Derrick Simpson

@derricksimpson.bsky.social

2993 Followers 590 Following

Transportation and Board Chair, Centretown Community Association | Carleton Journalism Grad | Ottawa Urbanism Book Club | Board @strongtownsottawa.bsky.social‬| Substack: Improving Ottawa

A full parking lot at the beach in Leamington, Ontario
Robert A Caro, The Years of Lyndon Johnson, Means of Ascent
Emergent Tokyo: Designing the spontaneous city by Jorge Almazan
Two orange e-scooters parked on the sidewalk on O’Connor in downtown Ottawwa
Dear Lise Guèvremont, While we are optimistic for the Bank Street Active Transportation and Transit Priority Feasibility Study, we believe the most recent public proposal does not go far enough to prioritize public transportation and move as many people as possible. The Centretown Community Association would like to make the following suggested changes to the Bank Street Transit Study: Bus lanes should be bi-directional whenever in use and the city should consider expanding the duration of active bus lanes. The number of 24/7 bus lane sections should be expanded. There should be more frequent use of transit priority signals throughout Bank Street. The definition of large events requiring bus lanes should be expanded to include events like 613flea and Ottawa Charge games. Signage should be improved to direct drivers to the 2nd Avenue parking garage. As OC Transpo faces reliability and confidence issues, we need to prioritize fast and reliable public transit. Bus lanes are a great way to reduce operating costs, speed up travel times, and increase the number of people that will ride the bus. We would also love to see the city lean into the pilot project aspect of the Bank Street Transit Study. Once implemented, we believe the project should be reviewed within the first six months with consideration taken to increase bus lane durations and to expand bus lane locations, including into Centretown. As the busiest bus corridor in the city, we need to be maximizing the efficiency of bus travel to ensure traffic flows smoothly and reliably. A reminder that the City’s own data collected outlined that 77% of respondents want more space for people outside of private vehicles on Bank Street. Thank you, Robert Dekker CCA President
Troy Charter Interim General Manager of OC Transpo Friday, January 30, 2026 Bus cancellations unfairly impacting downtown core and equity-seeking residents Mr. Charter, I don't need to explain to you the issues facing OC Transpo at the moment, and the impacts that these issues are having on the whole city. I know that you are well aware of these problems, and I have appreciated your transparency and knowledge when talking to the media. I am writing to state more specifically that the cancellations and lack of reliable service has been impacting residents of Ward 12 more than others. During the first few weeks of January, residents have suffered through some of the worst transit service in recent months. While heavy snowfall has been a complicating factor, it is also more reason that we need reliable transit service, so that residents are not left waiting outside in the cold. As you noted in your statement to CBC, cancellations and delays impact downtown urban routes disproportionately. Among the most impacted routes, the 6, 7, and 12 all go through Ward 12. I have been advocating for more bus-only lanes and transit priority signals across the city. Allowing buses to move first through traffic and intersections will address the domino effect that happens when, for example, traffic on Bank Street causes the route 6 or 7 to be late arriving in Ward 12. I introduced a motion to this effect at the budget meeting of City Council. I look forward to working with you on this. People who live in Ward 12 are overwhelmingly renters, low-income, students and shift workers. Most do not own a car. These are equity-seeking groups that do not have another option for getting around the city, especially in winter. Unreliable service makes life much harder for these people who already get by with very little. I will be submitting an inquiry at the next Transit Commission on February 12 asking staff to look into how these cancellations and delays affect equity-seeking groups, though I a…
Document 1 - Bank Street (Rideau Canal to Highway 417) Active Transportation and Transit Operations Feasibility Study - Scoping Document 1.0 Introduction This scoping document is in response the following motion approved by Transportation Committee on December 1, 2021, and Council on December 8, 2021: *THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that staff be directed to scope a study to improve active transportation facilities and enhance transit operations, including considerations for a potential pilot project on Bank Street (from the Canal to the Queensway), and as part of that scoping, identify a consultation program, a study cost estimate and options for funding source to undertake the study, and report back to Transportation Committee on this scoping effort by mid 2022. The Bank Street Corridor (Figure 1) is approximately 1.5 kilometres in length between the Rideau Canal and Highway 417. Bank Street is used by OC Transpo bus routes (6 and 7), and currently operates in mixed traffic. In addition, special service routes (450, 451, 452, 454, 455, 456) as well as STO use this section of Bank Street for Lansdowne/TD Place events.
For a time, when I was much more active on Twitter than I am now, I'd find myself, e.g., washing dishes and, without wanting to, thinking about various mundane things in the form of tweets. Some nascent half-kernel of an idea would come to me and, like a hack comedian for whom every banal thing is material, I would immediately start working it over for any and all tweet-like potential. Maybe there was a tiny bit of dish soap left at the bottom of the bottle, and I considered diluting it with water to get it out more easily and make the bottle last longer. I wouldn't simply think that. Thanks to Twitter, I'd think something exponentially more inane and annoying, such as, "The masculine urge to water down the dish soap..." or "The two genders picture of brand-new dish soap vs. picture of old diluted dish soap]..." or "Choose your fighter [same two pictures again]..." or "Wake up, babe, new diluted dish soap just dropped" or "Men will dilute the last millimeter of dish soap rather than go to therapy..." or "No but the way I just diluted the dish soap..."
DALH0USIE COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION 755 Somerset Street West, Ottawa, Ontario, K1R 6R1 November 18, 2025 Lise Guèvremont Senior Project Manager Bank Street Active Transportation and Transit Priority Feasibility Study City of Ottawa By email: lise.guevremont@ottawa.ca Dear Lise Guèvremont The DCA’s Mobility Committee notes with interest the Bank Street Active Transportation and Transit Priority Feasibility Study, between Highway 417 and the Rideau Canal. While the study area is distant from the communities within the Dalhousie area, we want to point out that we are impacted by transit on Bank Street, and support measures to improve the mobility of buses along its entire length, including north of the highway. For example, Route 11 travels along Bank between Queen and Somerset, and any traffic issues encountered by the bus here affect riders in Dalhousie for whom it is a principal east-west connector. We look forward to the outcomes of your study, and to the extension of this work north to Wellington. Sincerely Ed McKenna, Chair, Mobility Committee c.c.: Ariel Troster, Councillor, Somerset Ward Derrick Simpson, Chair, Transportation Committee, Centretown Community Association
Dear Councillor Troster, We are writing to express our support for banning right turns on red lights in Centretown. We believe the safety and well being of our neighbours, families, and friends should be the number one transportation priority in Ottawa. We encourage the City of Ottawa to follow its Road Safety Action Plan’s goal of improving road safety for all users. The lives of pedestrians, cyclists, and other drivers are more important than a few seconds saved at a stop light. Banning right turns on red on an as needed basis leads to driver confusion, increasing the risk of dangerous collisions. It is wrong to wait until more people are hurt to consider improving the safety of our streets. Further, we need more education for all road users, including drivers, cyclists, e-scooter users, and pedestrians. We urge the city to act quickly, and would suggest Centretown as a location for a potential pilot project to test and collect data on banning right turns on red before a rollout throughout the urban core. Centretown residents and their families deserve to feel safe in their neighbourhood. Thank you, Rob Dekker CCA President
2 people holding umbrellas at the bus stop while the shelter sits empty
About 15 people standing and talking around street furniture
A 5 floor library with an open centre and nice red carpets
Union station in Toronto where dozens of people are lined up to take the train
A Via Rial Train in Ottawa. The sky is still dark
Two OC Transpo buses bunched together on Bank Street. A man is walking on the sidewalk
A wood frame garbage receptacle with a rubber bin placed inside
How to solve the Rubik’s cube from the ottawa public library. 18 holds on 3 copies.
Do androids dream of electric cars by James Wilt, and You’ll pay for this by Michel Durand Wood
Dozens of people sitting at tables and standing around at the uncommon space off Bank Street
Toronto architecture, a city guide. The definitive handbook by Patricia McHugh and Alex Bozikovic
A Spotify playlist called request for Ottawa that orders the songs to say “put bus lanes on bank street”
West Carleton-March Ward, which is huge, collected 43.9 million in municipal taxes in 2024. Kent Street (a single street) collected 41.2 million.
A field of Canadian geese and people sitting at the beach with a bunch of towers in the background. Photo taken in Vancouver
The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the fall of New York by Robert Caro
And while we’re on the subject of pushing for better bus service in Ottawa, we were glad to see the exciting public relations campaign arising from Strong Towns Ottawa, a local organization focused on promoting a better form of urbanism. Recently, this organization made a splash by getting the Mayfair Theatre involved in helping to promote better bus service along Bank Street. Read the CTV News article to see what happened.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Monday, June 2, 2025 Community Groups Sponsor Mayfair Marquee to Promote Better Transit Sign in front of the historic movie theatre displayed a message supporting bus lanes on Bank Street. OTTAWA, ON — Strong Towns Ottawa, with administrative support from the Centretown Community Association, sponsored the Marquee out front of the Mayfair with a message supporting bus lanes on Bank Street reading “Support Bus Lanes on Bank Street”. With the Bank Street Transit study delayed, residents have grown frustrated with the lack of community engagement and poor bus reliability. Community members are hopeful that the ads will bring attention to the importance of bus lanes on Bank Street, and encourage residents to contact their councillor about the importance of reliable transit. The money for the sponsorship was raised fully from community members, with enough being raised to run ads before movies at the Mayfair as well. The unusual approach to advertising was seen as a good opportunity to support a local business, while catching attention with its noteworthiness. < “Bus lanes on Bank street will reduce traffic, improve reliability, and have strong community support. We’re overwhelmed by the community support for better buses on Bank Street.” - Derrick Simpson, CCA Transportation Chair and Strong Towns Ottawa Volunteer > For more information, please contact Derrick Simpson from the Centretown Community Association at transportation@centretowncitizens.ca About the Centretown Community Association The Centretown Community Association (CCA) is a volunteer, non-profit, membership-based community association founded in 1969 to represent those who live and work within the Centretown neighbourhood in Ottawa. Our neighbourhood is bounded by Bronson Avenue on the west, the Rideau Canal on the east, the Queensway on the south, and the Ottawa River on the north. For more information, visit www.centretowncitizens.ca. About Strong Towns Ottawa Stron…
Hundreds of people at the night market, with the Chinatown arch in the background.
Movie sign out front of the Mayfair that reads: support bus lanes on bank street Strongtownsottawa.ca
Dear Mayor Sutcliffe, We are disappointed with the projects outlined in the most recent update of the draft Transportation Master Plan and believe it will make Centretown residents worse off. It will make the lives of those who live and work here less affordable, less accessible, and less safe. Centretown is not a parking lot or throughway for commuter traffic. It is a thriving community that deserves the same respect, investment, and access to amenities as any other neighbourhood in Ottawa. The current plan fails to support this, and instead proposes: More traffic and reduced safety for residents Higher costs and a growing maintenance backlog No clear solutions for the failures of the last master plan The plan projects nearly 10,000 additional cars into downtown and inner urban areas every morning by 2046. This will worsen congestion, increase dangerous conflicts on our streets, and make it harder for people to walk, cycle, or use transit. Despite this, the plan continues to prioritize expensive road expansions-like the Airport Parkway and Albion Road-while existing roads in Centretown are already riddled with potholes and safety hazards. Ottawa is struggling to keep up with basic road and transit maintenance. Hundreds of OC Transpo bus trips are missed each week due to a maintenance backlog and increased congestion, while road repairs fall further behind every year. Adding new and widened roads will only make the maintenance backlog worse and divert funds from essential city services. The previous Transportation Master Plan failed to deliver on its promises: transit ridership is below expectations, and sustainable mode share goals have not been met. This draft does not explain why those targets were missed or what will be done differently this time. Instead, it repeats the same approach. We believe Centretown residents deserve a neighbourhood where children can get to school safely without crossing multiple dangerous, high-speed arterial roads; where everyone can…
A lookout platform filled with people and trees
A narrow alley protected by bollards. The roof is curved and the lighting is fancy
A sign that says cross other side with a concrete barrier blocking pedestrians
Let’s get bank street moving with bus lanes. Support local businesses and reduce traffic by telling the city to implement 24/7 bus lanes on bank street! Learn more at Strongtownsottawa.ca/bank
Posters being sold in a pop up shop
A cyclist biking past flowers in Amsterdam
A ping pong shop in Paris