This City is Underrated and Frustrating At The Same Time
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 22 พ.ย. 2024
- In this video we cover our experiences, good and bad, with Ottawa, a city that we think is both underrated and frustrating.
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I don't know why all of the great urban planning channels are Canadian, but that seems to be the case! Thank you for helping teach me, an ignorant American, so much about Canadian cities.
Hey, don't discount city nerd and strong towns! Jokes aside, I'm glad that the Canadians are teaching us Americans about the errors of our ways...😂
canadian and american cities are largely similar, americas capitol is probably better from an urbanist perspective than ottawa
@@jamalgibson8139 Good examples, but Strong Towns is in Minnesota which is basically Canada anyway. 😂 This is coming from a big fan of Strong Towns and Iowan.
Yeah, they certainly are making a great case for moving to Canada.
yeah, Oh the Urbanity, Not just bikes, and RM Transit are some of my favourite channels
As an Ottawan, I gotta say this is a great nuanced video, with the accidental bonus of being uploaded as we got our latest O-Train shutdown from the ice storm.
This popped up in my feed as a section was closed for maintenance. Lol
Best Urban planning in Ottawa was done by a bunch of truckers.
As a Canadian, and a fan of good urban design, I appreciate your videos. I also enjoy the content of other urbanism TH-cam channels, but it is nice to see content geared to the specifics of Canadian cities
Atlanta gets me the same way. We have bike lanes, but people park in them. We have transit, but it barely goes anywhere useful. We have a multi-use path around the city, but it's so clogged with tourists that you can't bike on it except in odd hours.
I've lived in Atlanta for 31 years, and it just blows my mind that we haven't built a new MARTA train line since 2001. Yes, there are bike lanes, but I have not seen many PROTECTED bike lanes (that would keep cars out of them). Protected bike lanes show that there is a commitment to bike lanes. MARTA seems to be going all in on BRT instead of LRT for all of the new "proposed" lines that are in the works. I worry that as the cost overruns come, the frequency will decrease, and the buses having to go into mixed traffic will increase. MARTA also has not been honest about the cost of BRT. While it may cost less up front, maintenance costs are extremely high with internal combustion engines vs electric. Lots of points of failure, and lot of parts to stock as well as constantly replacing tires. The Beltline is a real bright spot. I hope transit gets built on it too.
I was literally just about to comment about Atlanta. This city honestly has so much potential that just has been untapped and it’s frustrating. It’s a great place that has the real potential to be even better.
@@scpatl4now - I've lived here for 54 years and am a 4th generation native. I rode MARTA for 25 cents the first week it opened.
They need a LOT of intown rail before they worry about taking it out to the suburbs.
There are some protected bike lanes, but they still get parked in. A little enforcement would go a long way towards that.
If there is one city that has good transit, it is Atlanta. And it goes to all the popular place. There are only a few cities better than Atlanta and non are in Canada.
@@TommyJonesProductions The NIMBYs make the intown part really hard to do. Just look at the fuss they are making about extending the streetcar to Ponce City Market...somewhere people actually want to go to. That adds a lot of cost to projects due to delays.
having moved from Ottawa to Halifax, i agree with most of your assessment. I think one thing that gets glanced under what you called "nature", is the use of public space as a replacement to backyards for urban dwellers. The parks are comfortable to go use just for a picnic, or sit are read a book, watch birds, play safely with kids etc. This became even more obvious with the pandemic. Now if only it could learn from Montreal as to having a glass of wine....
I'm debating between uOttawa or Dalhousie for university, which city would you recommend more?
@@serbansaredwood uottawa is the better university on paper but Dalhousie would be the better experience and you wouldn't want to rip your hair out for not having the francophone privilege in uottawa
@@serbansaredwood what are your criteria? Halifax is probably quieter, but currently experiencing growing pain (below 1% vacancy rate). If if look at the 5 Requirements from the video, i would say the only one Halifax is a clear winner is Proximity of services/groceries. Bike infrastructure is bad and so is transit. Other 2 are toss ups. I do have feeling that Halifax being smaller the University community is tighter (which can be good and bad)
@@jjjiljjjj there is no Francophone privilege at uOttawa. I studied there for a semester, from France, and the practical way of doing things was only speaking English. Of course if ever I really needed help in French I could have found it but you don’t even notice the university is bilingual. The only French I used was when speaking to other students or writing email to the administration.
@@augth please. The Francophones despite dominating the entire administration and all the campus jobs requiring French or at least considering it an "asset" are reason enough, but on top of that an all their francophone scholarships and extra privileges on campus even have their own "Francophone safe space" lounge. And they freak about about a professor criticizing Quebec's racist tendencies too. What a joke of a university.
As someone living in Ottawa right now, this is a great summary of the issues and benefits of living in Ottawa. It has a lot of potential, and I am hopeful that with things like the Official Plan, the extensions to the Otrain, and the upcoming review of city zoning, that Ottawa will only continue to improve. The city planners seem to be in touch with the right way to urbanize Ottawa moving forward. I only hope that city councillors, the mayor, and other local governance can get on board too
Even though Ottawa is the capital of Canada ... people are very english speaking with an american culture ... as a french speaker , every time i am in Ottawa , i dont find any Canadian identity ... very USA
Our family has to buy a second car because they removed the western Queensway bus routes and transit now takes me 3 hours a day. No, I will not bicycle across the city under any circumstances. Build more transit. I'm happy to vote and pay for it.
Ottawa is unable to make progress because the central districts were merged with the suburbs and rural outskirts, causing a pro-sprawl balance of power on city council, Montreal's suburbs mostly opted out of being merged with the central city, and this has allowed for improvements to cycling, pedestrian and transit infrastructure.
As someone who lives in Ottawa, you nailed it...especially finding it both underrated and frustrating at the same time. I find this dichotomy often also with it being the capital city of a G7 country, while also having a small town feel and attitude by locals a lot.
I find the frustrating part about Ottawa is how the central city is a nice city that feels worthy of being a world capital, but then almost immediately it drops off into the worst suburbia I've ever seen. The contrast is jarring
Ottawa is so close to getting it if you look at official plans. We just need a council to implement it but the NIMBYs and carbrains are strong.
Your contributions to discussions of urbanism in Ottawa will be greatly missed, but I hope you keep up the good work you’ve been doing!
I think the Otrain is best expressed as a light S-bahn. It provides regular downtown stops, but is mainly meant to connect suburbs to the downtown, not act as urban transport.
I think with Otrain and the bike Network, Ottawa is a really strong example of recovering from sprawl, but a bad example of building an Urban area, with areas lime Glebe losing density.
Haha my girlfriend lives in Germany and since coming back I started calling it the O-bahn lol. You’re right they’re pretty similar
All the "good" points don't apply just 10 minutes car ride out of the city centre. I hear these points all the time from friends living downtown but most of us are getting a horrible experience of having to drive everywhere and buses that show up when they feel like. Never mind the 70 minute bus rides that would be 15 by car
This exactly. Everywhere outside the centre experiences a huge decrease in density such that most people are a long walk (at best) from one of the connections to the "rapid" bus/train. If you live in Centretown, the Glebe, etc, you're in a vibrant city with lots of different shops, restaurants, bars, and so on. If you live, say, west of Dow's Lake, you're in a car-brain driven asphalt nightmare (maybe Westboro, right by the station, is a minor exception?).
Anytime someone from Canada/US says "good public transit/walkability/bikeability", take what they say with a mountain of salt. It's a damn shame how normalized terrible city planning is in North America.
I'd love to see an urbanist deep dive comparing Calgary and Edmonton. Having lived in Edmonton for awhile, I was always surprised how probably the worst managed province in the country seems to have two of the most exciting cities.
It's getting much better. Alberta suffers a bit from Dutch disease. I'm not anti oil by any means, but I'm anti car, and anti sprawl.
My next house will be in an urban area within Edmonton.
Edmonton and to a lesser extent Calgary are little orange dots in a sea of blue
I like the point that was made towards the end of the video about Edmonton, Calgary, and Ottawa being the best cities for affordable urbanism in Canada. I live in Winnipeg, and when people ask me what city I would move to if I had to move, I usually say Edmonton. People ask me, "Why not Toronto, Vancouver, or Montreal?" Then I explain the point you made in this video, that Toronto and Vancouver are too expensive, and Montreal has a mostly French job market.
Now that being said, as someone from Winnipeg, I still find the housing prices in Calgary and Ottawa are quite high. I really think Edmonton is the best city for affordable urbanism in Canada. Especially the neighbourhoods of Oliver and Strathcona.
As a Canadian the frustrating thing about Ottawa is it has SO much damn potential that no one has gotten around to using it and fixing the problems that the city does have!
I live in Blackburn Hamlet, just outside of Ottawa, I can say the city is trying to recover from car dependency, unfortunately, the architecture and institutions are still car dependent, which is why the buses struggle, and the light rail has issues, simply put, cars have the right of way in daily transportation. It's also not helped by motorists, so concerned about maintaining their dominance, they protest against Ottawa building public services, particularly mass transit, heaven forbid downtown residences can travel without driving.
The O-Train is basically the transit equivalent of the McDonald's ice cream machine.
But it's still a great system (when it works).
I want stats on these ice cream machines. I'll give it to you if you can tell me they have 99% up time each, on average!
Yeah I worked at McD's and I can 2nd this comment.
Would love to see an overview of Edmonton and Calgary as well as your personal suggestions for things to work towards.
Im from Melbourne, Australia but studied a semester at uOttawa. I must say, for a student without a car, Ottawa was a great city to go to (by North American standards). There was so much to do in a relatively small area: skating on the canal, cycling, Gatineau Park, the Byward Market with clubs, bars and restaurants, museums, shopping centres (malls), karaoke - the list goes on. I had an absolute blast there and this makes me miss my time there. One major downside though is the weather, and I cant help but feel it might be the reason Ottawa is not a much larger city. The winters there are BRUTAL. But then again, bigger isnt always better, so maybe thats a good thing
I visited Melbourne just a week ago. Absolutely stellar city!
@@RichardHartl thank you. It is a great city, I love living here. It is getting very big these days though
@@RyanMoran1992 I can relate, Toronto is just the same way
Ottawa is covered in snow for half the year!
glad you enjoyed your time in our city
As a cycling commuter who has lived in Ottawa for 10 years, you are spot on. The number of times I've nearly died walking across the street because cars couldn't be bothered to wait to turn left is staggering. It is a nice city, but very frustrating sometime. Cycling along the canal to get to downtown areas is probably my favourite feature.
I wish you had refrenced areas like Meadowlands and Merivale as examples of density done wrong, in a way that induces traffic and creates a bad reputation.
Kitchener Waterloo resident here. During and after the ION LRT line was built, the main bus terminal in downtown Kitchener was shut down and the stops for different bus routes were scattered across the downtown, which has left riders with no adequate shelter while waiting for their bus during the cold winter and hot summer months. The terminal has been planned to be relocated to an empty site next to an abandoned building by Victoria St and King St but it's been years and construction still hasn't begun.
A few months ago some temporary construction fencing was installed around the site and the abandoned building next to it, and I hope this is a sign that construction will begin this year.
As an electric-scooter rider in Ottawa I feel like if our cycling routes and transit are considered pretty good, then our bar must be extremely low compared to other world cities. At the same time, it could be worse. I still feel like cars a heavily prioritized in Ottawa.
Cars are indeed heavily prioritized, but Ottawa's multi-use pathways make it better than most North American cities for cycling.
I don't think you can really generalize regarding world cities. Like, is biking similar at all in Beijing, Bangkok, New York, London, and Mexico City?
Though certainly North America as a whole does very poorly when compared to Europe as a whole.
I'd love for ya'll to make a video on Edmonton if you haven't already. I live in a relatively good spot for biking being pretty central downtown and I've noticed as soon as I have to go anywhere outside of there, the routes can get quite dangerous.
I would also love to see a video on Edmonton if possible!
the biking likes r literally like downtown , strathcona and that's it. lets hope this 100 mil does a lot more.
Calgarian and former Ottawan here. One thing about Ottawa (at least when I lived there) is that the city doesn't plow the protected bike lanes. Since moving to Calgary I've been pleasantly surprised and how diligent the City is at plowing bike lanes. Would be curious if that's the case in YEG as well.
Good luck with the [redacted] there who believe that the 15 minute city concept is the start of a dystopian nightmare.
Cyclists paid a high price for the O'Connor bike path. A lot of growing pains when it was introduced which amounted to it taking time for drivers to know how to interact with it through a deadly trial-and-error.
The downsides of having to interact with the average driver are everywhere. Turns out that the traffic laws only worked on the honour system. In Vancouver it’s bad and getting worse. Yellow is green and red is the turning signal. Stay safe out there.
ALL laws only work on the honor system. You can tell when a place is nearing its collapse when the people stop adhering to the laws in general.
All I remember about the last time I visited Ottawa was that since so much of the town was on government time, rush hour was crazy as everyone left their offices at once. This was long before the pandemic so not sure if working from home has changed this. They still used pesticides in park lands as all the parks were weed free and there seemed to be more exercise conscious inhabitants overall which could explain the cycling experience. From what I've heard, there's not much of a downtown night life.
Nah Toronto is the nightlife, shopping place…ohhh yaaaaa
It's better post pandemic and the very recent PSAC contract will encourage more regular work from home. Pesticides have long been banned from city properties too. I'm long past the clubbing age, but yes it's no Toronto.
Good video, but as a Waterluvian, I have to stick up for our LRT. It is not grade separated, but it has its own right of way. The only way it can be stopped by traffic is through human error, such as a car parked on the tracks..
The frequencies are accurate though (10 on peak, 15 off peak).
I've lived in Ottawa all my life so I am biased in both directions.
6 Years ago we moved from West Wellington (Westboro) to Kanata (Old Glen Cairn) primarily because of housing costs. Prices have gone up in the core areas but not to the insane extent of Toronto or Vancouver. Our old neighborhood was very walkable with lots of amenities and I could bike (30-40 mins) or walk (about 1 hr) to work in Gatineau reasonably safely on shared or dedicated paths. Some of the spandex commuter crowd do ride aggressively on the shared paths though. Winter was cold on foot if you didn't dress properly but the views across the frozen river are spectacular. What we saw in the years before we left was small local stores bought out to build condo towers, admittedly with retail space but focussed more on the market that could afford those condos and not the surrounding existing community
Out in the suburbs now, there are still some amenities in walking distance, and groceries are still well within easy biking distance. This is mostly because our area was built in the 60's. In newer developments, you are back to the suburban requirement for a car to get anything or go anywhere. Even in our older neighbourhood, it's not perfect as sidewalks are either single side or non-existent, and the street grid is not always best for pedestrian access - it can be a long walk to get to a store behind your neighbours back yard.
However, when it works, the transit is really good contrary to our griping. I can get to work from the far west end of town to Gatineau in about the same hour it took to walk. And if I decide to walk, the route from the Pimsi Station at Lebreton to Gatineau offers superb views of Parliament, the River and the Falls, and to me is worth the effort. That I can literally drop in to the War Museum on the way home is a bonus for me.
Once the light rail problems get sorted out, and the routes are completed to the west and east, it's going to be a superb system linking the east, west and south suburbs through feeder busses and fast light rail.
You touched on one thing going for Ottawa - it's a very green city. Lots of trees and green spaces in the core which in turn is surrounded by the Greenbelt which offers hiking and recreational areas and more importantly, a green break between the core and the suburbs. For me it's an important psychological benefit and it keeps truly natural areas accessible to those in the core. Secondly is that Ottawa doesn't blend into the surrounding urban areas like Toronto does. In an hour or less, you can be in farming or natural areas where you might not even get phone service then of course there's Algonquin Park a short-ish drive away, where you can really get away to nature.
It is a beautiful city, and frankly the thing I like best about Toronto, is coming home to Ottawa.
i'll say it - one of the major reasons i love this channel is your voices! they are so listenable and engaging
Something you should mention when talking about Ottawa is the lack of integration with its sister city Gatineau. If you wanna go anywhere in Ottawa from Gatineau only using tansit, you might have to take a Gatineau bus to O-Train, to then transfer to another bus in Ottawa. Same applies when you wanna go from anywhere in Ottawa to Gatineau. Transit is actually really good here. You got 15-20 min bus almost everywhere. The freezing rain in an issue here. It will also be an issue for the REM.
Can confirm, live in Ottawa my whole life. This has been my understanding of this city. 2 steps forward, one step back everytime
The Vancouver problem with COL is becoming an increasing issues in many US cities with decent urbanism and transit (by NA standards). I would love to just move to Denver, Seattle, NYC but I can't afford the obscene rents. Even inhospitable places like my home of Florida are over my budget now...luckily I live in a rural cheap college town with decent bike trails to live comfortably enough.
I would like to comment on transit riding in Ottawa. I've always been an advocate for taking transit whenever possible, but once I moved from Halifax to Ottawa in 2011, I yearned to get my driver's licence so that I could get from A to B. Even before the bus detours during the construction of the LRT, bussing was never quick enough for me to get from my home to work (Glouster Vanier) or school (Glouster Nepean). Things were made even worse during the detour and construction era when I was living in Vanier trying to get into Algonquin College (Nepean) and then work in Kanata North. What used to be a 1 hour bus ride with 1 transfer turned into a nightmare of 3 connections that often had me in the transit system for 2.5 hours going to and from work.
I spent 3 months living in Ottawa in the summer of 2016, but before then I'd visit frequently because I had an aunt (RIP) who lived there. I lived on Prince of Wales Drive, between Baseline and Hog's Back Road. Had to live there for work, hated the neighbourhood. Lived in a big ugly tower, biked to and from work every day. On my days off, I enjoyed biking around the city, and I found that transit was pretty decent, especially once I got out of the suburbs and into the transitway. My aunt lived in New Edinburgh, though. THAT is a place I wouldn't mind living in. Dense, walkable, attractive, great park access, somewhat frequent buses. During that summer, I'd go meet up with her from time to time and we'd walk her dog together. She had a genuine community in her building. It reminded me of the best parts of growing up in Vancouver. It's not surprising that both the PM and GG's official residences are in New Edinburgh.
Ottawa's original sin is that its expansion was planned for cars, not people. If only someone in power could wage a proper War on Cars there, a Butlerian Jihad, it could genuinely be something special. People complain about how downtown is dead after 8 PM, and that's true and probably unavoidable, but there needs to be things to see and do outside of downtown. That's one of Montreal's strengths. In Ottawa, I found myself going out to strip mall bars and shops to do things after work. Not fun.
I do feel the need to point out that for white collar jobs, Montreal's job market is more limited if you don't speak English than if you don't speak French. Bilingualism is a bonus, but English is essential on any of the jobs I'm applying to. If you want to work a skilled trade (especially on a jobsite, not as an entrepreneur), then French is essential and English is usually helpful but unnecessary. It really depends on your sector.
Thumb for you for using "Butlerian Jihad" in a sentence.
As someone who was born and raised in Ottawa, and now lives on Montreal's south shore, I totally agree with your opinion of both Ottawa and Montreal. Great video!
Very good points. I agree, Ottawa is underrated and frustrating at the same time. I would've liked to hear you talk about the incredible contrast between capital Ottawa and regular Ottawa, which are always within a 5 minute walk of each other. To me, that's also very frustrating. I love to see the beautiful heritage buildings, the Parliament Hill escarpment, Gatineau Park and its quaint villages (you should try driving to Lac-des-Loups for extensive forest skating and picturesque villages along the way), the wonderful NCC trails & bike paths, and the playful yet elegant Châteauesque architecture that used to represent Canadiana. I get very disappointed when it's made clear that this is a tiny slice of Ottawa, that the capital-building project never extended outside of a few areas, that the city's planning policy and public works do nothing to acknowledge what the NCC is doing nor does it put any effort into developing a capital identity for the city - or any particular identity at all. The typical North American architecture and urban structure, the over-supply of roads, and the lack of ambition and principles really disappoints me.
When living in the Glebe, Ottawa is a dream for urbanism 😊
This video reminds me of “insert American city here”. So much potential if the dominant car culture is undone. Thanks for sharing ❤
Also still waiting on that StL shoutout since you snubbed us earlier 😢
I lived in Ottawa for four years and I loved getting around the city by bike! I’m back in Toronto now but I greatly miss the network of quiet bike routes that I used multiple times a day. At the same time, it’s also a frustrating city since it has so much potential but municipal planners keep on mismanaging the city, especially its infrastructure. Hopefully, city planners will get their acts back together and help it live up to its fullest potential.
Would love to see a video about the Kitchener-Waterloo region!
Very interesting timing of the video as the O-train is down again lol. Great video as usual, keep up the good work!
WTF are they doing to that train? It's 2023 not 1823, we should have figured out how to run trains!
As someone who moved from Ottawa to Toronto for grad school , 50% of the reason I didn't move back to Ottawa as originally planned is I got the high of a walkable and denser city that had several modes of decent transportation. So this is spot on.
I've been hit twice by cars turning into me at intersections in the last decade here in Ottawa. I now watch cars like a hawk.
You jumping on them and rip them open? Nice!
Some cyclist got hit and killed by a motorist near where I lived in Ottawa. Horrible city.
@@steemlenn8797
Lol tht wld b a sight 2 c! 😂
@@jjjiljjjj That happens in basically all cities, I don't think you can write off all of Ottawa because of a single accident.
Banning right on red citywide would be a good start. It just doesn't make sense in any world where pedestrians exist.
But if you want cycling and walking to be really safe from left and right turning drivers you really need to re-engineer the roads. Which is unfortunately really not cost effective to roll out quickly. On the bright side it's absolutely doable to roll out as you perform periodic road work on the 20 or 30 year cycle as we do everywhere. The first step is to build comprehensive road plans to promote safety and better neighborhoods, and then adhere to them.
I love that little comment about the ‘other university in town’ 😂 I’d really love to ottawa do more this video really nails it. The spirit and infrastructure is there for a truly great pedestrian and public transport oriented city, but the management by politicians is terrifyingly incompetent. I’d hate to see the day that some of these folks start to undo the progress the city has made.
As a combo government, university, and tourist town, Ottawa is an interesting mix indeed. Living there about two decades ago I managed to avoid having a car through bike and bus (I would've loved the o-train) and heavy use of the NCC pathways. Kind of amazing to see how much it hasn't (yet) changed over the decades (including, alas, the drivers). Thank you for the video!
Great video as always! I think your description is apt for all 3 of the "second tier" cities. Edmonton and Calgary echo Ottawa's successes and failures too. But each city can offer a great urban experience more affordably if you work a bit for it. I am excited for all three in years to come as they all have so much potential.
Ottawa should be pedestrianised, it's a planned city built primarily for governmental functions, and consequently, education, and tourism. Ottawa's industries would benefit more from pedestrianisation than most other cities.
Another excellent video, thank you for talking about a city in Canada that isn’t Van, Mtl or Tor.
I live in Gatineau and now have an 11.5km commute by fully separated bike lanes and river pathways to get to my office downtown Ottawa. So nice!! I will try the bus next winter, but I also love the idea of the Gatineau Transit Loop!
The worst thing that happened to this city was the forced amalgamation of all the towns into one city by Premier Mike Harris. Ottawa 'proper' should have remained at the boundaries of Bayshore to the west, the Airport to the south, and the Montfort hospital/La Cite College to the east. Now we have a system where the councilors of Osgoode & Cumberland both for some reason have the right to vote on transit despite the fact that their communities have 5-10k people and don't even get bus service. The city should have remained divided with each town 'competing' to attract businesses & residents.
0:40 the only times drivers should turn into pedestrians is when they decide to walk somewhere instead of driving
love your videos but one day could you focus more on Calgary, Edmonton, Halifax etc. ? would be cool to see your analysis on the livability of these cities as someone without a car
We covered Halifax here:
th-cam.com/video/mxNoPe5xSQM/w-d-xo.html
Calgary and Edmonton would probably need us to actually visit and get footage
@@OhTheUrbanity I feel like you could give a basic analysis that would be valuable if you rented an Airbnb for a week in each city this summer. Obviously if you want to commit your PTO to that is a different matter
I am a student at the University of Ottawa, recently moved in the city.
I took a stroll following the canal near the University. Every single pathway was closed for construction or for something else. So I had to take some stairs and then it circled me around back to the University. I was so bummed. I just wanted to take a stroll because it was a beautiful day. I left the campus specifically for that. But the path led me immediatly back to the campus. I was so pissed.
the Ottawa red light dashers is so frequent it's a quintessential experience
Great balanced analysis! Thanks!
I used to live in Ottawa for a dozen years until 2015, I commuted by bike and transit the whole time. The bus system was actually pretty great, and I loved the old north/south o-train. Riding the canal was a great way to get to work.
Maybe that's why the American State department issues a warning about people running red lights in Canada (given that Ottawa is where the embassy is, and where meetings with the Canadian government happen, and thus the city state department folk are likely to see).
I got a little ramblepost of the intersection between Ottawa's govt and urban living aspects:
My English teacher lives in the downtown neighborhood where the prime minister is. When Biden was visiting, he reportedly had to dodge security to get to my school. There was apparently some protocol to keep the route Biden was taking to the meeting clear of vehicles, because my teacher complained about having to park his car somewhere not on his street and walk to his house. I would dismiss that complaint, but he's in his 60s so maybe he has arthiritis and joint pain is a concern for him. And perhaps the convoys have set a precedent for certain things being more pressing than the discomfort of downtown residents.
Compared to Montreal and Toronto, life here in Ottawa is a little bit dull and slow, but life here is much easier, simpler, more relaxed. It all depends on what you are looking for. The down side, is public transit. You're better off getting a car in Ottawa. (Subways and buses break down, don't show up, don't stop, often late, really tough waiting for the bus in the winter time.)
In defence of the Waterloo Region LRT, it does not get stuck in traffic. It very occasionally stops for a red light, but once the signal changes, it gets priority. It has very good on time performance in my experience, unless we get freezing rain.
I live in Ottawa right now, I guess it's okay for Canada but I hate it. Its cycling network consists mainly of 3 multiuse pathways which are snowed over throughout the winter so I've had to bike along 4 and 6 lane stroads all winter. There are not nearly enough protected bike lanes. I live out in Nepean where pedestrian dignity is a joke. Random fences make walking routes unnecessarily long. On baseline road, there are many bus stops on busy roads without any kind of sidewalks or access, sidewalks randomly end forcing you to cross high speed stroads or backtrack like a km. In the last five years at least 3 pedestrians were killed on baseline road and many others seriously injured. A 17 year old was seriously injured in 2021 in a hit and run. Police reviewed the footage and said the driver was not at fault before even identifying them
I agree but I think mark sutcliffe is doing a good job to help fix it
@@Malc307 yeah passing an octranspo budget with a 40 million dollar cut, hoping that the provincial government steps in and bails it out is definitely helping while spending 20 million on a new highway on ramp and far more on other car infrastructure projects. Running on a campaign of not funding bike lanes or talking about how there's a war on cars. Everytime I see a news story about another murdered pedestrian I send it to him and ask him to tell me more about the war on cars
@@Malc307 oh y si realmente sois vos Mark, sois entero perkin qlo
@@nick2555v6 Ottawa is far better than other places, I’ve found it’s only improved, your problem is you live in Nepean
Try riding in the arctic through the winter.
Can you guys do a video on Calgary? I know you don't live there (or haven't, for that matter), but it would still be interesting to see your opinions on it. I seems like it's got a lot of potential, both from urban amenities / walkable-ish downtown, to accessible nature etc.
Shifter is from there, so that would be a good featuring :)
Always be aware of your surroundings because everyone else is sleeping.
As a Canadian who has lived across Canada, I can say for certain the number of bus commuters in Ottawa also comes down to the cost. Ontario's horrible roads, and prevalence of vehicle rust makes owning a car in Ontario considerably more expensive than other provinces.
I would love to cross-country ski to work! Ski trails in the city are such a great idea. Do Quebec drivers in Montreal act better? I live in Toronto and find most drivers act like they are above the law, interesting to see that is also true in Ottawa. Maybe there is something with Ontario traffic laws and policing that makes drivers feel like they can do whatever they want.
Another informative and interesting video. I'm a fan!
One reason that Ottawa is somewhat contradictory from a pedestrian cycling point if view is that it is part of the national capital region of Ottawa -Gatineau managed by one Federal ,two Provincial and two Municipal governments. The result is a fractured transportation network and that needed bridges to connect Ottawa and Gatineau have never been built
It's a shame not to have Canadian Capital Territory.
@@vincentng2392 It certainly is a shame. In Ottawa - Gatineau we have 3 separate transportation master plans : Ottawa, Gatineau and the Federal National Capital Commission (NCC). The Alexandria bridge crossing the Ottawa River will soon need to be replaced, but there is still no agreement on where the new bridge will go.
I hate how Ottawa has so many beg buttons in the middle of centretown, and on bank st. Even the lights that see the busiest foot traffic make them press a button and wait a cycle to cross. Was pleasantly surprised that this is not the case in Montreal.
In Ottawa I have all 5 of your bullet points living in the Glebe Annex (the area near the NRCAN complex on Carling) with very affordable rent.
Winnipeg can be underrated and frustrating at the same time. There needs to be an overview of my hometown.
Agreed. A lot of things about Winnipeg I love, a lot of things about Winnipeg that drive me up the damn wall.
Winnipeg deserves a light rail system given the current population growth.
It’s under rated if you have money. If you don’t have money there is no alternative to our daily frustration.
Ottawa's O-Train runs every 5 minutes when it runs. I believe it's currently down again because of the recent storm.
Partially in service when I rode it this afternoon.
The Otrain runs every 5 minutes almost all day 5 days a week! (we just like to switch up which)
I am glad Otrain has been getting better, although there is always going to be a part of me that asks "what if we switched to trolley buses and put those through a shorter tunnel"
Probably would have the same or similar wire issues. Would have lower capacity and much slower. On the other hand it would likely be more resilient. Additionally, you also trade higher operating costs for lower capital costs. I don't think it's a worthwhile trade but some would disagree.
@@reed3974 It would also have been a faster project, reducing ridership loss over the 3 years of losing the transit way. And the route would still be available for diesel buses, if icing was severe, although there would be a weird transfer at the tunnel.
Have to dosagree with slower, the BRT was quite good. Maybe a little slower, but not much, the train isn't going 100km/h. Lower capacity I can't argue with in the tunnel, although I think with local buses keeping the bus lanes above groud it would be muted, whereas with the train we lost those lanes.
Definitely higher opperating, but much lower capital, and again the time factor.
@@neolithictransitrevolution427 probably not much shorter construction time. Tunneling for trolley busses would take similar time than tunneling for trains. Only time savings would be in smaller station excavation.
Also consider additional infrastructure needed for ventilation if diesel busses are allowed in tunnels.
Time savings for trains is due to reduced boarding time(though this can be minimized with specialized busses) and bus slower acceleration and deceleration and consider.
@@reed3974 Trains require a lower grade than busses. A bus tunnel could have been placed at the end of the Mackenzie street bridge entering downtown, but the train needed lower grade, which in turn required being deeper than the Rideau canal bt the time it reached there, pushing the tunnel to before Laurier station. I'm not just saying this a bus tunnel was considered, although without Electrification.
Additionally, the track had to be built along the entire route, whereas the transit highway would have been able to stay open for buses for the vast majority of construction. Building the poles for trolley wires would have been far less impactful. The fact the Hurdman Bridge likely had to be replaced, shuting down the transitway regardless, is in my opinion the strongest argument for the LRT selection.
I didn't say to allow diesel buses in the tunnel though. I said the bus lanes on the surface should have been maintained for diesel buses, and the 95 and 97 etc should, in my opinion, have been turned into trolley buses, and eventually double joineted trolley buses (for higher, though not LRT, capacity per vehicle), as they are (were) the main through traffic.
With electrication I see no reason why buses would accelerate slower, and in fact with rubber tires would accelerate faster (although practically that limit is set by rider comfort). Boarding does offer fewer doors I don't disagree there.
Downtown Ottawa is so good, yet once get away from there, it is so painfully car dependent. As a visitor, I genuinely did not appreciate the distance from downtown to Kanata.
Kanata was and should have remained its own separate city. Ottawa amalgamated numerous neighboring municipalities years back to keep the suburban development Ponzi scheme going.
@@zixinnie9796 Nonsense. It's the PROVINCE of Ontario that governs municipalities in Ontario. Neither the city of Ottawa nor the federal government control that.
As someone born and raised in Ottawa, as someone who hates winter and cannot live away from the ocean and palm trees, I hate Ottawa, I hate Canada. Can't wait to leave Canada for good! So depressing. Public transit here is a joke, my 15 minute drive to work takes 1h45m by public transit.
I tried Ottawa for a couple years and returned to Toronto right away. I couldn't believe I couldn't walk to the grocery store in Sandy Hill... but ottawa is still a very nice city
I love your videos so much. Instant watch the moment they are published. My wife and I will be moving to Ottawa from northern Virginia in a little over a year to be closer to her parents, raise our kids away from gun violence, and enjoy the better lifestyle the city affords. She grew up in the city and I've been going up there for almost a decade since we met. I'm excited to explore it as a resident and your videos have helped us make decisions about where to live.
Hope all is well in Montreal!
It would be great if you could cover some Maritime cities! I moved from Montreal to Saint John, NB last year and I was surprised at how easy the transition was.
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@@OhTheUrbanity Thanks! I saw that one 😊. Halifax, by Canadian standards, is still quite a large city though.
Other than the O-Train what Ottawa and Gatineau really need is a single unified transit operator on both the Ontario and Quebec sides that would offer one-seat rides across the area and either cut the number of redundant buses on the routes that overlap in the federal zone, use their numbers to reduce headways, or some combination of both.
Good luck on getting Quebec to agree to it.
I moved to Ottawa from Ireland so naturally I find its public transport to be far better than what I'm used to but I think the thing it could really do with is Glider buses as seen in Belfast, NI. Basically they're buses that look and feel like trams. It'd be an excellent stopgap measure and would allow far larger networks that could connect the 3 major sections of Ottawa together (Ottawa proper, Kanata and Orleans). It could also be used to expand into Gatineau for OC Transpo which doesnt do it currently (sorta the bigger issue not mentioned here being that the capital area doesnt have a unified transport system and is divided between STO and OC Transpo).
Please do a video on Winnipeg. Our city is just a bunch of suburbs mashed together with a failing downtown. It could use some help.
Unfortunately we’ve never been there
The way you describe Winnipeg looks very enticing.
I think we should invite @OhTheUrbanity! to Atlanta to size up our city...that would be an interesting video (especially now that the pollen is dying down)
Overhead wire that's not immune to ice accumulation seems like a planning failure for a Canadian city. Third rail might have been a better solution there
As someone who lives in Milwaukee, the comparison for transit commuting is a little off. A more accurate number is actually 9% of commuters using public transportation. Including Waukesha also doesn't help Milwaukee's case as it is over 8x smaller than Milwaukee and of course will bring the ratings down overall.
This is based on the metropolitan area, as defined by the U.S. Census Bureau. The Ottawa number similarly included the nearby city of Gatineau (and a large amount of surrounding rural area).
I agree with most of this, having spent decades in Ottawa, Montreal and Toronto. But I can’t agree with the comments about the pedestrian experience. I’ve rarely had problems with bad drivers while I was walking or running in Ottawa, in stark contrast to Toronto and Montreal.
And as a pedestrian and runner I really take exception to the characterization of the multiuse paths as being mainly for cyclists and the odd pedestrian. I see mostly pedestrians on the paths, along with a few cyclists who almost invariably fail to signal with their bells when overtaking pedestrians even they they are careful to ring when passing other cyclists.
USE YOUR BELLS! Sheesh.
Love the video! From the GTA and studied urbanism in Ottawa. Felt much the same with the complicated feelings about the city. You made the point about financial accessibility while still maintaining opportunities for an urbanist lifestyle. I was curious, given only a few neighbourhoods in Ottawa tick all of your boxes, do you think that those interesting/ dense/ well-connected neighbourhoods are financially accessible? If so, which in particular? My experience was that the truly affordable parts of Ottawa lacked most of your criteria :/
There is almost nothing to do in ottawa and the busses are also inconsistent
Can you make a video about urbanism in Kitchener waterloo as i think it gets very overlooked and not many Canadian transit youtubers do videos on the city
I'd love to see a video on Halifax, if you need ideas this summer...
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it's too bad that 60 years ago Canada decided to build a transit network which is more expensive to maintain, more dangerous and less efficient(400 series highway)
Ok but if you want a social life, Ottawa is dead.. It has like 2-3 yearly festivals, a bunch of museums and not much more. So in my book, Montreal wins hands down... It's very lively culturally, great night life, artistic scene, good restaurants, great parks, decent affordability, good transit, good bike infrastructure and mostly pedestrian friendly. I liked visiting Ottawa, but I couldn't really live there as a young adult.
Ottawa is for families.
@@shauncameron8390 Yeah, I think you're right
Its french tho
@@claudiameier666 Mostly, but also 80% bilingual... Of course, if you have no interest in being surrounded by french and learning it, don't bother. But Ottawa also has a significant francophone population so if you really want to be in an only english city, go to Toronto or Vancouver !
Yellow traffic light in Ottawa lasts only about a second. It is much shorter than in Gatineau, which is just across the bridge. To solve the problem, red light traffic cameras installed almost everywhere with new poping out nearly weekly. It costs $375 to try to cross on yellow.. 😂
We're talking about people blatantly running red lights, not people who enter the intersection during a yellow (even if that's often a problem too, given how many drivers actively speed up when they see the yellow).
Ottawa’s urban fabric is such a patchy mess… You really need a bike to get around. (Also, I think Winnipeg or Hamilton offer an urban experience that’s about as good. Hamilton having the advantage of Toronto right there if you need it.)
Unfortunately, Hamilton is also crazy expensive now. I used to live there, but now live in Calgary, which is both more affordable and offers an unquestionably superior urban experience to Hamilton (though still not an actively great one).
If you see a car running towards you, the most fun thing to do is just to stay put right in front of it and think about the sweet insurance coming your way- they usually end up not hitting you regardless.
Speaking of mid size city, I am curious to hear your opinion about Quebec city ?
Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver are the "big three".
Calgary, Edmonton, and Ottawa are the "mid three".
Winnipeg, Hamilton, and Quebec City are the "small three".
Waterloo, London, and Halifax are the "next three".
Windsor, St. Catharines, and Victoria are the "wanna three".
Interesting to hear an outsider's perspective of Ottawa, it's easy to get caught in the hate loop for the o-train and to get desensitized to the pluses the city has
This reminds me very much of Denver, where I live
As a resident of Kitchener, I'd like to correct your mischaracterisation of the ION LRT. It does not get stuck in traffic with cars. At every intersection it goes through it has signal priority so it never gets stuck like a streetcar does.
Kitchener was just the footage we happened to have
Good video about the strengths and weaknesses of Ottawa... However affordability is an illusion when looking at the average. Especially if you are looking for a pedestrian-oriented, urban lifestyle. Any of the pedestrian-friendly neighbourhoods mentioned (Westboro/West Wellington/Hintonburg, Little Italy/Preston, Centertown, Golden Triangle, Byward Market and the Glebe) are not affordable, they are some of the most expensive neighbourhoods in Ottawa because of their desirability. The average house price in those neighbourhoods (and corresponding rents if renting) is probably double those of neighbourhoods outside the core or in the suburbs, which really brings Ottawa's average down. In addition, the other downside of that, is that most of those pre-WWII neighbourhoods used to be affordable (even rough if you go back 20-30 years) mixed-income, working class neighbourhoods, but are rapidly gentrifying, pushing out low-income folk for the mec-wearing urban yuppie set and the quirky independent commercial offerings that made them desirable places 20 years ago are being replaced by bland, high-end corporate stores, unaffordable for most. That is probably why most of the pedestrian-friendly areas you mention lack access to grocery stores, hardware stores, things needed frequently. The higher price in those neighbourhoods pushes out the low-margin stores like grocery stores and hardware stores that are maybe replaced by more expensive specialty-food stores or high-end restaurants that cater to wealthier demographic.
The same thing applies to every other city too though. The more walkable central neighbourhoods of Ottawa are more expensive than the city average, but the more walkable central neighbourhoods in Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver are also more expensive than the city average.
@@OhTheUrbanity For sure, though perhaps Montreal less so because there is a strong rental culture in Quebec (and so much of it was built before the rise of the automobile in NA life) so much more of the city is pedestrian friendly and still affordable, and isn't all just concentrated in say Mile-End and Westmount..
To me it just seems much more acute in Ottawa's case because those areas are so small compared to the rest of the city (which is geographically large)... maybe the push for more 15-minute neighbourhoods will help... I am also surprised you didn't talk about Gatineau at all (save for proximity to Gatineau park)... It is in a completely separate province so has different zoning, transit, etc... I wonder if there is anything you think that side of the river does better than our side of the river, etc.and your thoughts on the proposed small tram loop linking the two cities...
I don't agree. If you look south of Chinatown or Centretown West, you can still find houses (probably attached at that level) for $500-700k. You'll be hard-pressed to find much cheaper in the burbs. While suburban homes will be larger and have garages, you don't need a garage in a walkable neighbourhood. Factor in that every car you own costs about as much as carrying a ~$200k mortgage, and you might be ahead downtown (and that's ignoring cost of commuting, quality of life, etc.).
Im an Ottawigian Ottawan Ottaminoan idk... its kinda wierd but cool, and all the traffic problems are from the people from gatineau. Overall I love my home city and quebec sucks.