa, 2021 Census, Open Street Map

Hey @chandrapasma.bsky.social. The data show that automated speed enforcement cameras work in Ottawa. After the camera is installed, drivers quickly slow down and there are less high-end speeders. The effects are lasting. Please fight to keep them.

New from me in the Globe & Mail: Ottawa’s new zoning bylaw is a major step forward—but if we’re lucky, it’ll be the last of its kind.

We're having fun looking at how #OttCity collects property taxes. Let me know if you have questions you'd like us to explore. You can also analyze the data yourself. Data at strongtownsottawa.ca/resources/

The amount of "fuck you I got mine" in this article is crazy.

I head again today from Ottawa By-law, they're no longer accepting reports for illegal driveway expansions or hardscaping or front yard parking. Apparently there are only 4 officers for these zoning issues and there are far too many reports than they can keep up with. They need more resources.

Over at @strongtownsottawa.ca we've calculated the productivity of different development patterns in #OttCity. Tax per hectare is easy. Lately, I've been estimating the cost of servicing. These numbers are much more abstract but it's been fun. Here is some data I'm tracking.

City wide graphs of the effects of ASE camera installation on the percent of high-end speeders, and general speed limit compliance. These cameras work

More Automated Speed Enforcement (ASE) data for College Ward. Once the cameras were installed, the percentage of high-end speeds drops dramatically and general speed limit compliance improves. #OttCity

#OttCity has open data on Automated Speed Enforcement (ACE). Below driver behaviour from Stittsville. The data show that Stittsville drivers slowed down after each ASE camera was installed. The changes are lasting too.

#OttCity has open data on the effectiveness of Automated Speed Enforcement cameras. The data show that once installed, drivers slow down and keep their speed down.

More data showing the effectiveness of Automated Speed Enforcement (ASE) cameras in Barrhaven East. Once the cameras go up, drivers start slowing down and keep slowing down. #OttCity

Automated Speed Enforcement (ASE) is working in River ward. You can see how quickly people slow down once the camera is installed. Interestingly, speeds on the younger cameras started out fairly low. I wonder if this is because the effects of ASE extend beyond their immediate area.

Automated Speed Enforcement (ASE) cameras work in Knoxdale-Merivale. The data show how speeds gradually decrease, and stay down, once the cameras are installed. #OttCity

Automated Speed Enforcement (ASE) cameras are working in College Ward. I graphed the 85th percentile speed of cars by the age of the camera. College Ward has two older cameras (1000+ days) and 2 x younger (100 days). You can see how speeds quickly trend downward once the cameras are installed.

Did you know the water pipes under Slater Street were installed in 1875! Do you ever wonder how old Ottawa's water and wastewater infrastructure is? Come check out my map at bickertonpa.github.io/Ottawa-Water... #OpenData #Ottawa

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.

To fix north-south transportation, the city is proposing to keep street parking on Bank Street outside of weekday rush hours. Rush hour is not the problem. The problem is the parked cars blocking busses during at all hours of the day and weekend.

Doug Ford: "Speed cameras DO NOT slow people down." Speed camera data:

I mapped Ottawa’s 2023–2033 road renewal list against property tax data. Then I estimated the amortized cost of road renewals as a share of the property tax levy: Inner greenbelt: 6% Outer greenbelt: 10% Rural: 40% Villages: 50%