By Steve Dominey
City council’s approval of a $1.5-million study to examine the effects of cancelling a plan to twin the Airport Parkway and construct a southbound off-ramp at Walkley Road is a waste of time and money, not to mention a bad idea, says Coun. Clive Doucet.
The Capital Ward councillor is worried the council’s endorsement of the study will eventually lead to the conclusion that the new city is generating so much new traffic that more roads are needed – leading to his ultimate fear, the parkway twinning.
Right now, the Airport Parkway is a two-lane highway connecting the Ottawa airport and Bronson Avenue. Doucet is worried it will be expanded to four lanes to meet future traffic demands.
Doucet calls freeways leading to the city centre “evil.” They lead not only to lower air quality, but a lower quality of life for residents in communities near the roadways, he says.
“It’s clear to me that I don’t want to live in a city that pours single occupancy vehicles downtown.”
Doucet’s anger stems from a March 27 vote where council defeated, by a 13-7 margin, a recommendation from the transportation and transit committee to cut the study from the city’s official plan.
The study was slated to begin in 2004.
River Ward Coun. Wendy Stewart says she agrees the city cannot continue building roads to accommodate rising traffic levels, but says council voted against eliminating the parkway twinning from the city’s official plan because the long-term effects of such an action have to be studied first.
“We can’t change the plan without knowing what problems there are going to be in five to ten years,” she says.
“We don’t want to create total paralysis at the Airport, Hunt Club and the Glebe. We have to be sure.”
However, Doucet says he believes twinning is a non-option and was hoping council would endorse other traffic solutions. “This study isn’t looking at alternatives, it’s looking at consequences,” he says.
“We need studies telling us whether or not to extend the O-Train to the airport, if we should have more park and rides, or if gating the Hunt Club ramps is a good idea. Not another study with a predictable and undesirable outcome.”
David Gladstone, chairman of the City Centre Coalition, an umbrella group of nine inner city community associations, agrees, describing the council’s recent vote as “very disappointing.”
He says the council’s reluctance to study anything beneficial is jeopardizing the future of Ottawa’s transit system.
“With their vote, the council has essentially said, ‘we’re not looking at transit solutions because we know everybody wants to drive their car,” says Gladstone.
He says instead of waiting until 2004 for the study to begin, the city should concentrate on what it can do now to make transportation smoother.
“We’re going to have a new airport terminal next year without a light-rail station,” he says, in bewilderment over why the city continues to focus on car travel.
Gladstone says light-rail would not only be the best solution for getting an increased number of people to and from the airport in the future, but it would also be cheaper and easier than the parkway twinning.
“There’s already a rail line running to the airport, what’s going on?”