Auto-wa or pedestrian's paradise? City ranks LRT stations by walkability
Rideau station most walkable, while Tremblay will require wheels
Disembarking at the future Tremblay LRT station to run some errands? You'd better have a car handy.
Or, you could just head to Rideau station and perform those tasks on foot.
Those are some of the findings of a "walk score" analysis carried out by the City of Ottawa for each of the Confederation Line stations set to open in 2018, as well as the existing O-Train stations.
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A walk score is a metric designed to illustrate how easy it is to perform everyday tasks from a particular point on foot, rather than by car.
The scores are found in the city's annual development report for 2016, which will be presented at planning committee next week.
According to the city's analysis, five stations — Bayview, Lyon, Parliament, Rideau, and St. Laurent — all received a score higher than 90, making them each a "walker's paradise."
Rideau station, with a score of 99, received top marks in the analysis.
At the bottom of the rankings were the future Pimisi and Tremblay stations, as well as the existing Confederation O-Train station.
Pimisi station could improve
Each of those three received scores under 50, making them "car-dependent" stations — stations where most daily errands would require the use of a vehicle. Tremblay received a score of 24, the lowest of any station.
The report did say Pimisi station's walkability ranking would likely improve as development continues nearby.
The station borders the planned Lebreton Flats redevelopment and is close to the future site of Ottawa's new central library.
According to the report, the average score for all 17 stations came out to 71.2, or "very walkable."