Travel Markets and Public Transit

Introduction 

As part of the Transportation Master Plan process, the City commissioned a study into travel called the "Transport Trends Report", which analyzes transportation across town. This document can be found on the City of Ottawa website. 

These surveys are a gold mine of data, and TRANS conducts other transport surveys with semi-regularity. I recommend anyone reading this blog to read both the report and at the TRANS surveys. 

To our interest today is the Origin-Destination survey, which analyzes travel destinations for all trips in Ottawa. The last of these was conducted in 2011, coincidentally when Network Optimization fossilized the bus route network. 

I will look at the report at a high-level, analyzing the large-scale markets that OC Transpo could serve. 

A cautionary note, the O-D survey was conducted in 2022, when many peoples' travel patterns were in flux; the dust had not yet settled from the fallout of the pandemic. Transit ridership is about 40% higher than it was at the time, and no doubt some of the O-D survey data is already obsolete. 

Transportation Master Plan: failure at City Hall, Pt. III

Introduction

On the first of April, the city released its Transportation Master Plan update. This is the third and final article in a three-part series on this joke. The first, link here, covers the contents of the plan. The second, link here, is a detailed rant on why this plan is terrible as a "Transportation Master Plan" (as opposed to, say, a feasibility study). This article will focus on how I think we got to this point, and what can be done about it. 

This article contains much speculation. You have been warned. 

Transportation Master Plan: failure at City Hall, Pt. II

Introduction

On the first of April, the City released its draft Transportation Master Plan, or TMP, and befitting this date, it's a complete joke. The TMP is a document that guides city planning on all transportation matters; this one is intended to go through 2046, though the document is irregularly updated.

This is the second part in my three-piece series on the new TMP. If you're not already familiar with it, take a read through part one to get an understanding of what the TMP is and how it came to be.

If you haven't read it, I encourage you to take a skim through the official TMP propaganda reports and get a sense of what I'm talking about.

Transportation Master Plan: failure at City Hall, Pt. I

Introduction

The City's new Transportation Master Plan (TMP) for transit and roads came out on the first of April after a last-minute delay from the day before. That the TMP was hastily pushed for a release on April Fool's is a level of symbolism that says everything essential about this bungled plan. 

Before we start, I think it should be clear that I strongly dislike the new TMP. I will oppose it as much as I can, and I encourage you to do so as well.