2014-01-29 Minutes

Jan 29th at 7pm

Transport Action Canada's Office

Location: 211 Bronson (at Lisgar) Rm 308

Minutes

1) Administrative

- Agenda review, Meeting Secretary

- Approval of Minutes: Nov 27, 2013

- Minutes: http://www.ccc-ottawa.ca/meetings/2013-11-27-minutes

2) 2013 TMP, OCP and Pedestrian Plan summary

- report on some of the last minute changes to the plan,

...some of the behind the scenes activities by some suburban

..councillors to trade-off road projects they didn't want

.. to accelerate other projects that other councilors did want

- overall summary of main differences from 2008 plan

3) LRT fare control report

- late in the fall OC Transpo reported on the equipment they will install

in the LRT and O-Train stations

- there will be no ability to charge different fares by distance

- particularly for short trips in the downtown between adjacent stations

- we will continue to explore this topic with City Hall

4) Scott street bus detours during LRT construction

- a team is looking at opportunities to reduce the volume on Scott St

- by diverting some buses onto other routes where the impacts on

riders (and OC Transpo costs) would be minimal

5) Downtown Interprovincial Truck Tunnel Study

- the terms of reference are to be finalized by end of Jan

- report on LCA and ASH submitted comments indicating that their communities

felt it was important that the tunnel be open to carrying cars as well as trucks

6) LRT western extension (Tunneys to Lincoln Fields)

- shifting of Lincoln Fields station to south of Carling as a side effect of the

2013 TMP commitment to extend a branch of the LRT to Bayshore

- the EA is being combined with the Bayshore extension

- little other information available re. status of negotiations with NCC re.

routing along the Sir John A. Mcdonald parkway

6) Development Charges Review (final report Jun 2014)

- explanation of how these are calculated for roads and transit

- roads and transit charges are >50% of total development charge costs

- discussion of weaknesses in the calculation that result in

downtown development funding outside the greenbelt infrastructure

7) Any other business?

- walkability audits...some communities are finding these very helpful in sustaining

focus on this topic and following up to make sure suggestions are getting implemented

www.ccc-ottawa.ca

Continuing reflection on proposed areas for focus in 2014 and beyond for CCC.

It seems CCC is at a bit of a juncture in its existence. A lot of things have changed in the transportation portfolio in Ottawa in the last few years. Many of them in the direction of what we've advocated towards. Spending is down on road expansions and up on transit and cycling. Two main road projects we have focused on opposing (the AVTC and Prince of Wales widening) have been pushed off by 10-15 years at minimum. The O-Train is being expanded and extended!. The LRT project is underway and it's expansion plans accelerated. An interprovincial transit strategy has been completed and the inteprovincial bridge project (the biggest road project in Ottawa in >50 years) has been terminated and replaced by a focus on a downtown tunnel as an alternative. We should have a party!

Since we seem to have less things "to oppose" there is a risk of losing our momentum. Do we want to shift our focus to influencing long term policies? One thing that I keep thinking of as a potential next step is to be involved with attempts to re-align how our society costs out our transportation modes. One way to help along our vision of less sprawling cities and increasing the affordability/desireabily of living in more compact environments is to put more financial incentives in place to send those price signals. Right now the way municipalities fund roads and transit does not make hardly any distinction between where you live and how much you use the roads/transit. Should/can we embark...especially now in light of a potential new council...on starting up an intelligent (as Kathleen Wynne has referred to it as an 'adult conversation') on this topic? In the 2013 TMP the City declared they had no interest in this topic.

Other possible examples: other longer term items for CCC focus:

- turning complete streets policy into complete streets implementations

- cycling investment is up (doubled)

...but still a mere 2% of Ottawa's transportatio capital investment

- funding structure for transit/roads/cycling operational and capital costs

(Kathleen Wynne's proposal to add 5 to 10 cents additional gas taxes)

- pushing the NCR towards implementation of the interprovincial transit strategy

- bus route network changes post LRT .. Influencing the choices

- AVTC - how to get it removed entirely from the next TMP?

- Lansdowne Transportation - coming someday soon

- please email to the list if you have other ideas