Rob Attrell

Flyer for the Eastern Ottawa Urbanism Club, which meets Tuesdays over lunch.

✨Introducing✨ the Eastern Ottawa Urbanism Club, a weekly (virtual) social gathering for fans of good city-making practices in the east end of Ottawa. Follow the link to get your invite, first meeting is March 3rd.

theneworleans.ca/urbanism-club/

A small white piece of paper on a brown textile background. On the paper, typed font says “I love how hard you work to make our community a better place”.

Sharing the fortune my kid brought home from his Scouts Lunar New Year celebration, because it seems timely.

I listened to this podcast last night and the woman from Montreal saying that biking in the winter was only for Bicycle Men and it would be impossible in a skirt or dress really inspired me this morning. 💃🏼🚲

(The rest of the pod is great though!)

#OttBike

Cool, I’m listening!

The agenda for February's Public Works and Infrastructure Committee is up and still no Bank Street bus lanes. It was supposed to be on the agenda for this meeting, but has been delayed yet again.

This "pilot project" has been in the works for over 4 years, and is now over a year behind schedule.

this is cool

this is cool

this is really, really cool

Keeping Our City Moving: What Drives Ottawa to Add More Lanes (Bus, Bike, or Otherwise) - The New Orleans If you’ve ever sat through a public meeting about a new bike lane or a bus rapid transit expansion, you’ve likely heard this before: “Why are we spending taxpayer money on this? I barely see anyone us...

✨New Post✨ Infrastructure is a signal. We don't build bridges based on how many people are currently swimming across the river; we build them to create a new path forward. It's time to use the math of demand to build a city that actually scales. 🌉🚲🚌 #urbanism #ottawa #transportation

YouTube video by Planet Wild We’re creating the world’s biggest wildlife corridor

Let’s do this but for getting people over highways. Why are we stuck with lame inaccessible pedestrian overpasses??

We were promised raised sidewalks up and down #Elgin

We got giant slush-puddles

Path made by footprints in the snow across a park

You can’t justify a bridge by counting the number of people swimming across a river. Luckily for us, this river’s water fell from the sky frozen. This is not accessible at all, the path was cut through snow by foot, one person at a time.
#suburbs #winter #ottawa

My corollary of this is “car must go faster than bike! Car go fast, past bike. Bike go fast, well car go faster still. Past bike”

I can be going 30+ kph in a 40 zone and cars need to go 60-65 because they just innately know they need to go much faster than a bike.

Getting to the Coffee Shop: A Case Study in Suburban Villages - The New Orleans Let’s look for a few minutes at how the average resident in Convent Glen North might go to get a coffee. We don’t really have coffee shops anywhere nearby, despite the vast majority of adults in the a...

Is your morning coffee a quick stroll or a trek by car? ☕️ Today we explore Suburban Villages, and the challenges of missing nearby amenities. 🏙️🚶‍♂️
#Orléans #Urbanism #WalkableCities #SuburbanLiving #BuildtheVillage

A very good article with a misleading headline.

Stage 2 East isn't delayed by those issues *yet*.

The contractor has not yet achieved the substantial completion milestone. (OCT does have little incentive to push the contractor to finish as OCT doesn't have the resources for the next step.)

Local Neighbourhoods Need More Shops and Less Parking - The New Orleans The Convenience of Proximity Families in the suburbs of Ottawa have been sold a specific kind of convenience for the last several generations. It’s a picture that promises that as long as you have a c...

Want more sustainable, walkable communities in Orléans? 🏙️ The latest article discusses why we should prioritize local shops over big box and parking lots to build a better, more connected neighbourhood.🛍️ #LocalBusiness #ParkingMinimums #BuildtheVillage

Line 1 eastern extension delayed, trials expected in spring | CBC News Transit riders in Ottawa's east end will have to wait a little longer for OC Transpo's Line 1 LRT extension.

Eastern LRT extension set to open…*checks article*…eventually.

I can't wait for the opening to be pushed up so it can serve as a set piece photo-op in Sutcliffe's re-election campaign, only for it to fall flat on its ass. Nothing changes.

www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

You get me, Captcha 😍

A Purolator low speed vehicle parked on a snowy street with a crossover SUV behind it for scale.

Spotted this cool low speed electric delivery vehicle on the job today.

💚 Cutting emissions
📦 Getting packages to people efficiently in dense neighbourhoods (it can fit up to 80 boxes per trip!)
🚴🏼‍♀️👩🏼‍🦼🚶🏼‍♀️🚸 Improving safety for people walking and wheeling

Way to go Purolator!

Op-ed: What the federal government’s return-to-office mandate gets wrong The policy risks sending a damaging message: that presence still matters more than performance, and that trust remains conditional rather than foundational.

“…blanket mandates prioritize visibility over effectiveness. They assume that more days in the office automatically translates into better performance, stronger culture and improved accountability. The evidence for this is, at best, mixed.”
@psac-afpc.bsky.social #Ottawa obj.ca/op-ed-federa...

US Travel advisory issued from Government of Canada: "Take normal security precautions".

Really???
Are you ready to share your social networks' account passwords with them?
Are you thinking of leaving your fantastic phone at home and bringing a burner-phone?
Do you have to ensure fealty to Grifter-in-Chief?

That is NOT normal security precautions in #canada !

Showing a high degree of caution for the Netherlands

Showing a high degree of caution for travellers to France

Showing a high degree of caution for travellers the Cuba

Showing normal security precaution for travellers to Greenland

So Cuba is out, France is out, the Netherlands is out. Where to go on a trip? Greenland?

Very sad about this if it goes through and they close up completely. Eddie Bauer is the only place I could get clothes that were the right height for me while not being comically wide. Their tall sizes are perfect for me.

Highway filled with car congestion

If you widen that highway

you won’t reduce emissions

or congestion.

What you WILL do

is spend a lot of public money

to induce even more cars

emitting even more GHGs and pollution

in the same or worse congestion

with people still demanding that you widen the highway.

Period.

Love this. It really does exemplify how broken our basic conceptions are about community and how to live life at least in places like #Ottawa

Definitely more than one.

Federal public servants called back to office 4 days a week starting this summer | CBC News The federal government expects its employees to return to in-office work for a minimum of four days a week starting this July.

Two things I’m not sure is widely understood:

1. Many public servants no longer have their own desks and work in transient government co-working spaces

2. Many describe a Kafkaesque existence of going to physical offices only to spend their time on video calls with the people sitting next to them

Ogilvie road had been a disaster for winter cycling this year.

The bike lane is already pretty awful, but it's not cleared in odd places forcing me into squeeze situations, crazy potholes and sewers, and there's no other option to go from Blair to St Laurent.

#ottbike

PSAC has filed an unfair labour practice complaint with the Federal Public Service Labour Relations and Employment Board in response to the government’s new in-office mandate.

We are fighting this every step of the way. Nothing is off the table.

Affordability in the Suburbs – Privacy's Premium Subscription - The New Orleans For decades, the suburban dream has been sold as the ultimate marker of financial stability and personal success. It is the promise of a quiet street, a private yard, and a sanctuary away from the hus...

✨New Post✨ Suburban life often feels like freedom, but many ways it's more like a premium subscription. Between mandatory car ownership and the part-time yard maintenance work, we're paying a massive hidden cost for privacy. Is suburban life worth the cost? 🏘️💸

Transportation planning has an unfortunate history of caring more about "choice riders" (of e.g. public transit) than people who use it out of necessity. Non-choice riders are forced to use the system no matter how bad, so there's no rush to improve it. This is wrong, both morally and scientifically

Screenshot of a report by the City of Ottawa that reads, "within walking distance of the site. Emergency services have been consulted and recognize that the path network in LeBreton is being developed to support emergency service vehicles including fire trucks and ambulances. In recent years, downtown fire stations have been testing out vehicles that are smaller and deployed in denser areas with pedestrian connections."

Wait, what? Did we know #OttCity is testing smaller emergency vehicles? Where can I find out more?