The success of the Corktown footbridge has inspired the Ottawa East community to push for a similar one connecting their neighbourhood with the Glebe and Old Ottawa South.
John Dance, a member of the Ottawa East Community Association, received support for the group’s proposal from the arts, heritage and culture advisory committee for the city on Jan. 20. The idea was supported in the past by the roads and cycling advisory committee.
“We’re trying to build as much support as possible,” Dance says. “It’s a really a critical part of pedestrian routes, because at the moment there’s virtually no accessibility for people living on one side of the canal to get to the other side. You have one whole side of the city disadvantaged if they rely on foot transportation.”
The group calls the project the Midtown footbridge. It would run over the Rideau Canal, connecting Clegg Street and Fifth Avenue. There is no cost estimate.
Dance says the Midtown footbridge would establish east-west cycling and walking routes, which would boost health and environment standards for the three sister communities.
“There is a huge divide between established communities,” he says. The footbridge would create less reliance on cars, allow easier access for pedestrians and cyclists to businesses in the central sector and allow students better access to Saint Paul University, Corpus Christi Catholic School and Glebe Collegiate, he adds.
The proposed footbridge received support from municipal politicians and Ottawa community organisations, but has yet to make its way to the city council agenda.
Shawn Menard, president of the Centretown Citizens’ Community Association, says his organization has not yet decided if it will support the proposal.
Capital Ward Coun. Clive Doucet says a footbridge would lower costs for the city.
“We spend $600 million on roads for cars every year. We spend a total of $1 million on pedestrians,” Doucet says. “You can’t create a sustainable city with those kind of investment disparities.”
People currently make their way between Ottawa East, Ottawa South and the Glebe by backtracking to either the Pretoria Avenue or Bank Street footbridges further north or south.
Jayne Stoyles, lives on Brighton Avenue in Ottawa South. She and her husband don’t own a car and rely on walking and cycling. Stoyles says a footbridge would make trips to the Glebe safer and quicker.
“We bike and walk to places we can get to more easily further south on Bank Street and on Main Street but we don’t go into the Glebe as often as we’d like to,” she says. “In the winter we can walk across the canal, but that’s a cold walk.”
In the summer, Stoyles often bikes with her five-year-old daughter in a rear bike carrier.
“Normally we might go to a restaurant downtown before we go to the Glebe, especially with our daughter,” she says. “If I have to think of biking with her in the back over the Bank Street bridge – which isn’t very safe – I would choose to hop on the bus and go downtown instead.”
Dance says his organization will continue building support for the bridge until the plan makes its way to city council.