Rural Transportation Solutions for Ottawa

The Rural Transportation Solutions group made a 5-minute presentation to the Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee meeting on 29 September. The brief presentation gave a summary of our work to date and outlined some options that could form part of a global recommendation to introduce more transportation options for rural Ottawa.

We spoke of a solution that includes:

1. Completing the set of rural express routes that were recommended to council in 2002. Fill some gaps with minibus shuttle runs.
2. Having rush hour express buses also address the need to get workers to rural Ottawa as well as from Ottawa in order to support the planned rural economic development.
3. Introducing a set of on-demand minibus shuttle routes where such service enables residents to move within the rural area and also to an OC Transpo point throughout the day.
4. Developing a new hybrid financing model that emphasizes more the 'user pay' component and greatly reduces the high tax penalty that currently accompanies any addition of public transportation beyond ParaTranspo.

With improved and increased transportation options we believe that our proposed solutions bring the following benefits to the city:

• The quality of rural life will be enhanced with more transportation options becoming available.
• Youth will be able to better connect with important mental health programs and services that are now only available in urban Ottawa. This is a growing concern as more youth are presenting with complex mental health needs.
• Youth will have more and better options for transportation to and from school, social activities, employment and other opportunities to be connected to their communities.
• Adults will have more transportation options to get to their place of employment and to conduct a range of other activities associated with their personal and family life.
• Many older adults will not have to continue to rely on family members, not-for-profit driving schedules and caregivers for transportation. Our Community Partners will continue to provide assistance in these areas and, together, we will be able to support our seniors’ wish to ‘age in place.’
• The diversity of rural Ottawa is blossoming. Improved transportation options would increase the opportunity for social connection to other diverse neighbourhoods and communities within urban and suburban Ottawa.
• Rural economic development requires workers and customers/clients to move in and out of the rural area. Improved public transportation will be an important contributor to rural economic development.

The meeting is streamed to the City’s Ottawa YouTube Channel -  (3) Ottawa City Council - YouTube

.The text of the presentation follows. You can download the slide show HERE.