Dalhousie Community Association

Caring about Carling Last night was the first Public Advisory Committee (PAC) meeting for the Carling Avenue reconstruction project from the O-Train to Bronson Avenue. Scheduled for 2011, its for a complete rebuild of the street: new sewers, water mains, dozens of cable and gas pipes, curbs, sidewalks, lighting...everything. The handout emphasized the following priorities in this order: pedestrian, cycling, transit, vehicle. Of course, the the Technical Adisory Committee (TAC) had first whack at the project and they specified two through lanes in each direction, a bus lane, a cycling lane,very generous turn lanes, etc etc all of which exceeds the available right of way. Now, which elements do we guess might get dropped? No points for the correct answer: car lanes, bus lane, bike lane if room, "2m sidewalk (where feasible)". So much for ped priority. And for streetscaping ... to be added in at the end on the leftover spaces. So, I spent the evening in plesant dialogue w...

DCA minutes June 2, 2010 (draft) Present : Ida Henderson, Sean Darcy, David Seaborn, Eric Darwin, Michael Hatfield, Charles Akben-Marchand, Lisa-Marie Inman ,Zsofia Orosz, Phil Robinson, Stephen Bolton, Anne Cavlovic, Maija Kagis, Jessica Scallen, Archie Campbell, Laura Bergen from the councilors office. Adoption of May minutes : Charles and Michael Presentation by City staff on light rail plans , Dennis Gratton and Matt Easton Currently at borehole state, drilling is to complete our geological understanding of tunnel route and conditions.The current plan – with conservative assumptions – would see the tunnel open in 2019 for first travelers. Downtown LRT service in the tunnel is expected to eliminate 2000 buses per day downtown. OCTranspo developing a plan to redirect away routes from Albert/Slater. DCA members emphasized that pathways and bike routes should not be cut if funds are tight, unlike was the case during N/S plans. Denis said a mobility study is ongoing, incl...

The DCA is keenly interested in how the LRT project will affect or neighborhood and indeed all of Ottawa. We recently reviewed the proposed station design guidelines and provided extensive verbal commentary to the City at a recent PAC meeting. Here are our written comments: Ottawa Light Rail Design Guidelines for LRT Stations 2 June 2010 The Dalhousie Community Association represents the area from Bay Street to Bayview, from the Ottawa River to Carling Avenue. As such, our area of interest includes two major LRT stations: LeBreton and Bayview. We have a number of comments on the draft guidelines for station design. On the report as a whole: we are unclear as to a couple of key issues. The report calls for stations to be unique (3.2), and to have common elements. It is unclear if the idea is to have stations unique from each other or a signature design common to all stations. We prefer the each-one-unique approach. There needs to be greater clarity as to what elements could or ...