COVID-19 stalls city study on traffic patterns

The City of Ottawa has decided to put the brakes on a major study of how people move around the National Capital Region because the COVID-19 pandemic has sent normal travel patterns into a spin.

The last study of its kind, called an origin-destination survey, was done in 2011 and helped planners decide where to buildnew roads, pathways and transit.

The National Capital Commission, the City of Gatineau and the development industry also depend on the data to know how many trips people make, where they go and whether they travel bycar, train, bus, bike, footor even e-scooter.

Let's face it, I'm working out ofa bedroom, and many federal employees across the city are doing the same.- Coun. Tim Tierney

An update was already overdue, but the city wanted to wait to see how the opening of light rail would affect travel patterns. Now, because of the pandemic, it's hadto delay the survey for at least another year as thousands of residents continue to work from home.

"Let's face it, I'm working out ofa bedroom, and many federal employees across the city are doing the same," said Coun. Tim Tierney, who chairs the city's transportation committee.

"We're not really sure how that's going to look in the future ...maybe people will learn to work from home for the rest of their career," said Tierney, pointing to how Shopify has permanently shifted to a remote work model.

Shift 'unprecedented'

"It's unprecedented," agreed Vivi Chi, the city's director of transportation planning. "Every other city is experiencing it, too."

Traffic patterns and volumes have yet to settle into a new normal. Office workers might beat home, but others are still travelling to their jobs, and streets are busierlater in the morning now, she noted.

Delaying the survey also means putting off an update to the city's transportation master plan, one of the key pieces of city business that was expected to happen this term of council.

• Road projects unfinished as city updates to-do list

Nowthat document, which prioritizes road projects, isn't expected to be ready until fall2023,after the next municipal election.

Missing network links

In the meantime, the citycan still work on cycling and pedestrianconnections, and widen and extend roads, all projects onthe existing to-do list.

"There is quite an extensive list of projects right now that many, many councillors are very happy to even see those ones progress," said Tierney.

Chi says the data collection would mostly confirm trends her team is already looking into.For instance, with this spring's decision to expand the urban boundary, it's clear some parts of the city are set to keep growing.

• Council approves major expansion of city's suburbs

Where development happens dictates a lot of the city's transportation planning, Chi said.

There are other big-picture pieces to prepare, such as howto reduce the impact of transportation on climate change, how to plan for a future with autonomous vehicles andhow to pay for it all.