Canada: not normally a country that the world pays attention to,
least of all the sleepy government town of Ottawa where we’ve lived for almost a year,
whose claim to fame in normal times is the Rideau Canal, the world’s largest skating rink. This was
upended over the past few weeks as protests over COVID measures took over the downtown of the city,
centred around a primary site on Wellington Street in front of Parliament but also
extending into shopping, office, and residential districts. Ottawa is no stranger to protests,
being the capital, but this one was uniquely disruptive because of how long it lasted and
because of how vehicles were used. You don’t come to this channel to hear us
talk about news or politics though, so as this surreal experience comes to a close,
we want to talk about some observations on the event from an urbanist perspective.
Our first observation is that vehicles were the key to making this protest as disruptive as it
was. If this was a few hundred or a few thousand people marching for their cause,
it would have been a completely different event. They might have come for a weekend,
shut down traffic along a protest route, and made themselves heard,
not unlike the countless protests we saw in Montreal, but that would probably have been it.
Instead, having vehicles — most visibly big-rigs and motor homes, but also pickup trucks and
cars — allowed them to block off streets, dig in, and build semi-permanent structures.
These camps lasted three weeks until police moved in and dismantled everything.
Another key to the disruption was sound. “Honk honk” basically became the motto of the protest,
emblazoned on pillows and shirts. When we went to the protest area
to get footage, the sound was almost unbearable at times.
We’ve captured footage of normal protests in Montreal and they did what they could to be
loud with music, chants, and noisemakers, but nothing came close to this honking in Ottawa.
Some trucks even had train horns installed. After experiencing it for ourselves,
we felt extremely lucky that we didn’t end up renting the downtown apartment that we considered,
because being subjected to that level of sound for weeks on end would have been awful.
Vehicles didn’t just amplify protesters’ ability to be disruptive, they also caused
big challenges for law enforcement. Police set up barriers to stop new vehicles from coming in,
and they were able to open lanes for emergency vehicles on certain streets,
but one reason it took them so long to actually clear out the protest
was finding the right equipment and working out the logistics of towing the big vehicles,
which is harder than just dispersing a crowd. There was also a court injunction against honking
but police didn’t seem able to enforce it. The lesson here is that motor vehicles just allow
people to dominate public space in a way that we as a society don’t really know how to deal with.
The problems with vehicles disrupting public space aren’t unique to these protests though,
this actually surrounds us all the time, the problem is just less concentrated in
regular life. Pedestrians and cyclists are regularly injured or killed by drivers who
receive minor punishments, often a few hundred dollar fine. On the sound side,
it’s weirdly common and normalized for people to intentionally make their vehicles loud
just to stand out and annoy other people. This can be a major quality-of-life issue, especially for
people who live near higher-traffic roads. France actually started taking this seriously recently
by implementing noise radar that automatically tickets cars and motorbikes that are too loud.
The second observation we have from this protest is that substantial
portions of downtown Ottawa should probably be pedestrianized and made,
if not fully car-free, at least car-light with fewer lanes and more traffic calming measures.
This could avoid vehicle-based protests taking over the area in the future,
while also providing a safer environment for protesters themselves, whatever their cause,
because it’s actually surprisingly common for vehicles to ram into protest crowds, whether
intentionally or because a driver got scared. The layout couldn’t be the same, but some inspiration
can come from Washington DC, whose National Mall is used for protests and inaugurations.
Reducing cars in downtown Ottawa, especially near Parliament, would also just make it a
better place. Let’s face it, four-to-six lane roads are not nice places for people, and there’s
even one area where pedestrians have to take an underpass to get under the priority road users,
namely people in cars. This isn’t in a far-flung suburban area with no foot traffic — this is in
the middle of Ottawa’s tourist attractions, between Parliament, the Château Laurier,
the Rideau Canal, the Rideau Centre mall, and the Byward Market. While the blockade was there,
you didn’t have to walk down the stairs and take the underpass. You could walk in the street. It
was loud, polluted, and political, but it showed what the area was like without active traffic.
There’s lots of potential to treat the streets of downtown Ottawa as more of a gathering space
than just a thoroughfare, where people can better enjoy the architecture and views and walk freely.
Not necessarily hot tubs and DJs like the protesters set up, but at least considering
the public space as usable for families and different types of people. We think back to
living close to the pedestrianized Mont-Royal Avenue in Montreal, which had plants, public art,
benches, restaurant seating, and above all energy and vibrancy. It was a place you
wanted to be. Putting people in situations where they have to interact with each other helps with
loneliness and isolation and helps people feel more connected and involved in their community,
especially during a pandemic where other methods of social engagement, especially indoors,
have been discouraged. If you make a public space that’s interesting, accessible, and
just practical for everyday activities, people of differing ages and abilities will gladly use it.
Is this crazy? Actually, no. The National Capital Commission has already endorsed a plan to run a
Tramway from Gatineau, Ottawa’s sister city across the river in Quebec. It would go down Wellington
Street in front of Parliament and reduce or even eliminate car traffic on the street.
It’s not settled yet but support will probably grow after recent events. We also heard just
before recording this video that the mayor of Ottawa is open to considering this tramway route
or using Wellington as a pedestrian and cycling street. To the east, Rideau Street had its car
lanes reduced a few years ago, adding bike lanes and expanding sidewalks. The whole
area is also already closed to cars every year for July 1st, Canada Day. It would actually
be pretty ironic if a vehicle blockade led to substantial pedestrianization in downtown Ottawa.
Thanks for watching through to the end of the video. Don’t forget to re-image street space,
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