June 20, 2007

Dear Members of the Transit and Transportation Committees,

Thank you for the opportunity to express to the committee my broad support for the recommendations included in the Mayor of Ottawa's Task Force on Transportation. There are many reasons for this including its consistency with the recommendations put forward by Friends of the O-Train. The central element of the Friends of the O-Train plan was its solution to the downtown problem, which:

* Doubles transit capacity downtown
* Delivers faster, more frequent, and much more reliable service from all feeder locations to and through the downtown
* Eliminates the noise and unsightly bus congestion downtown

Today I wish to add another reason, arguably more pressing and disturbing, to bring urgency to the issue of solving the transit problem downtown. This reason is the toxic levels of diesel particulate matter air contamination resulting from bus congestion.

Why is diesel particulate matter a concern? First, quoting Ottawa 2020, Chapter 3 Air Quality and Health:

* Particulate matter smaller than 10 microns (PM10) and smaller than 2.5 microns (PM2.5) were declared toxic under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act. There is no lower safe threshold. They cause respiratory infections, cancer and death.

Second, quoting excerpts from MOVING OTTAWA, The Mayor of Ottawa's Task Force on Transportation Final Report:

Page 3 - From an environmental perspective, it is irresponsible to have an endless line of noisy diesel buses stopped the length of the downtown emitting vast amounts of dangerous diesel exhaust, which
contains cancer-causing particulates.

Further, on page 75 of the report: Currently, carbon particulate emissions in diesel exhaust are listed as the most deadly health-damaging component of pollution.

Third, quoting an internationally recognized authority, published by the Clean Air Task Force (affiliated with the Harvard School of Public Health and the MIT Laboratory for Energy and the Environment):

"In thousands of medical studies, scientists have documented serious adverse health impacts from the air pollutants resulting from diesel exhaust? One of the most dangerous of these diesel emissions is
carbonaceous particulate matter, or fine particle soot. Diesel particles are very tiny? so small, in fact, that they can even penetrate from the lungs into the bloodstream, carrying with them other toxic substances. Some health researchers have estimated that such fine particles are responsible for shortening the lives of at
least 70,000 Americans each year, and studies have also associated this pollution with a host of other serious adverse health impacts, such as asthma attacks. Scientists now even have evidence that these
very tiny particles may disrupt normal heart rhythms and cause inflammation leading to cardiovascular problems, such as heart attacks and stroke."

Dr. George Thurston, New York University School of Medicine on page 1, No Escape from Diesel Exhaust; How to Reduce Commuter Exposure

Recognizing these facts and, in reference to the slide presentation enclosed, I wish to make then following recommendations:

1. That diesel particulate matter microenvironment measurement studies be undertaken, including the following sites:
1. Albert & Slater, King Edward & Rideau sidewalk stations
2. St. Laurent tunnel station & recessed Transitway stations
3. In-bus measurements
4. In-car measurement sharing road traffic with buses

2. That OC Transpo bus fleet upgrades be implemented as soon as possible, including:
1. Retrofitting the entire fleet with diesel particulate filters
2. All new buses should have hybrids drivetrains and diesel particulate filters
3. Whereas an LRT tunnel delays removal of buses downtown by at least 3 years; and whereas its cost premium comes at the expense of options that include eLRT conversion of the Transitway; and whereas
the need for implemention of electric light rail downtown as soon as possible:
1. Feasibility study should be initiated immediately and completed by September 2007. This focused study is to provide the key financial and transit costs/benefit information necessary for Council to make a definitive decision for or against a downtown tunnel no later than October 2007. The work of this study could be conducted in parallel with tunnel environmental assessment process and its results incorporated into the EA if appropriate.

The cost of delay in taking these actions includes significant public risks and consequences to the 5,700 people who live in the Albert Slater corridor as well as to the 30,000 daily commuters and 86,000 workers in the corridor.

Stephen Fanjoy
Ward 2
Friends of the O-Train