By Kristen Scheel
A decision by Ottawa city council to defer the construction of a southbound off-ramp on the Airport Parkway at Walkley Road is being viewed by some as a symbolic victory in the battle between public transportation and traffic congestion.
The ramp has been deferred until a transportation master plan for the city of Ottawa is completed, which will likely be a few years down the road.
Merchants on Bronson Avenue expressed relief that the ramp project has been deferred.
“It’s absolutely critical that the city not use Bronson as an arterial corridor, especially in light of the fact they are opening a light rail. The idea of a light rail is to get people out of their cars and onto the rail. If you let this continue to be an expressway, that will never happen,” says Bruce Langer, co-owner of Doozy Candle.
Langer describes the idea of another off-ramp as “total chaos.”
Mario Gonsalves runs Fiesta restaurant.
“I’ve seen cyclists get hit, people almost getting hit. Even just pulling out of the gas station, people are so anxious to pull out that they get hurt because the traffic is so fast.”
The City Centre Coalition, an umbrella group of nine inner city community associations that also opposes the expansion of Bronson, feared the ramp would ultimately lead to a heavier traffic flow on the already congested Bronson Avenue.
Cam Robertson, past chair of the coalition, describes the decision to defer construction of the ramp as “very good news.”
“Now, instead of one ad hoc ramp, there will be the whole transportation plan and we will be urging that proper attention be given to public transit as well as to provisions for cycling and walking” Robertson says.
Capital Ward Coun. Clive Doucet, also opposes the ramp.
“We don’t want the Walkley ramp built because we felt that that would just further plug up the road, and make it even more difficult to make a light rail line work, and this time, unlike the Hunt Club ramp, we had some powerful allies.”
One of those allies is the Ottawa MacDonald-Cartier International Airport Authority. At a public hearing, the Airport Authority suggested the addition of the Walkley Road ramp would compound traffic difficulties on the already overburdened Airport Parkway.
“We’ve always maintained that the economic well-being of this region includes an accessible airport” says Laurent Benoit, director of communications for the Ottawa airport. “The Walkley off-ramp would only dump more traffic onto the one road that leads to the airport. We’re pleased that city council has heard the argument of the community and of the airport and has taken them into consideration and deferred the project.”
Wendy Stuart, councillor for River ward, where the ramp was to be built, supports the project. She says the Walkley Road off-ramp would not impact the traffic on Bronson Avenue.
“The Centretown group has chosen this as the meaningful benchmark in their problems with traffic congestion. That’s silly. It’s a southbound off-ramp two kilometers to the south going in the opposite direction,” Stuart says.
“It can’t conceivably put another single car in their neighborhood.”
Both sides will have to wait a few more years until the completion of the transportation master plan before the issue is re-examined.