Below is the letter we sent to the Public Works and Infrastructure Committee ahead of their March 30th vote on dedicated bus lanes for Bank Street.
Dear Chair Tierney and Members of the Public Works and Infrastructure Committee,
On March 30th, you will vote on the future of bus lanes on Bank Street, Ottawa’s busiest transit corridor serving routes 6 and 7. This vote will also shape the future of transportation planning in this city. We are writing to urge you to amend the current proposal to deliver a pilot that is ambitious enough to produce meaningful results, results that can be used to improve our transportation system as a whole.
Ottawa’s transit system is in crisis. Bus cancellations continue to climb, ridership remains below where it needs to be, and residents across the city are understandably losing confidence in public transit as a viable option. This committee has a real opportunity to take a concrete step toward reversing that trend. Bank Street is the right place to start, and the data supports going further than what staff have proposed.
The current proposal prioritizes the preservation of on-street parking, despite data from both the City of Ottawa and the Glebe BIA confirming that sufficient parking exists in the area. With such limited space on such an important street, preserving the on-street parking makes no sense. Bank Street will never compete with big box stores and strip malls on parking availability. We need to be smarter with the limited space we have. This same debate plays out in cities around the world, whether in European cities like Paris or Utrecht, or North American ones such as New York, Montreal, or Toronto. Yet time and again, cities that have reclaimed their public space from private vehicle parking have seen benefits for the vast majority of people – including local businesses.
We are asking this committee to amend the current proposal in four ways:
1. Implement the pilot by summer of 2026, not 2027
The current timeline would not produce any usable data until late into 2028. A simple pilot project, paint and signage, should not take over a year to launch. Our transit crisis is getting worse, not better. Every month of delay is another month of unreliable service for the tens of thousands of weekly transit riders who depend on this corridor.
2. Extend dedicated bus lanes to weekends and during events
The city’s own staff report shows that delays during major events at Lansdowne reach 18 minutes, over 3x the regular trip time for this corridor, and that transit usage is highest during events. Weekends also see some of the largest delays on Bank Street. Despite this, the current proposal excludes both weekend and event-day operations. This is a decision that contradicts the city’s own findings.
3. Operate bus lanes in both directions simultaneously
The assumption that transit riders follow the same directional patterns as car commuters (northbound in the morning, southbound in the evening) is contradicted by the city’s own ridership data. Students going to Carleton, elderly residents going to appointments, shift workers, shoppers, event goers, frontline staff who make the unique retail in the Glebe possible all travel outside of peak hours and in both directions. The current one-direction approach leaves them behind.
4. Expand bus lane hours, 24/7 is ideal, 6am-6pm at minimum
Delays occur throughout the whole day, not just during traditional peak hours. The staff report confirms that the delays are the largest when parking is in place, and ridership data for routes 6 and 7 does not follow typical 9-to-5 commuting patterns. Part-time dedicated bus lanes also create confusion and reduce compliance. In our canvassing, residents consistently told us the existing parking rules in the Glebe are already confusing; adding another time-based condition will only make things worse. Staff also confirmed that the current two hour travel lanes suffer from parked vehicles encroaching in the lanes, undermining their effectiveness. This is why 24/7 dedicated bus lanes are the gold standard in cities around the world.
This position is not ours alone. Over the course of our campaign, we have canvassed hundreds of residents who expressed emphatic support for dedicated bus lanes, and more than 550 have signed our petition. Support for dedicated bus lanes on Bank Street is also endorsed by the Centretown Community Association, the Dalhousie Community Association, the Manor Park Community Association, Free Transit Ottawa, Better Transit Ottawa, The Amalgamated Transit Union Local 279, CAFES, and Ecology Ottawa, and many small businesses on Bank Street itself.
The city’s own staff report supports every one of these asks. We are not asking you to go against expert advice, we are asking you to follow it. A weak pilot with limited hours, one-direction operations, and a 2027 start date is not designed for success. It’s designed to produce inconclusive data that will be used to justify abandoning bus lanes altogether. If this committee wants to know whether bus lanes work on Bank Street, it must give them a fair chance.
Ottawa residents are paying attention. Transportation is shaping up to be a defining issue heading into the 2026 municipal election. We hope Councillors will seize this opportunity to show residents that bold, evidence-based action on transit is possible.
Sincerely,
The Board of Directors,
Strong Towns Ottawa
March 24th, 2026