We’re cycling more but still driving solo
More people cycling, water use down and landfill diversion up
We’re cycling more, using less water and living in a warmer and wetter capital city. But we’ve made little real progress in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and too many of us still drive to work on our own.
Those are some key facts that emerge from a batch of environment and sustainability indicators released Friday by the Community Foundation of Ottawa.
The indicators — covering transportation, energy and climate, land use and ecology, and water, waste and sewage — are the latest additions to Ottawa Insights (ottawainsights.ca), the Foundation’s Web-based community knowledge centre launched in April.
Here are some highlights.
BICYCLE CITY
Ottawa had the third-highest growth rate in cycling in a comparison of cities in 17 countries between 2010 and 2015. But bicycle use varies greatly across the city. Cyclists accounted for six per cent of all trips in the city’s inner area in 2011, but just one per cent in Orléans and Kanata-Stittsville. There were even bigger variations for pedestrians. Walking represented 56 per cent of all trips in inner Ottawa but just 12 per cent in Orléans.
THE DREADED COMMUTE
Based on 2011 data, more than 30 per cent of Ottawans used public transportation, walked or cycled to work — the most among Canada’s six largest cities
But among those who drove to work, 79 per cent — more than 240,000 commuters — made the trip alone. The average number of people per vehicle actually dropped from 1.28 in 1995 to 1.22 in 2011.
Private passenger vehicles account for well over half of the 40 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions that come from transportation in Ottawa.
CLIMATE CHANGE
Between 1895 and 2010, the annual mean temperature in Ottawa rose by 1.6 Celsius. The increase in winter was almost double that. As well, Ottawa’s average annual precipitation has increased by 63 millimetres, mostly due to heavier rains in the spring and fall.
Between 2004 and 2012, greenhouse gas emissions in the city fell by 12 per cent, largely due to a 25 per cent decrease in emissions from buildings. But most of that was due to the provincial phaseout of coal-fired electricity generating plants. Emissions from transportation have increased.
WASTE, WATER AND SEWAGE
Per-capita consumption of water fell by more than 20 per cent between 2007 and 2015. Among Canada’s largest cities, only Edmonton had a lower rate of residential consumption. New meters that raised awareness of the cost of water as well as the adoption of efficient fixtures such as low-flush toilets explain the drop.
More good news: Though the total tonnage of residential waste hasn’t declined, the amount going to landfill has. Garbage volume declined by 12 per cent in 2010 after the introduction of the Green Bin program and a further 18 per cent in 2013, the first full year of biweekly garbage collection.
And discharges of untreated sewage into the Ottawa and Rideau rivers have dropped significantly over the past decade, thanks to the replacement of some combined sewers and other measures.
LAND USE AND ECOLOGY
Nearly twice as many new residential units were built outside the Greenbelt as were built inside between 2006 and 2014. Last year, 93 per cent of new units inside the Greenbelt were in apartments or condos, compared to just five per cent outside. Even so, for each of the past four years, Ottawa has significantly exceeded its Official Plan target to achieve 38 per cent of growth through intensification.
Tree cover within the urban boundary, though, is well below target levels. Inside the Greenbelt, tree cover is 20.7 per cent and only two of the four urban areas outside the Greenbelt meet the 30 per cent objective. By comparison, Toronto’s tree cover target is 40 per cent and current cover is estimated at 26.6 per cent.