What Ottawa should learn from Paris's new mayor | Opinion |
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What Ottawa should learn from Paris's new mayor | Opinion
Here in Ottawa we are locked in a vicious circle of perpetual pointlessness, producing slow, partial, half-baked pilot projects that never lead to meaningful change.
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Someone should tell the people running this town, stuck in the same never-ending fights; sidewalks here, bus lanes there, same arguments, same results, same paralysis.
Meanwhile, other capital cities like Paris are making such spectacular progress reducing car dependency that it was considered completely normal for the newly elected mayor to ride to his victory speech on a Vélib, the city’s bike share program.
Yay Powerful Bike Lobby!
Socialist Emmanuel Grégoire was elected mayor of the City of Light on Sunday, replacing Socialist Anne Hidalgo in a decisive win over a right-wing coalition that never got much traction.
Not just because Paris leans left (it’s had nothing but left-wing mayors for 25 years) but because Parisians are, clearly, satisfied with the green and active transportation revolution Hidalgo has competently led for the last 12 years.
You might remember Hidalgo throwing herself into the Seine just before the last summer Olympics to demonstrate that the river had actually become clean enough to host competition.
This was a river so polluted its stench was three-dimensional. Its banks used to be loud and dangerous highways; they are now popular pedestrian parks.
Over her decade-plus in office, Hidalgo removed over 50,000 parking spots, built 1,300 km of bike lanes, and cut inner-city driving by roughly 40 percent.
She has also spearheaded a massive “rues aux écoles” initiative to make streets around schools safe for children to walk or cycle all by themselves.
This weekend, Parisians voted enthusiastically for more of the same kind of revolution, under a fresh leadership.
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Meanwhile in Ottawa… yeah, go ahead, laugh.
Here, we are locked in a vicious circle of perpetual pointlessness, producing slow, partial, half-baked pilot projects that never lead to meaningful change.
You think I’m exaggerating and on one tiny point you may be right.
There is one pilot project in Ottawa that’s so successful it keeps being renewed. It’s the e-scooter program. The exception that proves the rule, you might say.
We are back to debating whether Manor Park needs sidewalks, in a neighbourhood whose residents insist they don’t, with plenty of safety data to back them up.
And over in the Glebe, we are contemplating the possibility of perhaps exploring a small pilot project to maybe allow buses to run along Bank Street on dedicated lanes. Sometimes, certainly not all day.
Just last week I mentioned the on-demand transit pilot we ran in 2024. It was so successful we decided to expand it, by buying 10 minibuses to be deployed two and a half years later. Two and a half years. For minibuses. Not moon rockets. Not fusion reactors. Minibuses.
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The bus lane on Bank Street has been an obvious necessity since the invention of public transit. We are still debating it.
The current obstacle: removing 17 parking spots to move thousands of people faster. Seventeen spots. And here’s the kicker: there are plenty of spaces nearby, including the Second Ave parking garage, so no one is actually being told they can’t drive to the Glebe and park.
We’re asking some people to walk a little extra to their private vehicle. That is the conundrum that has us paralyzed.
Anne Hidalgo faced enormous resistance when she launched her green revolution shortly after her first election in 2014.
There were complaints and lawsuits and all manner of fuss. She persevered because that’s what visionary leaders do.
We could do that here. We know what needs to be done. We just need to stop auditioning for the sequel to Groundhog Day that nobody asked for and start making the changes we know we need.
Beginning, as a first step so obvious it makes me want to scream, with those goldurn bus lanes on Bank Street.
Brigitte Pellerin (they/them) is an Ottawa writer.
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