Pat Bickerton

Debt will the shown in the equivalent capital budget graph. Stay tuned.

No idea. But probably some type of service that another municipality buys from Ottawa.

College Ward has a really good Councillor.

Municipal budgets are difficult to read, but they don't have to be!

I think most people want to know the basics; where does the money come from, and how do we spend it?

Here is my attempt to simplify #OttCity 2024 Operating Budget. Revenues on the left, expenses on the right. Simple.

#DoTheMath

a screenshot of a proposed bill headed Part XII.1, ROADWAY CAPACITY, repealing Section 195.3 of the Act and substituting a complete prohibition on reducing lanes available for travel by motor vehicles for any of the following purposes: a bicycle lane, or "any other prescribed purpose"

Hey Ontario! You've heard of the disastrous Ford bill to destroy tenant rights, but did you know that Omnibus Bill 60 would entirely wipe out the ability of cities to right-size their roads by reducing lanes _at all_, not even just for bike lanes?

#onpoli #OttBike #ontario #ottawa

Agreed!

Why can't our have nice things?

It is probably because we stopped building our cities efficiently after WWII with the wide adoption of the family automobile.

Here is a great video from Halifax using 100 years of property tax data.

#OpenData #DoTheMath

Nicely done. It really shows what can be achieved with open data.

Yes. Same colour coding as before. Roads are 60+ kph (highways removed). Urban boundary in dashed grey.

Vroom vroom beep beep happened

There are many things wrong with the LRT implementation but to be fair Phase 1 was a half measure. The hub and spoke model of Ottawa's LRT will start to make (more) sense after Phase 2 East and West are complete.

Financially productive land isn't just found in downtown #OttCity.

Transit can act as a wealth accelerator and increases the productivity of nearby properties. Here
@strongtownsottawa.ca
shows how today's highest productive land still remains generally aligned with 1929 streetcar routes.

This work was done in partnership with the great folks at @strongtownsottawa.ca

Here is some information about the transect areas.

I've been analyzing the cost of different development patterns in #OttCity. Using the city's open data and the 2021 Census, I was able to calculate how much stuff we build (and maintain) per dwelling.

Here is an initial look at the data.

Letter sent to the premier of Ontario opposing the removal of speed cameras. Text follows : To: Premier of Ontario Legislative Building Queen’s Park Toronto, ON, M7A 1A1 (by email) Ottawa, October 22, 2025 Re: Automatic Speed Enforcement Cameras Premier Ford, We are extremely concerned about your directive to remove automatic speed enforcement (ACE) cameras in Ontario. Along with the Association of Municipalities, the CAA and the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police as well as many municipal leaders, we believe in the evidence that previously collected data show: fining people who don’t comply with speed limits helps: it leads to drastic safety improvements. This makes a good case for continuing the use of cameras to maintain speed compliance. The ultimate goal of speed enforcement is obviously that people adhere to posted speed limits. Existing data shows that speed compliance quickly improves and is maintained after cameras are installed. Fewer and fewer tickets are being issued by each camera every year. This trend is already happening: in Ottawa, as the enclosed graphs show, speeds have considerably dropped at road segments where cameras have been placed. Speed cameras work! Cameras in Ottawa are overwhelmingly placed in areas near schools. Removing cameras would recreate dangerous situations for children in those school zones. And let's not forget people with disabilities and our aging population, who may take longer to cross roads. Many safety experts strongly support the use of automatic speed cameras as does the majority of Ontario drivers (73%). In Ottawa, speed compliance went up from 16% to 81% in speed camera zones; the instances of high end speeding in those zones went down from 14% to less than 1%. Those are impressive results.

Second page of the letter to the premier of Ontario opposing removal of speed cameras, text follows : Therefore we ask you to reconsider an end to speed enforcement with cameras and allow technology to do its work to protect the lives of Ontarians. Using cameras allows police officers to do other important work. This is about safety for every Ontario resident, not a cash grab. Respectfully, Strong Towns Ottawa Encl: three graphs About Strong Towns Ottawa Strong Towns Ottawa is a local chapter of Strong Towns. We advocate for a more financially resilient and livable Ottawa. We aim to build a safer city that enables all of us to choose the way we want to live. This includes investing in various transportation options, housing types, safer streets, mixed-use neighbourhoods, local businesses, and more.

A graph of data showing the speed limit compliance in areas where the speed cameras have been put in place in Ottawa. The x axis reads : "Age of ASE Camera (days)" and the y axis reads : "Speed Limit Compliance (%)". The lines on the graph are all of the different road segments where the cameras have been put in place. As the graph moves further to the right, the compliance goes up, reaching close to 100% for many of the cameras

Graph of public data with the x-axis reading : "Age of ASE Camera (days)", y-axis : "High end Speeders (%)". As the graph moves further to the right, the amount of high-end speeders drops off substantially for all of the segments of the roads where speed cameras have been put in place.

We have sent out a letter to the premier of Ontario, Doug Ford, opposing his plan to remove speed cameras, which have been shown to overwhelmingly increase safety on our roads.

Thanks @hansonthebike.bsky.social for putting the letter together, and @pbickerton.bsky.social for the great graphics!

Lol. No at all surprising

Before getting upset at rural development keep in mind that they grow our food and demand very few city services (not shown in table).

I *suspect* that the biggest financial challenges are the outer urban and suburban areas that combine high service levels with high-cost development.

Some initial figures on the cost of different development patterns in #OttCity.

But we all new this, right? #DoTheMath

Sources: City of Ottawa, 2021 Census, Open Street Map

Hey @chandrapasma.bsky.social. The data show that automated speed enforcement cameras work in Ottawa.

After the camera is installed, drivers quickly slow down and there are less high-end speeders.

The effects are lasting. Please fight to keep them.

Opinion: City zoning is beyond reform. To tackle the housing crisis, scrap the whole thing Zoning isn’t doing what it’s supposed to be doing in Canada’s cities. The good news is that there is an alternative

New from me in the Globe & Mail: Ottawa’s new zoning bylaw is a major step forward—but if we’re lucky, it’ll be the last of its kind.

We're having fun looking at how #OttCity collects property taxes.

Let me know if you have questions you'd like us to explore.

You can also analyze the data yourself. Data at strongtownsottawa.ca/resources/

Residents oppose proposed Baseline Road highrise development The project would feature nine-, 28- and 30-storey structures, ground-level commercial space, 871 residential units and 585 parking spaces.

The amount of "fuck you I got mine" in this article is crazy.

I made this map showing the age of water and sewer infrastructure.

One way to use this data is to provide a rough timeline whenever the city says that an improvement will align with road renewal.

How long will that be? Pipes are designed for 80-100 yrs.

bickertonpa.github.io/Ottawa-Water...

A great graphic that shares a simple message.

Bylaw officers should modernize their tools and move away from a complaint based model.

Example of modern tools. Storm sewer rates will soon be calculated by how much impermeable area you have on your property (asphalt, concrete, etc).The analysis involves aircraft imagery, GIS and AI tools.

I head again today from Ottawa By-law, they're no longer accepting reports for illegal driveway expansions or hardscaping or front yard parking. Apparently there are only 4 officers for these zoning issues and there are far too many reports than they can keep up with. They need more resources.

Yes I understand but resurfacing is not the same sewer repair. Just wanted to give you that information. Thanks for the reply.

You mentioned that the city will be digging up the sewers in 10-15 yrs. I assume you mean on Gladstone?

FYI the only "old" section of sewer is between Lyon and Kent (1935). The remaining sewer/water pipes on Gladstone were installed 1993-2016. Is the city really going to dig them up in 10-15 yrs?