DOWNTOWN MOVES: TRANSFORMING OTTAWA'S STREETS
Ottawa, ON

The Planning Partnership, working with Delcan Ltd., was retained by the City of Ottawa to develop “Downtown Moves: Transforming Ottawa’s Streets.” The objective of this project was to enhance downtown street environments, open spaces and parks, and multi-modal connections throughout the City. The final report provided guidelines and strategies to reinvigorate the quality and character of streets, including prioritizing pedestrians, fostering a healthy and green urban environment, improving the cycling network, and encouraging transit use through the implementation of new transit-interchange zones. Streets represent the most significant public spaces available in Ottawa’s Central Business District and accommodate the movement of over 100,000 workers and 7.8 million tourists annually. Creating more vibrant, inclusive, safe and accessible streets for residents and visitors of all ages and abilities was a priority.

“Downtown Moves” identified ways to make walking, cycling and transit more comfortable and convenient by restoring a balance among all street users and providing direction for future streetscape improvements. The study also informed the City on how best to capitalize on the implementation of the Confederation Line light-rail transit (LRT), and seamlessly integrate the future downtown Confederation Line stations at street level. “Downtown Moves” guided the streetscape, urban design, and infrastructure renewal of approximately 30 km of municipal streets in downtown Ottawa and was the recipient of the 2014 CSLA National Citation Award for Planning & Analysis. This work is now being used to direct the detailed design and implementation of streetscape improvements for several downtown streets.

Key Metrics:

• Size: 30km