Jeanne d'Arc Boulevard Transit Measures

Visual: This meeting is a voice over of a presentation provided by City staff. The visuals are presentations.

Hello, this is a virtual presentation of the information session held on April 29th. In this presentation, you will hear from City of Ottawa staff and consultants on the roundabout plan for the intersection of Jeanne d'Arc/Fortune Drive and Vineyard Drive.

The primary functionality of the new planned roundabout is to accommodate the need for OC Transpo buses to connect seamlessly and efficiently to Jeanne d'Arc O-Train station for trips servicing the northbound and/or the southbound platforms at the station. With the opening of the O-Train East extension, Jeanne d'Arc station will become an important transfer hub for residents of Orleans as they connect between bus and train.

The primary functionality of the new planned roundabout is to accommodate the need for OC Transpo buses to connect seamlessly and efficiently to Jeanne d'Arc O-Train station for trips servicing the northbound and/or the southbound platforms at the station. With the opening of the O-Train East extension, Jeanne d'Arc station will become an important transfer hub for residents of Orleans as they connect between bus and train.

The next two slides consider scenarios that could occur as buses arrive at the southbound platform at Jeanne d'Arc O-Train station. On the right side of this slide, you can see the route buses would need to take when arriving out of service to Jeanne d'Arc station from OR174 eastbound to begin a southbound trip if we make no changes at the intersection. This pattern represents buses arriving from the OC Transpo garage or interlining from other locations further west in the network to begin a trip from Jeanne d'Arc station. In this scenario, the bus traveling eastbound from OR174 would turn right at Jeanne d'Arc on the off-ramp and continue southbound on Jeanne d'Arc Boulevard, continue along Saint Joseph Boulevard eastbound, continue northbound on Orleans Boulevard, and then back southbound on Jeanne d'Arc Boulevard.


This pattern would increase travel time, decrease service reliability due to the travel time variability along the route, increase the number of intersections that buses would be required to pass through, thus increasing the exposure to pedestrians, cyclists, and other motorists, and also increase the number of buses passing through the residential areas and in front of Convent Glen Catholic School.

This slide shows the second scenario for buses arriving at the southbound platform at Jeanne d'Arc station. In this scenario, buses traveling in service in the northbound direction along Jeanne d'Arc Boulevard would arrive at Jeanne d'Arc station to end their trip and would then be required to travel in a large loop, which includes traveling on Fortune Drive, Orleans Boulevard, and Jeanne d'Arc Boulevard to return to the southbound platform at Jeanne d'Arc station. Similar to the previous scenario, this pattern would increase travel time, decrease service reliability due to the travel time variability along the route, increase the number of intersections that buses would be required to pass through, and also increase the number of buses passing through residential areas and in front of Convent Glen Catholic School.

To avoid the aforementioned challenges, a change to the infrastructure at the intersection of Jeanne d'Arc Boulevard/Fortune Drive and Vineyard Drive is required. In order to address the operational needs and challenges that have been described in the previous slide, a single-lane roundabout is planned at the intersection of Jeanne d'Arc Boulevard and Fortune Drive. This solution addresses OC Transpo's operational requirements in support of the opening of the East extension of the O-Train, but also results in improved safety for all modes of travel through the intersection. The relative safety of a single-lane roundabout will be discussed further later in this presentation.

One of the key factors in the decision to pursue a roundabout at this location compared to other intersections further north along Jeanne d'Arc is that using this intersection to turn buses avoids the need for additional buses to continue along Jeanne d'Arc past Convent Glen School. With the planned location of the roundabout, buses have the least possible interaction with the school and with pedestrian crossing facilities. In fact, while the existing bus service along Jeanne d'Arc/Fortune and Vineyard Drive will continue, the additional buses that will be turning around at the roundabout only interact with the crosswalk on the south leg of the intersection and have no interaction with the crosswalks on the east, north, or west legs of the intersection.

While several other options were explored, each of the alternative options increased the number of intersections that the additional buses would be required to pass through, increasing the number of interactions with other vehicles, pedestrians, and cyclists, including through residential areas, decreasing the relative safety of these alternatives. Moreover, each of the alternate options results in increased operating time and distance, which comes with an additional annual operating cost for buses. The planned solution alleviates the need for additional buses to operate via local and residential streets to turn around and wait time, minimizing the intrusion into the community and limiting the exposure of pedestrians, cyclists, and cars to additional buses through the additional intersections.

In addition to the functionality of the planned roundabout, the planned bus bay on Jeanne d'Arc southbound south of Fortune and Vineyard is an essential component of the plan, contributing to significant improvements in service reliability without requiring a waiting area in a residential area or in a location that blocks the flow of traffic along an arterial road. The presence of this bus bay allows for buses arriving at Jeanne d'Arc station from a previous trip or from the garage an opportunity to stop and wait to ensure that their departure from the station is on schedule. This will ensure that connections between train and bus at Jeanne d'Arc station are quick and efficient and that customers can rely on the bus service. This facility will also ensure that bus operators have a consistent and reliable spot to take breaks, which will improve their quality of work and their morale based on the planned solution of a new roundabout at Jeanne d'Arc Boulevard/Fortune Drive and Vineyard Drive.

This slide shows how buses would operate. In step one, buses arrive from OR174 eastbound, representing buses arriving from the garage or elsewhere in the city out of service or from Jeanne d'Arc Boulevard northbound, representing buses arriving on an in-service trip in the opposite direction. In step number two, buses continue northbound on Jeanne d'Arc Boulevard from the O-Train station and turn around at the new roundabout. In step number three, buses return southbound on Jeanne d'Arc Boulevard and stop in the new bus bay to adjust their schedules before continuing southbound towards Jeanne d'Arc station. In step number four, these buses start their southbound trip from Jeanne d'Arc station, picking up customers arriving by O-Train and heading to destinations along Jeanne d'Arc southbound and towards Orleans south. This solution offers the most efficient operation for buses at Jeanne d'Arc station, maximizing safety for all road users, maximizing opportunities to improve bus service reliability, and minimizing additional operating costs.

Thanks, Dan. My name's Mario Kotowski. I'm the Manager of Transportation Services at Robinson Consultants, and I'll be speaking to some of the benefits of a single-lane roundabout. A single-lane roundabout provides numerous benefits compared to an intersection as well as a multi-lane roundabout. In the picture here that you see to your right, that's the typical configuration of a single-lane roundabout, so you have one circulatory lane within and on approach to the roundabout itself.

Some of the safety aspects of a single-lane roundabout include lower speeds compared to a multi-lane roundabout. The reason is because of the tighter geometry, the smaller circular radii that's going through the roundabout is conducive to motorists driving and approaching the roundabout at a much slower speed. The operating speed that we're looking for at the Jeanne d'Arc roundabout is approximately 30 km/h. The reduced frequency and severity of collisions compared to a stop-controlled intersection are also significant features of a roundabout. There's a strong safety record for single-lane roundabouts, with approximately a 70% to 80% reduction in collision and injury severity compared to a typical intersection.

Shorter pedestrian crossing distance: the geometry of the roundabout itself and the splitter islands that are inserted between lanes allow for pedestrians to cross much shorter distances as compared to a multi-lane roundabout and also an intersection. Single-lane roundabouts also offer significant traffic calming features as opposed to just a regular intersection. The roundabout proposed at Jeanne d'Arc fits well within the surrounding residential community, similar to the roundabout shown in the picture on the right, which is the Brian Coburn/Strasbourg roundabout. Motorists yield to pedestrians more frequently at a single-lane roundabout as compared to multi-lane roundabouts. Motorists are required to reduce speeds on approach at a roundabout, and it also encourages motorists to slow down in a school zone. The geometry of the roundabout and the curvatures on approach are conducive to motorists reducing their speed.

The other aspect of a single-lane roundabout, or any roundabout, is traffic capacity. Roundabouts have fewer delays and shorter vehicle queues compared to intersections. For example, they are much more efficient at moving vehicles through with little delays or reduced delays compared to intersections. Traffic engineering analysis was completed for the Jeanne d'Arc roundabout, and we looked at forecast traffic volumes as well as existing traffic volumes. The indication was that with population growth, the roundabout design was reviewed by various departments, engineering consultants, and an independent road safety audit. It wasn't just our team and the city's team that looked at the roundabout; there was also an independent road safety audit that was completed for the analysis that concluded the same recommendations that we did.

Here's a typical example of a roundabout. This one is a single-lane roundabout. This one here for comparison is the Portobello Boulevard/Valin Street roundabout. From the picture, you can see that Portobello is a four-lane cross-section outside of the roundabout, so similar to Jeanne d'Arc, we're going from a four-lane to a two-lane configuration, one in each direction. You can also see that there's one circulatory lane on approach and through the roundabout itself. We've got pedestrian crossovers on all legs of the intersection, and the ones being proposed at Jeanne d'Arc will also have flashing beacons. This particular roundabout is still under construction and is very near the final aspects of it. We encourage anybody who has a chance to go and take a drive through it because this roundabout is going to be very similar to the one being proposed at Jeanne d'Arc.

Visual: This slide has an image of the single-lande roundabout found at Portobello Boulevard and Valin Street.

The next few slides outline some of the roundabout pedestrian and cycling features. As mentioned before, pedestrian crossovers are being proposed at all legs of the roundabout with rapid flashing beacons, which allow pedestrians to cross the road with vehicles yielding to pedestrians until they finish crossing. Roundabouts provide safe and easy crossing for pedestrians through a couple of features. The first is the two-stage crossing. The splitter island between the opposite direction lanes allows pedestrians to cross the road one lane at a time. The one-way crossing is facilitated by pedestrians only having to look for vehicles approaching from one direction at a time when crossing, instead of two-ways for a typical intersection. The next slide is a diagram of how that works.

There's also shorter crossing distances. Jeanne d'Arc crosswalk currently is 24 meters long. With a roundabout crosswalk, the width is approximately 4.5 meters for each lane, with a total distance of 9 meters. This diagram illustrates the typical PXO crossing or pedestrian crossing over at a roundabout. If you look on the left side, a pedestrian wanting to cross the roundabout has to look in the left direction for oncoming vehicles. The first thing they would do is press the button for the rapid flashing beacons to be activated, then look left to double-check that there are no vehicles coming in that direction. They would cross 4.5 meters and take refuge in the splitter island and then facilitate the movement in the other direction in the same manner. The crossing distance would only have to be 4.5 meters for each lane, and ample sight lines are provided at the crossovers as well as the reduced vehicle speeds of 30 km/h.

Continuation of some of the pedestrian cycling features proposed at the roundabout and a general overview: roundabouts greatly reduce the number of conflicts between vehicles and pedestrians compared to a signalized intersection. If you look at the diagrams on your right, the top diagram is a typical intersection, and you can see when a pedestrian wants to cross from one side of the road to the other, they encounter four different types of conflicts from vehicles: motorists turning left, motorists turning right, the potential of a motorist running a red light. If you look at the roundabout, which is the diagram at the bottom, the only conflicting movements that pedestrians face are one-way oncoming traffic. It's a simple movement with vehicles approaching at a 90° angle to the pedestrian, making the sight lines conducive to a good crossing environment.

Some of the cycling accommodations provided at the Jeanne d'Arc roundabout include cycling on-ramps on Jeanne d'Arc/Fortune Drive and Vineyard that transition cyclists from the road to the multi-use pathways proposed around the roundabout before the roundabout. This design feature allows cyclists to bypass the roundabout if desired. If they don't want to cross through it, they can take the ramps onto the multi-use paths, get to the pedestrian crossovers, walk their bikes, and then transition back onto the MUP. For more confident cyclists, they can proceed right through the roundabout. The slower vehicle speeds increase safety for cyclists navigating through the roundabout.

Traffic management during construction: our plan for traffic management is to first retain a contractor through our tendering process. Once we have a contractor on board, we'll work with them to determine their traffic control and staging. We will then coordinate with the LRT Stage 2 Construction team to ensure that our traffic control plans and impacts are aligned, providing a safe and continuous construction project. The signalized intersection at Jeanne d'Arc/Fortune and Vineyard will remain signalized during construction. We will stage our construction around it to maintain traffic and pedestrian accessibility. The intersection currently has a red light camera, which will be decommissioned during construction at an appropriate time.

Traffic impacts along Jeanne d'Arc will result from lane reductions from two lanes in each direction to one lane in each direction to accommodate construction staging. Lane reductions and impacts will also be seen on Fortune Drive and Vineyard but kept to a minimum. These reductions will be held to off-peak hours to avoid impacts on commuters. Later in the project, road closures on Fortune Drive and Vineyard will occur over a weekend and be communicated in advance. The nearby Convent Glen School's children's safety remains a priority. We will work closely with school staff and the crossing guard to minimize project impacts on the school.

Construction impacts on pedestrians remain a priority, ensuring their safety and accessibility. We will also maintain access for cycling and local properties. Transit services will continue through the construction zone, with OC Transpo bus stops maintained during weekend closures. Temporary bus detours will be communicated in advance. Accessibility is a priority, ensuring access through and around construction sites for those needing additional assistance. Please reach out to the project team or myself to find solutions.

Construction activity will generate noise, but our contractors will work within the City of Ottawa noise by-law, allowing activity from 7:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. on weekdays and Saturdays, and 9:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. on Sundays and holidays. The project schedule aims to complete design this spring, start construction in the summer, and proceed through summer and fall, pausing in winter, and completing in summer 2025.

Thank you, Kyle. This concludes our virtual presentation. We encourage you to visit our website at ottawa.ca/JeannedArcTransit for more information, including a copy of the slides presented, informational boards from the meeting, and how to submit comments and feedback to the project team. The comment period is open until May 17th. Thank you for tuning into this virtual presentation on the planned roundabout.