I’ve arrived back in Ottawa for the summer and I can’t help but notice some of the differences between Ottawa and Vancouver’s public transportation. Sadly, Ottawa does not measure up too well. Having a car is much more necessary in Ottawa than in Vancouver. This is not the way to make a greener city, like everyone wants to do these days.
For example, my local bus route, the 164, stops running at about 7:30 PM on Saturdays. This is pretty ridiculous - one would assume that they would run it LATER on Saturdays than any other day of the week, if anything. Then again, bus service to Kanata has never been great. It’s actually slightly better now than a year ago, since they decided that the 161 shouldn’t be the only bus for about 75% of the area.
The thing I liked about Vancouver’s bus system was that I could get almost anywhere I wanted to go within an hour. This included some further-away places like Surrey, just a quick ride on the Skytrain.
I know everyone says this, but Ottawa could really use some kind of light-rail or subway. I’m always blown away by these things when I visit a city that has one. The O-Train doesn’t really cut it. Unless you go to Carleton University (and I did at one point) you’re not going to be taking that train. Expand that O-Train!
