Thank you

Lot full: why parking downtown Ottawa is such a gong show | This is Ottawa | CBC Podcasts | CBC Listen Demand for downtown parking exceeds supply on certain weekday mornings. To score a spot, some commuters have a strategy. Robyn Bresnahan hung out in some downtown parking garages to hear why commuters...

I spoke with CBC about parking in Centretown, why we need to build more housing downtown, and why we need to price parking based on supply and demand.

www.cbc.ca/listen/cbc-p...

Lot full: why parking downtown Ottawa is such a gong show | This is Ottawa | CBC Podcasts | CBC Listen Demand for downtown parking exceeds supply on certain weekday mornings. To score a spot, some commuters have a strategy. Robyn Bresnahan hung out in some downtown parking garages to hear why commuters...

CBC had a great episode about parking in downtown! We need to give people good alternatives to driving so that we can get people to where they need to go.

Parking is some of the worst land usage we can have in the downtown core of the city.

www.cbc.ca/listen/cbc-p...

Members of Strong Towns Ottawa pose for a picture after the April Monthly Meeting

Members of Strong Towns Ottawa introducing themselves to each other during the ice breaker

Such an amazing turnout last night at our monthly meeting! Great conversations about next steps for bus lanes on Bank Street, the upcoming election, and our future advocacy!

If you're looking to join in on the fun, check out our next events at luma.com/STO

We look forward to seeing you there!

Motion brought forth to council by Councillor Menard, which sought to restrict the bus lanes on Bank Street from 3 hours in each peak direction to 2 hours.

Disappointment at council today. Council just passed a motion from Councillor Menard for the Bank Street bus lane study which will restrict bus lanes even further from staff's proposed 3 hours to 2 hours. This means we will get no data about how parking affects bus flow in the area.

After 30+ people showed up to the Public Works commission last week in support of expanding bus lanes on Bank Street, City Council has now passed a motion to reduce the scope of the bus lanes even further

This motion was passed with absolutely no debate

Passed without a single question

Another example of how it takes forever to do anything in Ottawa

And how that makes life way worse for residents.

Here’s my issue: this is obvious that it makes sense: there’s zero reasons to not implement this. Why does it take grassroots orgs, deputations, endless discussions, debates and reviews to implement good policy, make decisive leadership decisions. We are buried in bureaucracy for the sake of 1/

The first page of a letter from Strong Towns Ottawa to the Public Works and Infrastructure Committee, sent on March 24th, 2026. The letter makes the argument that our transit system is in a crisis and our city needs to be bold because of that. The asks are to implement the pilot project by summer of 2026, not 2027, to extend dedicated bus lanes to weekends and events, to operate bus lanes in both directions, and to extend the hours to at minimum 6am-6pm, and ideally to 24/7. The full letter can be found here : https://strongtownsottawa.ca/2026/03/24/open-letter-bus-lanes-on-bank-street.html

The second page of a letter from Strong Towns Ottawa to the Public Works and Infrastructure Committee, sent on March 24th, 2026. The letter makes the argument that our transit system is in a crisis and our city needs to be bold because of that. The asks are to implement the pilot project by summer of 2026, not 2027, to extend dedicated bus lanes to weekends and events, to operate bus lanes in both directions, and to extend the hours to at minimum 6am-6pm, and ideally to 24/7. The full letter can be found here https://strongtownsottawa.ca/2026/03/24/open-letter-bus-lanes-on-bank-street.html

We have sent a letter out with our 4 key asks for the upcoming Bus Lanes on Bank Street report coming to PWIC on March 30th.

You can read the asks here : strongtownsottawa.ca/2026/03/24/o...

The letter is also attached in the post.

Want to delegate? strongtownsottawa.ca/2026/03/23/f...

It's going to be a marathon. Even more people will be arguing and delegating about bus lanes on bank.

Putting them both in the same meeting makes absolutely no sense.

Bus-only lanes to be considered for Bank Street in the Glebe A report about the proposed 15-month pilot project will go before a City of Ottawa committee on March 30.

Thank you to the @natashabaldin.bsky.social at the Citizen for covering such an important issue! We need reliable transit not only to get people to and from work, but at all times of day! Students at Carleton, mothers picking up groceries, kids getting to the movies
ottawacitizen.com/news/bus-lan...

The tulip festival used to be a huge event in Ottawa. Had concerts, events, and lots of programming.

It stopped being as great as it once was because we stopped funding it.

The current plan calls for changes not to take effect for more than a year from now (Summer 2027)

This is unacceptable when we are facing a severe bus shortage and bus reliability crisis. Any bus wasted sitting in traffic means a bus cancelled elsewhere in the network.

The number 6 bus is shown driving along Bank Street in front of a sign at the Mayfair Theatre. The sign reads "Mayfairtheatre.ca Support bus lanes on bank st Strongtownsottawa.ca"

City staff has released the agenda for the PWIC March 30th meeting, where Bank Street Bus Lanes will be discussed (item 5.2). Please consider signing up to delegate in favour of expanding bus lanes further. On-street parking is extremely underused here and is standing in the way of real progress.

Ottawa to test bus-only lanes on Bank Street in the Glebe Three-hour bus-only lanes will be installed on a stretch of Bank Street to improve OC Transpo movement on a busy transit route in the Glebe.

Spoke with CTV Ottawa about the need for bus lanes on Bank Street.

“We really think that considering the transit crisis right now in Ottawa, that bus lanes are a really great way to speed up transit and to reduce costs,”

www.ctvnews.ca/ottawa/artic...

Dear Lise Guèvremont, While we are optimistic for the Bank Street Active Transportation and Transit Priority Feasibility Study, we believe the most recent public proposal does not go far enough to prioritize public transportation and move as many people as possible. The Centretown Community Association would like to make the following suggested changes to the Bank Street Transit Study: Bus lanes should be bi-directional whenever in use and the city should consider expanding the duration of active bus lanes. The number of 24/7 bus lane sections should be expanded. There should be more frequent use of transit priority signals throughout Bank Street. The definition of large events requiring bus lanes should be expanded to include events like 613flea and Ottawa Charge games. Signage should be improved to direct drivers to the 2nd Avenue parking garage. As OC Transpo faces reliability and confidence issues, we need to prioritize fast and reliable public transit. Bus lanes are a great way to reduce operating costs, speed up travel times, and increase the number of people that will ride the bus. We would also love to see the city lean into the pilot project aspect of the Bank Street Transit Study. Once implemented, we believe the project should be reviewed within the first six months with consideration taken to increase bus lane durations and to expand bus lane locations, including into Centretown. As the busiest bus corridor in the city, we need to be maximizing the efficiency of bus travel to ensure traffic flows smoothly and reliably. A reminder that the City’s own data collected outlined that 77% of respondents want more space for people outside of private vehicles on Bank Street. Thank you, Robert Dekker CCA President

The Centretown Community Association has sent a letter suggesting changes and improvements to the Bank Street Transit Study.

As the busiest bus corridor in Ottawa, Bank street needs to prioritize moving people over cars.

An OC Transpo #6 bus in a bus lane. Inside of the bus there are multiple people, each with a text showing what they're going to be doing. They say "Grabbing a bite to eat", "Going to Lansdowne", "Getting a haircut", "Bought groceries", and "Can finally fit on the bus". The final one was a user in a wheelchair. Beside the bus there is a single person in a truck in the regular travel lane. Pointing to him it says "Just driving through". They have a thought bubble coming out from their head saying "That bus lane is going to ruin local business!".

An amazing member of ours put together this graphic that really encapsulates perfectly the situation on Bank Street.

There is only so much space available, and we must use it as efficiently as possible. Parking isn't that.

Please sign up to delegate on March 30th in favour of bus lanes!

Apologies, just wanted to correct a small thing. The second figure, 25, is not how the owners got there, but actually what the owners THINK that customers primarily use to get to their stores. So again just showing that owners heavily overestimate how many customers drive.

The Glebe BIA had a report done about the area.

We think this image perfectly encapsulates the reason for hesitancy by the business owners to get rid of parking.

While 86% of the respondents who come to shop said they get there by means other than driving, 94% of the owners said they drove.

Any update on when the bike share study will be presented? It was identified in 2023 and was supposed to be done in 2025 (which is already super slow).

One thing I feel ought to be discussed more is the fact that basically all rural and suburban places in the US are subsidized by cities. They resent cities. They insult cities. They elect politicians who abuse cities. But none of them could survive without cities.

Ariel with Mary Huang and Marty Carr in Council chambers

Thanks to Mary Huang from the Centretown Community Association for coming to Finance Committee today, to voice support for the city’s acquisition of the hotel at O’Connor and Gladstone for family transitional housing.

This is amazing news.

As someone who lives in Centretown, I’m happy to say “yes in my backyard!”

The Programmed Decay of Suburban Affordability - The New Orleans You may have heard the term “ens**ttification“, sometimes used to describe what happens as big tech platforms like Amazon or Facebook have evolved their business practices to churn out ever increasing...

This is a very clever bit of writing from @robattrell.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy on the evolution of suburbs really in North America through the post-war period, and how they can be made better.

The agenda for February's Public Works and Infrastructure Committee is up and still no Bank Street bus lanes. It was supposed to be on the agenda for this meeting, but has been delayed yet again.

This "pilot project" has been in the works for over 4 years, and is now over a year behind schedule.

Well said and thank you!

These were the most cancelled OC Transpo bus routes in January Two bus routes that serve downtown Ottawa and a route that runs between Blair Station and Tunney’s Pasture had the highest percentage of bus trip cancellations in January, as OC Transpo dealt with a b...

This is bad, but then you realize that most cancellations likely happened at peak times and it starts to look really really bad.

Peak time cancellations on the busiest routes means more unhappy riders, more traffic, and less fare revenue for an already broke system.

www.ctvnews.ca/ottawa/artic...

Two Ottawa. Citizen headlines. 1. 'No question' return-to-office will be good for downtown, board of trade says 2. Still no timeline for resumption of normal Ottawa public transit service, GM says

Has “Board of Trade” met “Ottawa public transit”?

Ottawa to scrap Preston Street expansion to make way for LeBreton Flats subdivision, arena The City of Ottawa is looking to hit the brakes on a future expansion of Preston Street to assist with the planned development of a subdivision and an NHL-sized arena at LeBreton Flats.

At Planning Committee yesterday, we voted unanimously to replace a road that was originally going to connect Preston to Lebreton Flats with a pedestrian and cycling bridge. This is a win for active transportation and for traffic management in Little Italy. www.ctvnews.ca/ottawa/artic...

Agreed.

Speaking of left turns, have you seen the new advance left turn signal for drivers on Elgin onto Somerset? It’s terrible!