Transportation Master Plan not Meeting Urban Resident’s Needs
Mayor Mark Sutcliffe
110 Laurier Avenue West
Ottawa, ON K1P 1J1
May 28, 2025
Dear Mayor Sutcliffe,
We are disappointed with the projects outlined in the most recent update of the draft Transportation Master Plan and believe it will make Centretown residents worse off. It will make the lives of those who live and work here less affordable, less accessible, and less safe.
Centretown is not a parking lot or throughway for commuter traffic. It is a thriving community that deserves the same respect, investment, and access to amenities as any other neighbourhood in Ottawa. The current plan fails to support this, and instead proposes:
• More traffic and reduced safety for residents
• Higher costs and a growing maintenance backlog
• No clear solutions for the failures of the last master plan
The plan projects nearly 10,000 additional cars into downtown and inner urban areas every
morning by 2046. This will worsen congestion, increase dangerous conflicts on our streets, and make it harder for people to walk, cycle, or use transit. Despite this, the plan continues to prioritize expensive road expansions-like the Airport Parkway and Albion Road-while existing roads in Centretown are already riddled with potholes and safety hazards.
Ottawa is struggling to keep up with basic road and transit maintenance. Hundreds of OC
Transpo bus trips are missed each week due to a maintenance backlog and increased
congestion, while road repairs fall further behind every year. Adding new and widened roads will only make the maintenance backlog worse and divert funds from essential city services.
The previous Transportation Master Plan failed to deliver on its promises: transit ridership is below expectations, and sustainable mode share goals have not been met. This draft does not explain why those targets were missed or what will be done differently this time. Instead, it repeats the same approach.
We believe Centretown residents deserve a neighbourhood where children can get to school safely without crossing multiple dangerous, high-speed arterial roads; where everyone can access the amenities their taxes and development fees help fund, regardless of whether they own a car; and where our public spaces aren’t sacrificed to serve as parking lots for traffic from other neighbourhoods.
We urge Council to update the plan so it truly supports the needs of Centretown: maintain our existing infrastructure, invest in reliable transit and active transportation, and recognize that Centretown is not just a corridor for commuters.
The current plan reads like an answer to the question, “How do we get as many cars in and out of Centretown as quickly as possible?” We ask a different question: “How will the City prioritize the hours outside of peak commuting, while wide, high-speed roads sit empty and our neighbourhood remains underserved?” Centretown deserves a plan that puts residents first, not just the convenience of those passing through.
Thank you,
Rob Dekker
CCA President