Lauren Roulston • Nov 27, 2024
LAUREN ROULSTON: I’ve seen you write about these ‘ghost bikes’ in front of city hall. To start this conversation, can you tell me a little bit about those ghost bikes and and what they mean?
ARIEL TROSTER: Sure. When the community puts up a ghost bike, it’s always a very sad time. It means that somebody, it means that somebody died as a result of, of road violence.
So, you know, several years ago, there was a woman who was killed when she was hit by a truck at the corner of Lyon and Laurier. There was somebody who was killed right in front of city hall at the corner of Laurier and Elgin. And the two bikes we put up were for two other people who lost their lives in the last couple of months related to road violence.
It’s something that came out of the grassroots community, and it’s a reminder to all of us that we need to do better. We need to get to what is called ‘Vision 0,’ which is a vision where 0 people are killed on the roads and that we have safe roads for everyone, no matter how they get around.
LR: And I’m sure you’ve got some ideas on how we get to vision 0 on how we can achieve road safety. I kind of want to talk a little bit about the Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims for a second. It’s- it’s kind of hand in hand with this goal that was put out, a UN resolution actually, to meet a target by 2030 that we’ve reduced 50 per cent of road casualties. So do you think that that’s doable in Ottawa? And how would we achieve that?
AT: I think it’s doable if the province stays out of our way and lets us implement complete streets. I have a lot of concern about this bill that’s in front of the Ontario legislature right now, which would actually add more red tape and make it much more complicated to add a bike lane on a road that, where it would involve removing lane of car traffic.
The Ford government, it seems, has a particular obsession with a couple of bike lanes in Toronto that they don’t like. And, of course, without any evidence, they claim that adding cycling lanes increases traffic. The evidence shows that’s actually the opposite. It’s untrue.
When we get more people walking and cycling and taking the bus, it reduces traffic. So if you do need to use your car, you’re not stuck. And we have a transportation master plan that was put together after extensive consultation with the community. Usually, when we put in a bike lane, it’s because there’s been a demand from the community or there’s been someone hurt near there.
So I believe that as a city, we have really ambitious goals. If the other levels of government help us achieve those goals instead of getting in our way, I absolutely believe it’s achievable. But it is kind of a tough time right now to see the backlash against what are actually road safety mechanisms. You don’t have to ride a bike to want to have a safer street for everyone, including people who ride bikes. So we can avoid tragic accidents through better road design, and I hope we can continue to do that.
LR: Mhmm. So these provincial legislations specifically like Bill 212, would you call it like a setback in terms of meeting this goal for this road casualty reduction?
AT: Well, absolutely. If the, if the provincial government does what it’s threatening to do. I mean, since then the Premier said he’s not especially worried about Toronto.
If anything, it’ll delay things and make us have to justify them further. Another example is in June 2023, we had a large crowd of people that gathered at the corner of Gladstone Rochester after there was a horrendous accident where a woman almost died. And the mother of a young man who died 20 years before at the exact same intersection came to that rally. And that’s part of how we were able to kick start the process for doing a feasibility study into potential bike lanes for Gladstone.
You know, we’re not doing this because it’s a pet project. We’re doing it because we wanna make people safer. We wanna have safer roads for everyone. And because this is what the community is demanding of us. Municipal government, we’re the closest level of government to the people to where they live.
We live in the same communities, and so it’s frustrating to think that with something like Bill 212, we could do all that work and be ready to hit go and send project out to tender and have to have it sit on a provincial transportation minister’s desk for an unknown period of time to have someone who knows absolutely nothing about local realities say yes or no.
So that is very, very frustrating, and that’s why, more than half of Ottawa city councilors have signed an open letter that my office put together opposing this legislation, we have more than 2,000 signatures. Bike Ottawa also has a petition. I know the Toronto Cycling Community has a petition.
You know, I think we have to keep raising our voices because we’re not gonna get safer roads without some pretty drastic action in terms of how we design our city.
LR: Right. And, and on that, an interesting note is that I actually found in the UN that, they’ve reported that road traffic injuries are the leading killer globally of people ages 5 to 29. And I’m sure that that fluctuates with things that are going on in the world.
But the burden is disproportionately on pedestrians and cyclists and motorcyclists. So taking up this, like bike infrastructure to put up more lanes. What does that say about our ability to reduce road casualties to you?
AT: Oh, it puts it at risk, right? Like you have your hardcore cyclists, but if you want the average person, especially, I mean, I remember the experience of having my baby on the back of my bike. It’s really terrifying if you’re not in a protective lane. You know, you can’t see what’s behind you. There’s lots of times where there’s certain routes I didn’t take or where I elected to drive instead because I just didn’t feel that it was safe to cycle with my baby.
I heard from families when I was knocking on doors during the election, who had bought bike racks for their car so they can drive their car to the canal and be able to safely cycle. We live within one kilometer of the canal, it’s completely absurd. But if people don’t feel like they can get from here to there, they’re gonna choose other options.
So we do have some wonderful cycle lanes in Ottawa that are geared towards recreation, but there’s a lot of us that use our bikes as transportation. This is not glamorous stuff. This is like going to work, going to school, taking your kids places, and we need to be able to do those things if we wanna have a fundamental modal shift.
And there’s also the climate change considerations. Transportation is the number one source of emissions in Ontario. When we have more balanced roads, we reduce GHG emissions, you know, and we’re nowhere we know we’re in the midst of a climate emergency. So it’s really a win-win. I mean, having, complete streets reduces traffic, makes people safer, and it’s better for the environment.
So to me, it’s a no brainer.
LR: Mhmm. And you’ve mentioned before that, you know, bill 212, it’s kind of known as the “Reducing Gridlock and Saving You Time Act,” but you’ve mentioned that the studies point to it won’t actually help traffic.
AT: It won’t do either of those things. I mean the title of that bill is pure political propaganda. I mean, it will not save you time. It will not reduce gridlock. It will not make streets safer, and it will not be good for the environment.
LR: So, do you have a sense of what the general consensus is within city council? You’ve mentioned that there’s this petition, but what do you feel that Ottawa City Council’s stance on Bill 212 is?
AT: I mean, the vast majority of us oppose it. I mean, I think there are others who might be remaining silent for other reasons. We’re also in the process of trying to negotiate a significant amount of funding where we have a major deficit with the transit system. So I understand why people may have been a little bit careful, but, I mean, we had two pretty hastily organized rallies with really large attendants. We’ve had, I think, 13 or 14 city councilors sign on to the letter that I put out.
I think there’s a lot of energy to oppose this bill, but I think there’s also a lot of fear of retribution from the province. So, you know, we’re in a very tricky position as a municipality because technically speaking, we’re still a creature of the province. So they can come in and legislate and there’s very little we can do except raise our voices and talk about what’s important.
LR: Right. And so I guess the Premier specifically mentioned the O’Connor bike lane in Ottawa. Is that, like, at risk right now in these discussions?
AT: So they did mention it in the announcement, which was a cause for concern, but then apparently, Doug Ford said he’s not worried about Ottawa traffic. I mean, the O’Connor bike lane has had hundreds of thousands of uses since it was open.
You know, the problem is from a bird’s eye view, you might look and say, well, all the cars are stuck in traffic, and there’s only a handful of bikes. That’s because bikes are smaller.
They move more efficiently. If you do a proper count, you’ll see that that lane is used extensively. I use it to get home from work every day.
We need safe lanes on roads that people actually use, and sometimes those are roads where there are cars. And we’ve invested millions of dollars in that lane, including extra safety improvements in the last year.
So the idea of spending taxpayer money to rip up existing infrastructure that is already working really well for people, not only does it not make financial sense, it would tie up all of our supply chains. Like all of the contractors we need to build things, we’d have to use them to rip things up? It just, it just really makes no sense. It’s very, very hard to understand.
LR: And, and like you said, major points there of road safety, but also Ottawa has a priority for the environment and climate change and reducing emissions, part of that is changing the way you use your personal vehicles. I think those were all the questions that I had for you today, though. Is there anything else that you wanted to add?
AT: I think that’s it. I mean, I appreciate you doing the story.
I think the only way that we reduce tragic accidents on the road is through better infrastructure, and we have to just keep fighting for that because we know that’s the solution.
LR: Thank you, councillor.
AT: No problem. Have a great day.