Why the City needs Friends of the O-Train (FOTO)

Why the City needs Friends of the O-Train (FOTO):

A balanced transit and transportation solution is a major challenge for Ottawa. Most people see things only from their perspective and push for solutions that serve them best without regard for the needs of others. We must stop looking at transit and transportation strictly from a self-serving view and building barriers to keep others out; instead we need to build a transit and transportation system that works for all communities. Such a system cannot be built with a "one-size fits all cookie-cutter solution".

Let me explain....

People who have purchased houses in the "outer ‘burbs"...because that is where new affordable housing and a place to have a young family can be found, and who work downtown, or in one of the federal office complexes in Gatineau or Tunney's Pasture or Confederation, or the Hospital campus etc., HAVE TO GET TO WORK. And, unless there is convenient transit, they have no choice but to take the car or car-pool. Hence, with every new ‘burb house built we add roughly one more car to the roads at rush hour. These additional cars cause pollution, congestion, safety concerns especially for cyclists and pedestrians and they clog up neighbourhoods that innocently stand in the way between home and ultimate destination. These "outer ‘burb" people want either convenient transit to entice them out of their cars or better, straighter, faster roads so that they can get to their ultimate destination before the sun goes down.

People who were in the same situation 15-30 years earlier and bought in "the’burbs" find themselves now somewhere in the middle (middle earth). They are neither downtown nor in the outer ‘burbs. These people live in communities that have in the intervening years, seen convenient shopping, schools, and good transit alternatives develop around them. They still use the car for getting around, but very often they will use public transit to get to work. These people want to preserve their stately ‘burb communities and they do not want "through traffic" and they have successfully petitioned council for "traffic calming" and/or "traffic elimination" remedies to "KEEP those not living there - OUT!" We see this with roads that become closed to commuter traffic and roads that are rebuilt with weird alignments called "bulbs" and speed humps.

People who live within walking distance to downtown have even more barriers to keep through-traffic out. These are needed to in order to preserve their quality of life without being chocked to death by car and bus fumes, and ground down by the noise. These communities have erected so many barriers to keep others out that the logical next step is the erection of gates that can only be opened with "electronic passes" by those who live there. Such are the defensive reactions of people living in communities who find themselves in "harms way" of motorists looking for a way to get downtown without being stuck in traffic for hours.

So there we have it - and whose needs exactly is Council going to decide is to be the most important need?

That is where FOTO comes in. FOTO is the ONLY group that wants to design and have implemented a practical solution that serves ALL OF OTTAWA - to serve all people no matter where they live and no matter what their personal transportations challenges. That is why I joined the group. To solve the whole problem, not just those of a particular community.

And I strongly believe that FOTO has THE BEST PLAN for moving forward.

FOTO's plan recognizes and addressed the need for cars in the rural areas characterized by vast distances between "where you live, where you shop, where you go to school, where your friends live, where you go for entertainment, and where you work". Local bus routes do not work in rural areas. There are too few people spread out too far to come up with any practical local transit solution. Here the car is really the only transit choice. For these people we need to provide large park-and-rides at the fringes of Ottawa's transit network to get them to park their cars there and take public transit from the park-and-ride instead of having them continue into the city to add to the traffic congestion and air and noise pollution woes.

FOTO's plan recognizes and addresses the needs of new and near-new ‘burb communities. Here we have densities that warrant local bus service to bring our children to schools and our residents to places to shop, to be entertained and to recreation, and to bring commuters to a transit hub for a convenient and fast way to work. For these communities FOTO's plans are to provide improved local bus services that serve the whole needs of these communities and to bring commuters to transit hubs for a fast ride downtown and other major employment and economic centres. For these communities where a car is still a necessity, FOTO’s plan also provides for park-and-rides for commuters whose needs are not well-served by local bus services.

FOTO's plan recognizes and addresses the needs of established older city centre neighbourhoods by improving local bus service that ties together these local communities and that provides fast access to transit hubs to reach other parts of the growing city. And, FOTO’s plan addresses the concerns of these neighbourhoods to keep commuter traffic from other areas out. It does so by providing practical alternatives to building more roads through their neighbourhoods and a practical alternative to increased traffic congestion and pollution in their neighbourhoods by making rapid transit viable and practical for those who live beyond the inner established communities and need to get to work.

FOTO's plan recognizes and addresses the key transit choke point - the insufficient bus transit capacity in the downtown core to handle all the people needing to get into downtown or through downtown to reach their final destination. FOTO’s plan does so by proposing a high capacity, fast and convenient eLRT loop between comfortable transfer stations at Bayview and Hurdman.

FOTO's plan recognizes and addressed the need to bring commuters to more places than just downtown - indeed FOTO's solution includes bringing commuters to most of the large employment centres of Ottawa/Gatineau. FOTO's plan includes high capacity fast transit solutions to get commuters to Tunny's Pasture, Confederation Heights, Les Terrasses, the Casino, the Ottawa Hospital Campus, Kanata North, the Queensway Carleton Hospital, and the Ottawa Train Station for point east such as Blair and Orleans. That is, FOTO’s plan is to improve and make more robust, Ottawa’s overall transit NETWORK !

And, FOTO's plan ADDS transit capacity to the network and makes the case for changing technology where volumes so dictate. Please note that FOTO it is not interested in a technology upgrade or swap just for the sake of the technology. It is interested in a robust transit network that best serves all the people of Ottawa.

And FOTO's plan builds on exiting transit infrastructure of rail, transitway, transit right of ways, buses and trains. FOTO's practical solutions do not include building competing transit infrastructure, rather they include augmenting and integrating what we have and finding
the simplest, most practical incremental additions to strengthen Ottawa’s overall transit network. Consequently, FOTO's solutions include transfers between different transit modalities (bus, train, car), and FOTO’s solutions are designed to make transfers as convenient and fast as possible through design recommendations that include a wealth of retail and commercial enterprises for the major transfer stations, and safety and security designs for park and rides.

This is why the Mayor and the Council NEEDS FOTO. We are the only community based volunteer organization that has broad civic, community and environmental expertise and that has the needed technical and engineering expertise in rail and bus technologies and transit solutions and that is committed to develop, propose and promote a truly balanced, robust and comprehensive transit solution for Ottawa.

Klaus Beltzner,
Proud member of the FOTO community