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Casual Commuter @casualcommuter.bsky.social · 26/06/2026

This is just another way Mark Sutcliffe’s council is subsidizing artificially low property taxes at the expense of transit riders. Tell me how this makes life more affordable for those that depend on transit? youtube.com/watch?v=MShf...

youtube.com

OC Transpo Upcoming Weekend Service Cuts

YouTube video by Better Transit Ottawa

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Strong Towns Ottawa @strongtownsottawa.ca · 08/04/2026

Disappointment at council today. Council just passed a motion from Councillor Menard for the Bank Street bus lane study which will restrict bus lanes even further from staff's proposed 3 hours to 2 hours. This means we will get no data about how parking affects bus flow in the area.

Motion brought forth to council by Councillor Menard, which sought to restrict the bus lanes on Bank Street from 3 hours in each peak direction to 2 hours.

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Fietser @americanfietser.bsky.social · 24/03/2026

Proof that you don't need to create extra space, you simply reallocate the space you have, equitably.

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Strong Towns Ottawa @strongtownsottawa.ca · 15/03/2026

An amazing member of ours put together this graphic that really encapsulates perfectly the situation on Bank Street. There is only so much space available, and we must use it as efficiently as possible. Parking isn't that. Please sign up to delegate on March 30th in favour of bus lanes!

An OC Transpo #6 bus in a bus lane. Inside of the bus there are multiple people, each with a text showing what they're going to be doing. They say "Grabbing a bite to eat", "Going to Lansdowne", "Getting a haircut", "Bought groceries", and "Can finally fit on the bus". The final one was a user in a wheelchair.

Beside the bus there is a single person in a truck in the regular travel lane. Pointing to him it says "Just driving through". They have a thought bubble coming out from their head saying "That bus lane is going to ruin local business!".

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Strong Towns Ottawa @strongtownsottawa.ca · 15/03/2026

The Glebe BIA had a report done about the area. We think this image perfectly encapsulates the reason for hesitancy by the business owners to get rid of parking. While 86% of the respondents who come to shop said they get there by means other than driving, 94% of the owners said they drove.

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Lucy van Oldenbarneveld @lucyvanolden.bsky.social · 09/12/2025

Councillor Tim Tierney is wrong about ‘Chronic No-Voters’ in his Ottawa Citizen Op/Ed on Saturday. His opinion would be easier to take seriously if the comments weren’t coming from someone with a 15-year track record of being a reliable yes-man for every budget. 1/21

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Oh The Urbanity! @ohtheurbanity.bsky.social · 10/11/2025

Cars might work fine in California or Florida, but they’re not practical here in Canada. We have winter.

youtube.com

More than 300 collisions reported as early season snow slams parts of Ontario

YouTube video by CTV News

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Sean Devine @seandevine9.bsky.social · 09/11/2025

As usual, @sjamieit.bsky.social and colleagues at @strongtownsottawa.ca know how to make a point. Take a look at this thread. One of the core principles of taxation is that the burden needs to be distributed fairly. What we have in Ontario currently is not fair.

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Casual Commuter @casualcommuter.bsky.social · 08/11/2025

It’s kind of crazy that improvements to the 6 and 7 were barely discussed during the Lansdowne 2.0 vote youtu.be/wtWHri5lShA?...

youtu.be

Ottawa Won’t Build Bus Lanes

YouTube video by Casual Commuter

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andrew.ottawa 🇨🇦 @ottawandrew.bsky.social · 07/11/2025

Rural and suburban wards: AUSTERITY! SLASH SPENDING! CUT PROGRAMS! DON’T YOU DARE RAISE OUR TAXES! Also rural and suburban wards: YEE HAW, LET’S GAMBLE $500 MILLION ON THIS OSEG THING!

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Casual Commuter @casualcommuter.bsky.social · 08/11/2025

This voting map shows you why Ottawa is stuck in a rut - suburban and rural wards outnumber the city, and can effectively pass anything (no matter how terrible it is for the city). Amalgamation working as intended…

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Strong Towns Ottawa @strongtownsottawa.ca · 31/10/2025

Some polling was done for Lansdowne 2.0, lo and behold the top issue for people polled was improving transportation to Lansdowne. What better way to provide better access to Lansdowne than safe, dedicated 24/7 bus lanes? strongtownsottawa.ca/2025/09/25/t... #Lansdowne #Ottawa #busLanes

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Strong Towns Ottawa @strongtownsottawa.ca · 23/10/2025

We have sent out a letter to the premier of Ontario, Doug Ford, opposing his plan to remove speed cameras, which have been shown to overwhelmingly increase safety on our roads. Thanks @hansonthebike.bsky.social for putting the letter together, and @pbickerton.bsky.social for the great graphics!

Letter sent to the premier of Ontario opposing the removal of speed cameras. Text follows :

To:
Premier of Ontario
Legislative Building
Queen’s Park
Toronto, ON, M7A 1A1
(by email)
Ottawa, October 22, 2025
Re: Automatic Speed Enforcement Cameras
Premier Ford,
We are extremely concerned about your directive to remove automatic speed enforcement (ACE)
cameras in Ontario. Along with the Association of Municipalities, the CAA and the Ontario Association
of Chiefs of Police as well as many municipal leaders, we believe in the evidence that previously
collected data show: fining people who don’t comply with speed limits helps: it leads to drastic safety
improvements.
This makes a good case for continuing the use of cameras to maintain speed compliance. The
ultimate goal of speed enforcement is obviously that people adhere to posted speed limits. Existing
data shows that speed compliance quickly improves and is maintained after cameras are installed.
Fewer and fewer tickets are being issued by each camera every year.
This trend is already happening: in Ottawa, as the enclosed graphs show, speeds have considerably
dropped at road segments where cameras have been placed. Speed cameras work! Cameras in
Ottawa are overwhelmingly placed in areas near schools. Removing cameras would recreate
dangerous situations for children in those school zones. And let's not forget people with disabilities
and our aging population, who may take longer to cross roads.
Many safety experts strongly support the use of automatic speed cameras as does the majority of
Ontario drivers (73%). In Ottawa, speed compliance went up from 16% to 81% in speed camera
zones; the instances of high end speeding in those zones went down from 14% to less than 1%.
Those are impressive results.

Second page of the letter to the premier of Ontario opposing removal of speed cameras, text follows :

Therefore we ask you to reconsider an end to speed enforcement with cameras and allow technology
to do its work to protect the lives of Ontarians. Using cameras allows police officers to do other
important work. This is about safety for every Ontario resident, not a cash grab.
Respectfully,
Strong Towns Ottawa
Encl: three graphs
About Strong Towns Ottawa
Strong Towns Ottawa is a local chapter of Strong Towns. We advocate for a more financially resilient and livable
Ottawa. We aim to build a safer city that enables all of us to choose the way we want to live. This includes
investing in various transportation options, housing types, safer streets, mixed-use neighbourhoods, local
businesses, and more.

A graph of data showing the speed limit compliance in areas where the speed cameras have been put in place in Ottawa. The x axis reads : "Age of ASE Camera (days)" and the y axis reads : "Speed Limit Compliance (%)".

The lines on the graph are all of the different road segments where the cameras have been put in place. As the graph moves further to the right, the compliance goes up, reaching close to 100% for many of the cameras

Graph of public data with the x-axis reading : "Age of ASE Camera (days)", y-axis : "High end Speeders (%)". As the graph moves further to the right, the amount of high-end speeders drops off substantially for all of the segments of the roads where speed cameras have been put in place.

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Ariel Troster @arieltroster.bsky.social · 21/10/2025

I didn’t comment on Lansdowne 2.0 yesterday, because I still hadn’t seen the report until 4pm — well after the mayor put out a fancy video and held a press conference to extol its virtues. I will have more detailed comments soon, but my decision to vote no remains unchanged.

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Sean Devine @seandevine9.bsky.social · 20/10/2025

An entire day has gone by and still no release of the Lansdowne 2.0 report. Meanwhile, Mayor Sutcliffe has had time to brief the press, frame the story, and produce a feel-good video. As for those who oppose the project? Well, they're just "spreading misinformation". www.youtube.com/watch?v=4x-T...

youtube.com

Lansdowne: More for less

YouTube video by Mayor Mark Sutcliffe

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Casual Commuter @casualcommuter.bsky.social · 21/10/2025

Mr. Mayor, I believe you have to disclose sponsored posts with #ad 😂 It seems like OSEG is in full PR damage control mode with people finally realizing how bad of a deal Lansdowne 2.0 will be for the people of Ottawa

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Dave @allcaps.bsky.social · 08/10/2025

This proved to be more than a metaphor.

Mark Sutcliffe hands Doug Ford a welcome mat, a metaphor for Sutcliffe allowing Ford to walk all over him.

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School Streets Ottawa @schoolstreetsyow.bsky.social · 12/10/2025

Is Ottawa school zone safety negotiable? 🚷Delays to sidewalk builds 🚦School Street policy red lighted 📸 Automated Speed Enforcement to be cut down by Doug Ford 📣 No! Tell the Mayor to stand up to the province and anyone who makes communities less safe. schoolstreetsottawa.ca/2025/10/11/o...

schoolstreetsottawa.ca

Ottawa Streets Are Not Safe For Kids – A Call to Action to Keep ASE, Have Sidewalks and School Streets

Ottawa Streets are not safe for kids – losing ASE will make it worse

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Casual Commuter @casualcommuter.bsky.social · 28/09/2025

The city just revealed its plans for Bank Street... and chose to prioritize 140 parking spaces over the needs of 6000 daily transit riders. I made a video summarizing the issue in case you want an update on how things are going: www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtWH...

youtube.com

Ottawa Won’t Build Bus Lanes

YouTube video by Casual Commuter

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Toon Dreessen @toondreessen.bsky.social · 07/09/2025

This. #OttCity continues to make transit more expensive and harder to use driving more people away from it. Time to end the doom loop

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Casual Commuter @casualcommuter.bsky.social · 22/08/2025

Good wayfinding is essential to any good transit system. Come learn how Toronto is failing at it, and how to do it right. youtu.be/Edr8csMXUfM

youtu.be

Why Toronto Fails at Wayfinding, and Tokyo Doesn't

YouTube video by Casual Commuter

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Casual Commuter @casualcommuter.bsky.social · 13/08/2025

Turning right on red is not normal – only Canada and the U.S. are one of the only major countries that still allow it everywhere. Watch out for "concerned" opposition to banning right turns on red that are just status quo bias.

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Luc Turgeon @lturgeon.bsky.social · 02/08/2025

The result of the city of Ottawa tax phobia. The mayor, who adopted the Jim Watson playbook, will brag that he kept tax increases at a much lower level than Toronto. Meanwhile public services are crumbling.

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Casual Commuter @casualcommuter.bsky.social · 12/07/2025

Why on earth is Granville island not closed to cars in the summer? So crazy that a tiny minority of cars take up so much space, pushing pedestrians to the side

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Casual Commuter @casualcommuter.bsky.social · 12/07/2025

Really impressed by how easy Vancouver makes it for people to figure out the bike network for visitors. A pretty interconnected network of protected bike lanes easily marked on their map based on traffic stress

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Casual Commuter @casualcommuter.bsky.social · 21/06/2025

Great summary on our “balanced” approach to taxation of productive urban areas

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Casual Commuter @casualcommuter.bsky.social · 21/06/2025

The Trail Road waste facility is super cool if you’ve never had a chance to go

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Laine Johnson @lainejohnson.bsky.social · 19/06/2025

Today it took 20 minutes to get down Elgin and another 50 to get to Bells Corners by car. A balanced approach to our transportation network gets us all nowhere fast. We need to shift our investments to give people who want to get out of cars a real choice. Show me who is happy moving around Ottawa.

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Sean Devine @seandevine9.bsky.social · 19/06/2025

100%. The “balanced” approach is simply the adherence to a status quo that will only get worse as the population grows and transit remains under-supported. And the TMP we’re set to approve next week perpetuates more of this.

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Ecology Ottawa @ecologyottawa.bsky.social · 16/06/2025

@en.ottawa.ca has released Draft 2 of the new Zoning By-law, which features several significant changes. Our former board member Jeffrey Ren, an urban planner, has summarized these changes in a new blog post. Please read up—and submit your feedback by June 30! www.ecologyottawa.ca/draft_2_zoni...

ecologyottawa.ca

Submit your comments for Draft 2 of the New Zoning By-law!

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Casual Commuter @casualcommuter.bsky.social · 16/06/2025

Some great work by the folks in Strong Towns Ottawa working to promote bus lanes on Bank St.

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Casual Commuter @casualcommuter.bsky.social · 31/05/2025

It’s the same arguments against bike lanes every time - especially hilarious on an actual side street lol

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Derrick Simpson @derricksimpson.bsky.social · 28/05/2025

The Centretown Community Association has sent a letter on the draft Transportation Master Plan not meeting the needs of urban residents. "It will make the lives of those who live and work here less affordable, less accessible, and less safe." @mayormarksutcliffe.bsky.social @arieltroster.com

Dear Mayor Sutcliffe,

We are disappointed with the projects outlined in the most recent update of the draft Transportation Master Plan and believe it will make Centretown residents worse off. It will make the lives of those who live and work here less affordable, less accessible, and less safe.
Centretown is not a parking lot or throughway for commuter traffic. It is a thriving community that deserves the same respect, investment, and access to amenities as any other neighbourhood in Ottawa. The current plan fails to support this, and instead proposes:
More traffic and reduced safety for residents
Higher costs and a growing maintenance backlog
No clear solutions for the failures of the last master plan
The plan projects nearly 10,000 additional cars into downtown and inner urban areas every morning by 2046. This will worsen congestion, increase dangerous conflicts on our streets, and make it harder for people to walk, cycle, or use transit. Despite this, the plan continues to prioritize expensive road expansions-like the Airport Parkway and Albion Road-while existing roads in Centretown are already riddled with potholes and safety hazards.
Ottawa is struggling to keep up with basic road and transit maintenance. Hundreds of OC Transpo bus trips are missed each week due to a maintenance backlog and increased congestion, while road repairs fall further behind every year. Adding new and widened roads will only make the maintenance backlog worse and divert funds from essential city services.
The previous Transportation Master Plan failed to deliver on its promises: transit ridership is below expectations, and sustainable mode share goals have not been met. This draft does not explain why those targets were missed or what will be done differently this time. Instead, it repeats the same approach.
We believe Centretown residents deserve a neighbourhood where children can get to school safely without crossing multiple dangerous, high-speed arterial roads; where everyone can…

own a car; and where our public spaces aren’t sacrificed to serve as parking lots for traffic from other neighbourhoods.
We urge Council to update the plan so it truly supports the needs of Centretown: maintain our existing infrastructure, invest in reliable transit and active transportation, and recognize that Centretown is not just a corridor for commuters.
The current plan reads like an answer to the question, “How do we get as many cars in and out of Centretown as quickly as possible?” We ask a different question: “How will the City prioritize the hours outside of peak commuting, while wide, high-speed roads sit empty and our neighbourhood remains underserved?” Centretown deserves a plan that puts residents first, not just the convenience of those passing through.
Thank you,
Rob Dekker
CCA President

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Derrick Simpson @derricksimpson.bsky.social · 18/05/2025

The ad looks even better in person 🔥

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Casual Commuter @casualcommuter.bsky.social · 16/04/2025

Our three candidates for the debate in Ottawa-Centre. NDP, Liberal, and Green. One candidate did not show up at the last minute, can you guess who?

Three candidates NDP, Liberal, and Green at the debate

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TTCriders @ttcriders.bsky.social · 11/04/2025

Volunteers gave King Station a makeover this morning! You shouldn't get lost while taking the #TTC. Learn more and show your support for better TTC information and signs: www.ttcriders.ca/wayfinding

Group of volunteers hanging sign on TTC post

volunteer hanging sign on King subway platform wall

two volunteers leaning over subway entrance pasting signs

group of seven volunteers standing near sign

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Brent Toderian @brenttoderian.bsky.social · 04/04/2025

I’ve been planning cities & working with city halls all over the world for 33+ years, and I’ve observed and experienced a lot of things. And one thing I think is still underestimated— the culture of boldness or business-as-usual set by the city manager/ceo is incredibly important for your city hall.

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Casual Commuter @casualcommuter.bsky.social · 03/04/2025

Say what you will about OC Transpo and the bus route changes, but this little bus cutout mailer they sent out is way too cute

A small cardboard cut out of a bus that reads “your bus route will change on April 27“ stand upright on a desk.

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A. Zivarts @nondriver.bsky.social · 29/03/2025

Really appreciated getting to visit Ottawa as a guest of @envirocentre.bsky.social. There's so much energy in Ottawa to make transit work better and to have transit be a bigger share of trips. 1/

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Casual Commuter @casualcommuter.bsky.social · 21/03/2025

Ottawa is probably far off from implementing congestion pricing, but still something think about for the future

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Casual Commuter @casualcommuter.bsky.social · 13/03/2025

There's a petition opposing the NCC summer zone – and one of their claims is that it slows down emergency vehicles? I guess it would be better if this fire truck was stuck behind cars in traffic???

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Casual Commuter @casualcommuter.bsky.social · 08/03/2025

Happy International Women’s day! If you’re looking for an urbanism book to read today, consider checking out Feminist City by Leslie Kern

The book feminist city by Leslie Kern is shown. On the cover text reads: Public space is not designed for women. My fear is not irrational. Headphones on dash don’t talk to me. City space is my space. The city needs to hear my voice. Feminist City: A field guide. Leslie Kern

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Catherine McKenney @catmckenney.bsky.social · 28/02/2025

Thank-you Ottawa Centre, for putting your trust in me to be your champion at Queen's Park. Last night you showed that in our community, we always embrace love and hope over anger and fear.

Catherine McKenney stands at a podium, surrounded by cheering supporters with signs that say "Catherine McKenney" and "Ontario NDP

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Casual Commuter @casualcommuter.bsky.social · 26/02/2025

I’m quite impressed by the precision of the snow clearing operators in Ottawa - it’s quite the organized operation

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