Chapter 9 – Roads 9.1 City of Ottawa Road Network Roads are the backbone of Ottawa’s transportation system, and significantly affect Ottawa’s economic vitality. They serve pedestrians, cyclists, public transit and emergency services in addition to private automobiles and trucks — and the needs of these various modes sometimes compete for the scarce resources of time, space and money. In managing its road network to achieve the greatest possible public good, the City is frequently required to make difficult trade-offs. In order to guide the protection of rights-of-way and ensure that adequate width exists to accommodate needed roadway elements, City roads are classified according to their function. While roads of a single type may vary in terms of their physical characteristics, they perform a similar function. Figure 9.1 explains the functional classification of City roads. Figure 9.1 –
In Section 3.4, this plan identifies projected future levels of walking, cycling and transit activity, as well as future automobile occupancies. While the resulting projected level of automobile use is minimized, the number of peak hour automobile trips will still increase over time. The City will require some new and widened roads to serve future automobile travel in a manner consistent with the community’s social, economic and environmental objectives. Using the projected 2021 automobile travel demands shown in Figure 3.6, and the projected automobile occupancies discussed in Section 3.4, future peak hour automobile volumes across key screenlines were estimated. These volumes were compared to screenline capacities in order to identify capacity deficiencies that would exist without any changes to the roadway network (note that the capacity of most roads is expected to increase over time, as a result of traffic management measures and changes in driver behaviour). This plan identifies modifications that will address those deficiencies and enable the future road network to operate at 90% of its capacity. System-wide operation at 100% of capacity is not desirable because network instability could lead to gridlock. By comparison, operation at 90% of capacity would be much more efficient, and would create an acceptable level of congestion in peak periods. Only in theUrban Core, bounded by the Ottawa River, the Rideau River, the Queensway and the CPR (O-Train) line, will operating at 100% of capacity be considered acceptable for planning purposes; this reflects a greater tolerance for congestion in the downtown and its vicinity, and the scarcity of reasonable options to expand the area's road network. In operating the roadway system, the City’s level of service targets may come into conflict with other objectives. For example, public safety will always be a greater concern than level of service. Similarly, the quality of service for transit vehicles may be a higher priority than for automobiles in transit priority corridors; the quality of service for cyclists will be more critical on roads identified as part of the Urban Cycling Transportation Network; and pedestrian needs will be a vital consideration in areas like the Byward Market. Annex A identifies the projects that are required to create a road network that provides an acceptable level of service in 2021. Maps 6 through 9 illustrate the resulting future urban and rural roadway networks. The costs associated with these projects are presented in Chapter 14. The City will:
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