Sign the petition for a moratorium on new roads
Five years to focus on transit, cycling, and pedestrian infrstructure

(Petition complete November 2008)

Ecology Ottawa is petitioning city council to declare a five-year moratorium on spending for road construction and widening, and to instead shift this spending towards public transit and pedestrian and cycling infrastructure.

Despite growing public health threats from smog and global warming, the city's deepening fiscal crisis, and the lip service councillors pay to the importance of smart growth and public transit, city council continues to approve one new road after another. The city website currently lists no less than 12 road construction and widening projects, but it can't even afford to maintain the ones we already have.

Mayor Larry O'Brien has already stated that when council sits down this year to grapple with the challenge of balancing the city budget, cuts to services are inevitable. Before they start slashing funding or increasing user fees for services that actually improve the health and sustainability of our communities, our councillors should be cutting the budget for new roads and road widening -- to zero.

With your help, we can send a strong message to city council that Ottawa residents want better public transit, cycling, and pedestrian infrastructure -- not more roads.

Why a moratorium on new roads?

For the climate

Ottawa's motor vehicles produce 1.6 million tonnes of carbon dioxide a year, contributing to climate change. From 1990 to 2004, emissions from the transportation sector have increased by 15%.

For our health

Cars create a toxic mix of carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, particulate matter and volatile organic compounds. Smog is a serious problem in Ottawa. In 2005, air pollution in Ottawa was estimated to cause 290 premature deaths, 3,010 visits to emergency rooms, $25 million in health care costs, and over $18 million in lost productivity. Smog causes asthma and other respiratory diseases, heart diseases and cancer.

For lower taxes

Ottawa plans to spend $1.5 billion on roadways between 2008-2017. This includes $690 million for building new roads and widening existing roads. When roads are widened, traffic expands to fill the available space. The result is more smog, more traffic jams – and more expenses for taxpayers. This year, the city had to cancel repaving on 20% of the roads that need it because of high fuel costs. At a time when we can't afford to fix the roads we have, the last thing we should be doing is building more. We pay increasing taxes to maintain an expanding road network -- 6,000 kilometres, and growing.

According to city councillor Diane Holmes: "When one includes all the costs of travel, including health and societal costs (air quality, quality of life), we find that the total public cost per passenger trip is:

For families, not freeways

Narrow, pedestrian-centred streets encourage a sense of community and are good for business. People are more likely to shop in neighbourhoods where they feel safe walking around. Children are more likely to feel safe playing in neighbourhoods built for people. Widening roads only increases the traffic, making our streets unsafe for children. Over 20% of our urban area is devoted to roads. We need more space for people.

For farms, not parking lots

Car-centric cities are unsustainable. When roads are built in the suburbs and the countryside, we lose our precious farmland – it's paved over, to make way for big box stores, and oversized parking lots. Urban sprawl threatens the way of life of Ottawa's farmers. We must protect our villages, green spaces, and agricultural lands from the urban sprawl that is compounded by roads -- which take up a fifth of all land in the urban area. When we grow food locally, we reduce emissions from the trucks used to transport imports from California and other distant places.

Roll back the roads!

A road moratorium could include a cap and trade system. If a new road must be built somewhere, an equivalent length of road could be converted into a pedestrian street. In the future, many roads will become lively pedestrian-centred streets. Over time, we can reduce the total length of the road network – and encourage public transit, cycling and walking instead.

What you can do:

Write to your councillor and the mayor, and tell them you want a moratorium on the construction of new roads. You can find your councillor's contact information at: http://www.ottawa.ca/city_hall/mayor_council/councillors/index_en.html.

Get involved with Ecology Ottawa, and help make Ottawa a more sustainable city. To find out more about how to get involved, please email info@ecologyottawa.ca, or call 613-850-9101.

Moratorium_new_roads.pdf