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It will soon take OC Transpo riders up to three minutes longer to travel between the west end and downtown Ottawa once another section of the Transitway closes Sunday, forcing hundreds of buses onto Scott and Albert streets.
All eastbound buses will be diverted off the Transitway at Merton Street to new bus-only lanes on Scott and Albert streets. Westbound buses will now enter the Transitway at Merton, where a new set of traffic signals has been installed.
This marks the first time a portion of the dedicated busway has closed west of downtown as part of the conversion to light rail. The stretch between Blair and Hurdman stations closed last June, while the stretch between Hurdman and Lees shut down before Christmas.
Unlike the changes in the east end — which saw some routes leap-frog Transitway stations they formerly stopped at and one station closed completely — the closure of the Transitway between Empress and Merton does not affect any of the routes that serve this area.
Riders will be delayed up to three minutes, “but probably less at all but the busiest times,” said Pat Scrimgeour, OC Transpo’s head of transit planning. “Outside rush hours, it might be hard to notice extra travel time at all.”
Buses using Scott and Albert, along with regular traffic, will now have to abide by traffic signals at Merton, Bayview, City Centre, Preston, Booth and Empress. “The bus will be a little bit slower because it takes longer to go through the signals than the current arrangement of the Transitway,” Scrimgeour said.
Bus lanes — marked with a white diamond — are restricted to buses, vehicles merging into traffic, and those making right-hand turns or entering a driveway. That means Scott and Albert, a heavily-used commuter route for those travelling between Tunney’s Pasture and downtown, is now essentially becoming a two-lane road.
Once the changes take effect, Kitchissippi Coun. Jeff Leiper says he’ll closely monitor the traffic impacts on residential streets and watch for an increase in cut-through traffic. He also wants to ensure the modelling OC Transpo did around acceptable noise and air quality levels as a result of the extra buses on Scott and Albert checks out, the delays aren’t longer than three minutes, and the whole mess doesn’t result in a drop in ridership.
Leiper says it’s crucial that OC Transpo drivers yield to cyclists who have the right-of-way on the multi-use pathway on the north side of Scott, where buses will enter and exit the Transitway at Merton.
At Bayview Road, the pedestrian and cycling pathway veers to the north, does a jog below the Transitway bridge and reconnects with a pathway on the other side that ultimately connects with the segregated lanes on Laurier Avenue. Users of the bike lane on the south side of Scott would be advised to use this connection until a similar link behind the Tom Brown Arena is built, Leiper said.
“Albert Street bridge is going to be a really uncomfortable environment with all those buses,” he said.
The Transitway fully closes later this year after the section between Lees and Laurier shuts down at the end of April and the section between Merton and Smirle follows suit at the end of June. It will not reopen until the $2.1-billion Confederation line begins service in 2018.
Key Transitway changes between Empress Avenue and Merton Street
• Routes 86, 87, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95, 96, 97, 98 and 99, as well as all west-end express and peak-only routes will use Scott and Albert streets
• LeBreton and Bayview Transitway stations will be relocated to Albert Street
• Out-of-service buses will be routed via the Sir John A. Macdonald Parkway in order to minimize the number of buses on Scott and Albert
mpearson@ottawacitizen.com
twitter.com/mpearson78
查看原文...
All eastbound buses will be diverted off the Transitway at Merton Street to new bus-only lanes on Scott and Albert streets. Westbound buses will now enter the Transitway at Merton, where a new set of traffic signals has been installed.
This marks the first time a portion of the dedicated busway has closed west of downtown as part of the conversion to light rail. The stretch between Blair and Hurdman stations closed last June, while the stretch between Hurdman and Lees shut down before Christmas.
Unlike the changes in the east end — which saw some routes leap-frog Transitway stations they formerly stopped at and one station closed completely — the closure of the Transitway between Empress and Merton does not affect any of the routes that serve this area.
Riders will be delayed up to three minutes, “but probably less at all but the busiest times,” said Pat Scrimgeour, OC Transpo’s head of transit planning. “Outside rush hours, it might be hard to notice extra travel time at all.”
Buses using Scott and Albert, along with regular traffic, will now have to abide by traffic signals at Merton, Bayview, City Centre, Preston, Booth and Empress. “The bus will be a little bit slower because it takes longer to go through the signals than the current arrangement of the Transitway,” Scrimgeour said.
Bus lanes — marked with a white diamond — are restricted to buses, vehicles merging into traffic, and those making right-hand turns or entering a driveway. That means Scott and Albert, a heavily-used commuter route for those travelling between Tunney’s Pasture and downtown, is now essentially becoming a two-lane road.
Once the changes take effect, Kitchissippi Coun. Jeff Leiper says he’ll closely monitor the traffic impacts on residential streets and watch for an increase in cut-through traffic. He also wants to ensure the modelling OC Transpo did around acceptable noise and air quality levels as a result of the extra buses on Scott and Albert checks out, the delays aren’t longer than three minutes, and the whole mess doesn’t result in a drop in ridership.
Leiper says it’s crucial that OC Transpo drivers yield to cyclists who have the right-of-way on the multi-use pathway on the north side of Scott, where buses will enter and exit the Transitway at Merton.
At Bayview Road, the pedestrian and cycling pathway veers to the north, does a jog below the Transitway bridge and reconnects with a pathway on the other side that ultimately connects with the segregated lanes on Laurier Avenue. Users of the bike lane on the south side of Scott would be advised to use this connection until a similar link behind the Tom Brown Arena is built, Leiper said.
“Albert Street bridge is going to be a really uncomfortable environment with all those buses,” he said.
The Transitway fully closes later this year after the section between Lees and Laurier shuts down at the end of April and the section between Merton and Smirle follows suit at the end of June. It will not reopen until the $2.1-billion Confederation line begins service in 2018.
Key Transitway changes between Empress Avenue and Merton Street
• Routes 86, 87, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95, 96, 97, 98 and 99, as well as all west-end express and peak-only routes will use Scott and Albert streets
• LeBreton and Bayview Transitway stations will be relocated to Albert Street
• Out-of-service buses will be routed via the Sir John A. Macdonald Parkway in order to minimize the number of buses on Scott and Albert
mpearson@ottawacitizen.com
twitter.com/mpearson78
查看原文...
