A Futile Assault on the Automobile

January 8, 2024

The Ottawa City Council approved a 4-storey, 18-unit residential building on a quarter-acre lot, in the middle of a residential area, without requiring parking. Yes, that is what they did, and I scratched my head, who is going to rent these units with no parking where there are no commercial facilities nearby? Oh yes, there is a bus, I think every half hour, that goes by the proposed development. But unless you are a hermit, happy to read books, and stay home, living without a car in this development will be a challenge.

What further upset me was that our local Councilor voted for the project and said in his newsletter that ‘we need more of this”. Does he not know that cars are part of the Canadian DNA? That cars are an integral part of our cities?

A key element of the official plan for the city is “densification” to permit population growth. Otherwise, the plan claims that “urban sprawl” will result. I guess, the planners never heard of “smart growth” or “planned growth” to alleviate the undesirable effects of urban sprawl (reduction of agricultural land, expensive infrastructure build, loss of wildlife, and pollution by increased car traffic).

A key justification for the approval was its location on a future “major transportation corridor”. The trouble is that the “corridor” has not been funded and the future may be decades away. These projects take decades to materialize while the construction of the building may take a year or two so the units would be rented without parking. Improved public transportation may be years away.

I cannot help thinking that the Council is also “social engineering” by encouraging the use of public transit.

But people have cars: statistics show that every 1000 people own 750 cars in Canada. And a building with 19 units will have at least 19 people living there or more likely, double, or triple that number. That translates into 14 or more cars. Since there is no parking on the major road fronting the proposed development, people renting there with cars will have to park on the side streets. I am sure neighbors will not like that and with the snowfall during the harsh Ottawa winters, it will create headaches for the snowplows. 

Canadians like their cars for the freedom they provide to go anywhere, anytime. Yes, mobility via the automobile does encourage urban sprawl. And yes, there are costs for this freedom (the public costs of infrastructure and private costs for fuel, insurance, etc.). However, Canadians decided that the costs are worth the freedom the car provides to get around (there are thirty million cars in Canada with a population of forty million).

As a result, the ubiquitous use of cars has left a huge imprint on the Canadian landscape. On a recent drive from Ottawa to Collingwood, we traveled on four-lane highways, the 401, and then north on the 400, crowded during the holiday travel season. We slowed down driving through Toronto, on six-lane highways in each direction. We saw a tremendous amount of pavement.

The number of highway construction projects indicates the huge public investments to improve the highway system. As well, governments attracted a fifteen-billion-dollar investment by Stellantis in Windsor and a similar investment by Volkswagen in St. Thomas, both in the EV battery business. Let’s face it, cars are not going away much as the Ottawa City Council would like to pretend.

The long drive allowed me to think that besides highways, the car industry includes innumerable gas stations and repair shops. And one cannot forget the outsized number of jobs the industry provides. Even with Amazon today, the retail industry thrives on huge shopping centers surrounded by mammoth parking lots for cars.

To my way of thinking, to assume that not providing parking will reduce the use of cars is illogical. Ottawa and other Canadian cities rely on cars for transportation. But the Ottawa City Council decided to not require any parking in a 19-unit residential building, rationalizing their decision on the availability of public transit—some system. OCTranspo, the Ottawa public transportation agency decided to cut service and increase fares given the financial losses suffered last year.