Category: Ottawa
-
Ottawa: The City that Told Fun to Get Off Its Lawn
We’re known as the city fun forgot, but fun didn’t forget us. We drove it away with a shotgun and a bottle of cheap beer. Every now and again fun tries to show up, but we’re quick to tell it to get off our lawn. Bylaw Services received dozens … Read the rest
-
Loose Rail transit
It gets cold in Canada. Particularly if you’re living in Ottawa. In January/February, it gets extremely cold in Canada. I’ll admit to not being an expert, but you’d think someone might want to tell the experts. Saturday’s service outage on the Confederation Line was caused by a clamp on … Read the rest
-
I forgot Ottawa had 2 area codes. In March, it has 3.
I grew up around here most of my life. Was born here. Went to school not far from here. So I mean, baked into my brain is one area code for this area–613. It completely slipped my mind that we needed, and received, another one–though I wrote about it before … Read the rest
-
Ottawa’s LRT finally charges what it’s worth–for a month.
I’m a little late to this party–in that the month is almost over, but this seems like as good a reason to pick up the habit again as any. Ottawa’s LRT is finally worth riding. No, the service hasn’t improved a ton. Or at all, really. And we’ve yet to … Read the rest
-
Captive audience indeed. Para Transpo hits bottom…hard.
It’s no secret that I’m rather less than a fan of the Para Transpo system run by the city of Ottawa. You might say if someone paid me to use the service, they’d still be paying and I’d still not be using. But even if I wouldn’t touch them for … Read the rest
-
Why you could not pay me enough to use Ottawa’s Para Transpo.
Having at one time been responsible for helping someone who essentially depended on Para Transpo if conditions were severe enough that she couldn’t get around on her own, I had more than enough reason to become far too familiar with the system’s inner workings–which had the added benefit of being … Read the rest
-
Is it spring yet…?
Ottawa winters can usually fall into two categories. “Six layers required” cold, or enough snow that the first step of getting out of your driveway is, well, finding your driveway. This winter, Ottawa has decided hey, let’s go for the best of both worlds. So, because it’s either holy crap … Read the rest
-
Why I will be a #Uber convert for as long as they’ll let me.
It’s a way too familiar story if you live pretty much anywhere. Your options for getting from A to B if you don’t feel like driving are limited to friends with cars, public transportation, or a handful of taxi companies who all charge very similar prices, take way too damn … Read the rest
-
Ottawa loses its mind. Again.
One of the things I miss when I’m behind on things is local braindeadness. Particularly local braindeadness to the tune of let’s screw with traffic more than normal because speeders. So I missed it when Ottawa’s council decided it would be a mighty fine idea to experiment last summer. People … Read the rest
-
On OC Transpo’s public disservice announcements.
I’ve mentioned the automated bus stop announcements they’re now using up here for OC Transpo. They were a long time coming, and it’s actually nice to see they work really quite well–so long as the system’s been appropriately kicked into gear, but I expect that these days. On recent … Read the rest