Baseline Road rapid bus plans move ahead

Ottawa's transportation committee approved a design Wednesday that would create a rapid transit route for buses down the middle of Baseline Road.

If federal and provincial funding comes through, construction could beginby 2020 onthe $140-million stretch between Baseline Station at Algonquin Collegeand the Heron Station near Billings Bridge.

By separating buses from regular traffic,giving them priority at intersections, and making them stop only 14 times on that stretch,transportation staff hope to save riders 6 and a half minutes.

A second leg from Baseline Station, west to Bayshore Shopping Centre, is on the books to be built after 2031.

The city's transportation manager, John Manconi,called a rapid corridor for buses on a major east-west arterya"golden opportunity" that would "unleash the bottlenecks" for drivers, and speed up the bus ride toboost transit ridership.

Transportation committee chair Coun. KeithEgliunderlined thatgovernment funding hinges on the project being an "enhancement," so the stops can't simply stay at the curb as they always have.

Councillorssupported the overall idea of the project, butdebated thetrade-offthat would see seniors cross lanes of traffic tostations spaced farther apart, in favour of a route that would mean a faster tripfor transit riders overall.

Seniors struggle with stop spacing

Barbara Giles was one of three residents who went to city hall on Feb. 1to share her concerns with councillors, mainly about the stops being farther apart andplaced in the median rather than at the curb.

• Baseline Road rapid transit corridor travelling towards opposition

Giles is a senior citizen and regular transit rider, and says at her condominium houses many senior citizens use a walker or cane.

This winter, she struggled to get home after getting off a bus and being faced with a metre-high bank of snow left behind by a plow.

"I could not get over it. I was teetering over back and forth. Finally a van stopped, and a gentleman got out, took my hand and helped me over the snowbank," Giles described to councillors.

"If this happens on Baseline, the van could not have stopped."

Her councillor, College ward's Rick Chiarelli, said thearea near Baseline Road and Clyde Avenuehas one of the highest concentrations of seniors in Ottawa and felt the city could do more to shorten the walk for seniors.

Eglisaidtransportationstaff did listento seniors, and alleviated a lot of their concerns in a meeting last Friday by promising better snow removal and more benches.

15 private properties to be expropriated

Chiarelli also spokein defence of the 15 private property owners, whose homes the city would need to buyin order to build the Baseline transit corridor.

He wanted to be sure that they wouldn't be left in limbo for years if the city doesn't manage to get the project off the ground and purchase their homes for market value by 2018, which is the city's goal.

Councillors also expressed concern about the city needing to expropriate a strip of the Central Experimental Farm.

• Baseline rapid transit plan contributes to 'erosion' of Central Experimental Farm

"If we just keep eating it up bit by bit and edge by edge, ultimately one day we'll wake up and say 'What happened to all the green space in the urban areas of our city?'" said Coun. Diane Deans.

She suggested the city look for ways to create new green space elsewhere, in order to compensate for the land being taken for the bus corridor.

Staff said they had not yet looked at that idea with respect to this project,but that they are working with the federal governmenton a "shelter belt" of trees and shrubs that could protect the farm from salt, snow spray, and erosion.

Agriculture andAgri-FoodCanada the federal government department that owns the Central Experimental Farm told CBC News in an emailthat it "supports the new transit corridor" and has agreed tomake farm land available for it.

The departmentsaid it has been working with the city to create a "buffer zone" between the farm and the road.

"The width and the landscape features will be tailored ... to minimize impact of existing research field and achieve the desired results," the department said.

The report directing staff to start the environmental assessment process forthe Baseline Road bus rapid transit corridor goes to full city council for a vote on Feb. 8.