Making Light Rail Useful to the Inner City Dweller
- submitted by Peter Vasdi Jan 2006

Concept

The current purpose of Ottawa's Light Rail Project seems to be to move people from suburbs into and out of the central city core. My feeling is that, in order to accomplish that purpose, we need to redesign the suburb so that fewer people will need to commute downtown for whatever reason. A light rail or streetcar system should be for the people who live in the city, itself. Here are some ideas:

• I've noticed that most of the concern over light rail focusses on its path through the city, with the fear that additional channels will clog already congested streets. However, for the following reasons, I don't think we need to put the light rail onto the streets themselves.
• I've been looking at Detroit's People Mover and the Disneyworld overhead light rail. Both have a very narrow cross-section. They emit little noise when used.
• There may be advantages but there is no need to put both directions of rail right beside each other. When I use "rapid" transit in cities, I don't use it for its speed. I use it because it can take me more reliably and directly to my destination. In Detroit, it moves me more efficiently between street corners literally. A light rail car moving at 20kph can take me from Slater St. and Elgin to Bronson and Carling in 5min. That's not fast, but certainly 1000% better than waiting for a bus and fighting my way down Albert and up Bronson.
• Regarding transfers, in Stockholm, I don't care or even notice if I have to transfer from line to line - it's just a walk from one open subway door across the platform to the other open subway door.
• It may be more effective and cheaper to direct the elevated transit system through existing buildings rather than along existing streets. A few offices more or less would not hurt downtown office buildings, and could also provide the enclosures needed for stations. The routes could be more direct. The planning would not be restricted by the location and traffic on existing streets. Street businesses would not suffer from noise and lack of openness to air and sun. Design could then have carte blanche almost to plan the best possible transit grid for the future.
• With even more foresight to the future, we could plan for a 2-level transportation system: standardize on the best elevation and reserve that for light rail. Then standardize for another complementary elevation and reserve that for a future people walkway system, such as the +15 in Calgary. That way there will be no conflict when such future requirements arise.