Transit & Transportation

Sitting on both Transit and Transportation Committees, Councillor Leadman is committed to ensuring effective and efficient sustainable forms of transportation that is essential for residents and businesses. During her term she has focused upon: Improving service and ridership, fiscal prudence of tax dollars for best public benefit and investing in light rail instead of more buses and bus ways.

Ottawa’s Transit Vision & Our Path Forward

It is the belief that Ottawa needs to be a showcase of sustainable cost effective transportation that was Councillor Leadman’s underlying reason for proposing the alternative transit expansion plan, “Our Path Forward.” This plan presented a sustainable option for the future of Ottawa presenting solutions to critical flaws with the Transportation Master Plan (TMP) that included:

• Bringing light rail to each suburban town centre within the planning timeframe to limit transfers and assist each satellite city to develop in a more sustainable, transit friendly manner.
• Limiting new bus rapid transit corridors that encourage sprawl and hold the line on $370M of new buses the City plans to procure that creates a large fixed operational burden increasing the required taxes and fares to keep the system working.
• A fair assessment of the best route for the western corridor that included all viable options include Carling Avenue. This would gauge which route would provide the greatest ridership, fastest transit speed, protection of greenspace, urban development and cost.
• Getting better value for dollar by lowering the overall cost envelope of the TMP by over a billion dollars while providing more light rail and better service across the City.

During the meeting on November 28, 2008 that discussed the Transportation Master Plan, Councillors Leadman and Doucet presented the plan. Debate was stopped before full details on the specifics of the TMP were presented and the plan as originally proposed passed. However the plan succeeded afterwards on several fronts including:

• Ensuring the inclusion of Carling Avenue in the scope for the western corridor light rail environmental assessment in order to make sure the right option is selected for public transit in the west end.

• First proposing and getting approved the need for Infrastructure Ontario or an arms-length body to be vested with the responsibility to implement the new transit plan.

• Raising the value-for-money concerns subsequently noted by both partner levels of government. Councillor Leadman has worked to ensure fiscal prudence and proper accounting before implementation of the multi-billion dollar TMP to ensure taxpayer dollars are respected.

• First proposing and getting approval from Council for advanced planning for key transfer locations as soon as feasible to understand and minimize the negative impact of the TMP on the current system and its riders.

• Passing legislation that included the Prince of Wales Bridge in the inter-provincial transit study and pushed for its immediate rehabilitation and use of the bridge. This would substantially reduce the volume of buses in the downtown core.

Improving Transit in Kitchissippi

Councillor Leadman plans to ensure that transit and transportation in the ward continue to improve, not only with regard to buses and light rail, but also including improvements to the city’s pedestrian and cycling infrastructure. This is supported by long-term planning studies which require a 40 per cent modal split in the ward over the next twenty years as simply building more roads is often impossible. Councillor Leadman has secured funding for both short-term improvements and funding for long- term action plans that are currently underway that will map the way to achieve this aggressive goal.

In 2009, Kitchissppi underwent a significant improvement in transit service that alters but enhances the volume and number of routes serving the ward. Funded through increased allocations in the 2009 budget, most routes in the ward will have two or three times the previous frequency. During the planning phase for this change, several proposals were presented that would have had a large negative impact on the ward. Councillor Leadman worked to ensure that the changes to the system provided improved service for transit riders while minimizing possible negative impacts. Although some routes were phased out for improved efficiency, Councillor Leadman ensured that route 18 would remain operational along part of its former route to service seniors on weekdays and that its use would be reviewed to see the impact of service the change had.