Ottawa's Bridge Obsession

Ottawa is fast-becoming a city obsessed with building pedestrian bridges. Look around, they are popping up everywhere. The latest endeavour is for a bridge straddling the Rideau Canal from Clegg Street to Fifth Ave. The justification provided for this canal bridge is lacking in objective detail. The suggestion it will offer an increased benefit for anyone walking from the Lees transit station to Lansdowne is less than convincing. The distance and walking time for anyone now crossing over at the Pretoria Bridge is about the same. Other than those residents that live in old Ottawa east and to a lesser extent the Glebe, there are probably few people beyond those areas that would see any significant difference in not using the current crossing locations. When it comes to a $21-million expenditure from the public purse, we should not be tempted to allow optimistic predictions or political considerations to overshadow a thorough cost-benefit analysis. We have to look no further than the pedestrian bridge over highway 417 linking the ballpark and the train station to wonder if that was taxpayer money well spent.