OTTAWA WESTERN LRT PROPOSALS:

A RESIDENTIAL WALKABILITY STUDY

Jason White

Overview

Data Sources
Street

maps from GeoBase Population data from Statistics Canada Proposed LRT station sites from ottawa.ca

Methodology
From

each proposed station, custom algorithm walked out in all possible directions for 800m Determined the true catchment area for each station/proposal Plotted total catchment area for each proposal, colour-coded to population density

Overview

Map Notes
Each

proposed station is circled with 800m aerial distance boundary

800m

walking distance is North American standard Ottawa typically uses 600m

Street

locations within walking distance are colour-coded with residential population density Walking distances are approximated by street segment lengths
Short-cuts

through parks generally not accounted for

Western LRT Proposal Summary

Proposal # Stops Catchment Street Length (km) Walkable Population Walkable Population / Stop

Richmond Underground
Richmond Underground North Richmond via Rochester Field Parkway Richmond via Churchill CPR-Richmond Carling

8
8

89
85

21809
20630

2726
2579

8 8 8 8 11

91 81 98 91 133

22313 19676 23960 22313 29666

2789 2460 2995 2789 2697

Conclusions

Carling option has larger catchment, more walkable population, but also more stops

Population per stop comparable to other proposals

Parkway option has very poor walkability, compared to other options Richmond via Churchill has highest walkable population per stop, due to Byron station, unique among options Richmond via Rochester Field and CPRRichmond have identical performance here

Stations are in virtually identical locations

Notes

Walkability is but one aspect of good transit system design

Network

flow, throughput, reliability other major

factors

Generally, higher walkability often correlates with lower reliability due to increased stops
Compromises

must be made

Locating stations near to dense populations is desirable, all other factors being equal