Gridlock: Putting Ottawa’s commutes to the test
AMY ALLEN tests four drives and finds out which ones will leave you stuck in the slow lane
IT’S MONDAY MORNING, and the traffic surrounding Billie Spartalis grinds to a halt. The air is filled with gaseous mist from dozens of exhaust pipes. Spartalis has finally hit Highway 417, and for her, like thousands of other commuters in the city, this leg of her journey is the most challenging.
Every morning she makes the journey from her home in Munster, a small community southwest of Barrhaven, to her workplace at Robillard Hearing Centres on Carling Avenue. The first half of her drive is peaceful — it takes her past the empty fields, farmland, and homes along Munster and Fallowfield roads. But when she hits the ramp connecting Highways 416 and 417, her peaceful feelings give way to frustration.
“The major traffic jam begins as soon as you get to the on-ramp for the 417,” she says. “It’s stop-and-go for the most part. Everyone’s trying to rush and trying to get in front of each other.”
Without traffic, the trip is supposed to take half an hour, but with the gridlock, it typically takes more like 45 minutes.
Sound familiar? It should, especially if you live in suburban or rural Ottawa. Each day approximately 250,000 commuters hit the streets in their vehicles — that’s almost 55 per cent of all daily commutes, according to the city’s 2013 Transportation Master Plan. And with such a glut of drivers, commutes from the fringe to the core can take anywhere from 30 minutes to more than an hour, partic- ularly if there’s an accident, construction, or inclement weather.
Klaus Beltzner, president of the Manotick Village and Community Association, pins poor city planning, as well as a move away from grid-system neighbourhoods, as the root cause of Ottawa’s traffic woes. “Housing developers know people don’t like through roads in their communities,” he says, “so communities are built with collector roads. Everyone has to use this same road to get out. This is where jams happen, as well as speeding.”
But Ottawa’s problems can’t be blamed on poor city planning alone. Benjamin Gianni, a registered architect and associate professor of architecture at Carleton University, suggests cities are often forced to play catch-up when urban spaces develop in unlikely ways. “Cities are very organic things,” he says. “Sometimes cities grow where you don’t expect them to grow in places you don’t expect. The big answer to commuting problems is to distribute centres of employment to all of these areas. The problems occur when everyone is trying to go to the same place at once.”
Other factors that stand in the way of efficient infrastructure growth? Politics.
Gianni points to the cancellation of light rail in Barrhaven as a prime example of politics interfering with urban development. In 2006, then-mayor Bob Chiarelli set in motion plans to run light rail service from Barrhaven to the downtown core. This was scrapped by his successor, Larry O’Brien, as many constituents did not believe infrastructure should be built where there was little demand for service. Now, nearly a decade later, Barrhaven continues to grow and public transit struggles to keep pace.
Nevertheless, the city has been trying to remedy commuter problems with a new, comprehensive transportation plan released in 2013. The city aims to have light rail running in the downtown core by 2018, with an eventual expansion to suburban areas. It has also pledged to widen commuter arteries such as Carp Road, Eagleson Road, the Airport Parkway, and Blackburn Hamlet Bypass.
And there are options for commuters not keen on driving. Laura Dudas, president of the Blackburn Community Association in Ottawa’s east end, says more drivers should look to public transit as a viable option in the daily commute. Many Blackburn residents are “using public transit as an alternative to sitting in traffic” and despite the frustrating delays and reroutes in Ottawa’s public transit during construction of the Confederation Line, there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Dudas herself takes public transit when the weather becomes too harsh to ride her motorcycle.
So does Ottawa have a commuter problem? Not really, according to Beltzner.
“Ottawa’s traffic congestion is nowhere near as bad as other cities,” he says, alluding to Toronto and Montreal as locations where gridlock is much worse. “Certainly, it’s taking longer than it used to, but show me a place where that doesn’t happen. What we need to think about is, how do we grow smart?”
The Commutes
We tested four different commutes, aiming to arrive at the National Arts Centre by 9 a.m. We did each drive twice, experimenting with departure times. The result? Leave early if you want to get to work on time. Manotick — Watson’s Mill Distance: 39 km Estimated Time: 38 minutes Day 1 Departure Time: 8:06 a.m. Day 1 Arrival Time: 8:54 a.m. Day 2 Departure Time: 7:58 a.m. Day 2 Arrival Time: 8:56 a.m. Actual Time: 50–60 minutes Manotick residents are lucky enough to have three major routes to the downtown core: Highway 417, Riverside Drive, and Prince of Wales Drive. We chose the Riverside Drive route because Google Maps suggested it is the fastest during rush hour. In the outer areas, it wasn’t the most attractive commute. The road was flanked by empty fields, new