No large development can function properly without being served by an adequate public transportation network that includes subway, light rail, or bus rapid transit service. This is particularly true of a development as large as that being proposed for Lansdowne Park, which will include a 24,000 seat stadium, an 11,000 seat civic center, shopping facilities, office space, residential units, and a hotel.

Lansdowne Park is not served by any public transportation network that would support the large number of people this development can attract. Moreover, the existing street network, the mature surrounding urban fabric, and the geographic restrictions posed by the presence of the Rideau Canal along two sides of the site, make it impossible to develop such a network.

Lansdowne Park is served by two arteries: Bank Street and the Queen Elizabeth Driveway (QED). QED is a two-lane parkway that is incapable of handling large traffic volumes. Since it has one lane in each direction, it cannot even accommodate a bus line, as there is no space for bus stops along its route.

Bank Street is a four-lane artery, but primarily functions as a two-lane artery since one lane in each direction is taken up by curb-side parking. Street parking is essential for Bank Street to serve the lively retail and office facilities located along both its sides in the city center area, The Glebe, and Old Ottawa South. It has a significant number of traffic lights, and also has a large number of intersections, making the length of its blocks very short. All this greatly limits the street’s passenger carrying capacity. Moreover, Bank Street already is functioning at full capacity. It cannot even handle more than the two bus lines that currently pass through it (nos. 1 & 7). It simply cannot accommodate the additional traffic that the proposed Lansdowne development will generate, whether during normal hours or for special events such as sports games.

Another challenge that the proposed development will bring relates to deliveries to the site. Most deliveries take place between 9 AM and 4 PM, when traffic volumes are high. A development such as that proposed for Lansdowne will require considerable deliveries on a daily basis. As heavy trucking is not allowed on the QED, most deliveries will take place via Bank Street. Being already congested, it cannot handle the additional traffic brought about by delivery trucks. Moreover, some of the deliveries will need to be carried out by heavy trucks. These will make an already very difficult traffic situation much worse, and will result in complete traffic gridlock.

Special events at the proposed development also will bring about traffic gridlock. Most people attending events such as sports games arrive within an hour before the event begins and leave within an hour after it ends. Accommodating tens of thousands of people trying to reach or leave Lansdowne Park within the confines of one hour will be a nearly impossible task.

The Lansdowne Park site, with its street network and urban fabric simply cannot accommodate the traffic that the proposed project will generate. All those living in Ottawa will be subsidizing the project through their municipal taxes. However, those who do not live within a walking distance of the site will find it very difficult, and in some cases, impossible, to access.