Today Ajay of @bettertransitottawa.ca had a wonderful delegation at Transit Committee about the decision to cut back on the already watered down Bus Lanes on Bank Street pilot. We highly recommend watching it!
www.youtube.com/live/p09lCEc...
Yesterday a last minute walk-on motion undid years of planning from city staff, which sought feedback from thousands of residents from all across the city. This makes people lose trust in our system.
If you want to help plan to fix this, join us tonight at our monthly meeting.
luma.com/u9c357ol
I’m just learning of this in the last half hour and trying to get a sense of what Council just passed. I’ve also reached out to Councillor Menard for more info. But certainly, this has caught many by surprise. There was no debate or discussion on this motion. 1/
It was carried with no debate or recorded vote
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
Tomorrow City Council will discuss and vote on the final approval for the Bank Street bus lane pilot.
We still think it is a huge mistake that the city took out their planned event day bus lanes. Every side seems to support this, here's Darrell Cox (BIA Executive Director) saying it's a great idea
Join us for our monthly meeting this upcoming Thursday, April 9th, at 6:15 pm, 400 Sparks Street.
We'll be looking back on our campaign for bus lanes on Bank Street, planning for the upcoming election, and discussing upcoming future projects for the group!
RSVP : luma.com/u9c357ol?tk=...
The Glebe BIA has taken down their 2025 RETAIL MARKET & GAP ANALYSIS report that pro-Bank-Street-Bus-Lanes delegates were using to counter the BIA's own talking points, presumably for that exact reason.
Dead link: intheglebe.ca/wp-content/u...
Backed up copy: filebin.net/y3xt647u5dip...
OC Transpo needs to be encouraged to move as many school routes back to yellow buses to free up these buses
Cancellations per day
Improved service March 15-21 is largely because there were no school routes running that week due to March break. This means there was effectively no bus shortage that week. You can see the big dip
They even were able to bring back all of the removed trips from January temporarily for the week
E-buses in service per day since January
We hit a record number of e-buses in service yesterday at 47, very exciting
Sitting in council chambers while holding a better transit Ottawa business card
Bank street time
So many people that we are in the big room today
A collage of images from Strong Towns Ottawa efforts to support 24/7 bus lanes on Bank Street
Today is the final day to be able to sign up to delegate tomorrow at PWIC in favour of bus lanes on Bank Street.
Please if you haven't done so and are interested take a read through our page here that explains how to take part! Every voice matters!
strongtownsottawa.ca/2026/03/23/f...
OC Transpo has been moving some of their school routes back to yellow school buses, but needs to be encouraged to do so for as many routes as possible.
Every school route moved to a yellow bus means one more city bus for the rest of the network, which means less cancellations.
Due to a severe bus shortage, OC Transpo commonly pulls trips from heavily used routes to run school routes as they are the highest priority route.
This causes negative effects all throughout the network.
Graph showing the cancellations and trips removed from the schedule since January over time. Last week had a major drop in missing trips
Notice something special about last week? Last week had far fewer cancellations than other days. They even brought back the 255 trips cut from the schedule back in January. Almost no bus shortage
How's this possible? This was because last week was March break, so no school routes were running.
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...
Section of the city staff report for Bus Lanes on Bank Street that says "Ultimately, bus lane hours extending beyond these peak periods, and in the off-peak direction, are recommended, including during a greater number of Lansdowne events and on weekends."
It is unfortunate that even though the city staff running the study for Bank Street Bus Lanes agrees with us that bus lanes should be in effect longer, on weekends, should operate in both directions, and that they should be running on events is being stifled by a small minority of very loud voices.
Text taken from the City of Ottawa's report for bus lanes on Bank Street with the following text : "Travel times are longest during major events, up to 18 minutes, when the high volume of buses, passenger drop-offs, staging, and increased pedestrian and vehicle activity affect both event attendees and other road users traveling through the corridor." The text "Travel times are longest during major events, up to 18 minutes" has been highlighted in yellow
Text from the City of Ottawa study on Bank Street reads : "During major events, parking demand within the study area exceeds supply, and this contributes to the large-scale adoption of transit by people travelling to major Lansdowne events." with the text : "large-scale adoption of transit by people travelling to major Lansdowne events." highlighted.
Text from the City of Ottawa study reads : "At this time, the pilot is not envisioned to affect transit or road operations during major events at Lansdowne"
The City of Ottawa's proposal during the open house in 2025 showing that they had intended for bus lanes to be in effect "in both directions during major events".
One concerning piece from the city's proposal for Bank Street bus lanes is that they seem to have removed large event bus lanes. Even though according to their own report, this is probably the most important time for bus lanes to be present.
Please sign up to delegate for the March 30th meeting!
Cancellations and trips removed from the schedule over time since January 7th On 2026-01-15, 584 trips were undelivered On 2026-03-13, 589 trips were delivered
With almost 600 cancelled and missing trips a day, and City Council saying nothing can be done on acquiring more buses any time soon, we can't delay the only thing the city can do to stop this bus cancellation crisis.
The bus lanes need to be put in place now, not in one and a half years.
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.
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!
Cancellations and trips removed from the schedule over time since January 7th
Cancellations and trips removed from the schedule over time since January 7th On 2026-01-15, 584 trips were undelivered On 2026-03-13, 589 trips were delivered
Which bus types are running in service each day since January 7th. On 2026-01-07, 473 buses were in service On 2026-03-13, 508 buses were in service
With R1 running this week, we are back to January levels of undelivered service when you include the service cuts
See our new dashboard to see if things are actually improving or not: bettertransitottawa.ca/tracker/hist...
With R1 this week, we are back to January levels of undelivered service when you include the service cuts
Part 2
On days like today with train outages, our bus fleet problems are even more severe.
Outages sometimes happen, and OC Transpo needs to have enough resources to be able to run R1 service without cannibalizing from the rest of the bus network.
Last month, we presented data on the true severity of our bus cancellation crisis to Transit Committee
The only way we're getting out of this is using our limited buses as efficiently as possible with
- Emergency bus lanes on key corridors
- Hiring and retaining the mechanics to fix our aging fleet
The city staff seem to have confirmed that the Bank Street study will be coming to PWIC on the 30th of March. We strongly urge anyone who is interested in pushing for a better solution to Bank Street to sign up to delegate! If you need help with signing up to delegate, we're more than happy to help!
A City Council motion that says: WHEREAS staff are recommending a downward revision to the Draft 2026 Operating and Capital diesel budget price from $1.16/L to $1.10/L; THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED THAT: That fares for riders ages 18 and under shall be free on Saturdays, Sundays, and public holidays, effective July 1, 2026; That staff be directed to explore the technical feasibility to implement free fares after 5:00pm to riders ages 18 and under, effective July 1, 2026; That the user fee table be amended to provide that seniors aged 65+ using Para Transpo be provided a credit each month of four standard urban fares (in 2026, $3.28), for up to four urban trips at no charge or for trips to or from the rural area at a reduced cost (in 2026, $7.72). The credits would expire at the end of each month and would not carry over into subsequent months; Transfer time for weekdays between 3:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m. shall be extended to 105 minutes. This measure would be temporary until the launch of LRT Stage 2 West to Algonquin Station and Moodie Station, expected in 2027; and
A chart that shows WTI crude prices rising by 50% since the beginning of the month
With oil prices rising, it's such a good thing City Council funded so many initiatives out of fuel price savings rather than general revenues.
What could go wrong with that plan?
