Follow-up: Modal share and vehicle ownership in Stittsville

More data from Ottawa's Origin-Destination (OD) study

Earlier this summer I shared a series of posts about the 2022 Origin-Destination study and how transportation patterns are changing in Ottawa post-pandemic. I asked the City’s transportation planners if they could provide more specific information for Stittsville. Here’s a bit of what they sent.

Mode share

The data shows an increase in cycling mode share and transit mode share from 2011 to 2022. The share of automobile drivers remains the same, while there’s a drop in passenger and walking mode shares. (Staff note that the majority of “other” trips are school bus trips.)

The cycling mode share is still tiny at 2.3% but it represents a nearly 4x increase over the decade. There are a few major transportation projects planned for the coming years that will improve cycling safety (Carp Road, Robert Grant Avenue, Huntmar Drive, Stittsville Main Street) so we should see the cycling share and walking share grow in the coming years.

Vehicle ownership

This was the data that I was really interested in, because it comes up all the time when we’re discussing new development applications in Stittsville. The data shows that not every household in Stittsville has two vehicles! In fact, nearly 44% have one car or no car at all.

Comparing 2011 to 2022, we’re seeing a big reduction in the percentage of households with two or more vehicles, and a big increase in the share of households with only one vehicle.

The data also shows there’s a stark difference in vehicle ownership between apartment households and ground-oriented households. Nearly 1/3 of apartment dwellers do not own a vehicle, and only 13% have two or more vehicles.

This data is really useful when we’re evaluating new development applications in Stittsville, which often come with requests for a reduction in parking requirements.¹

For example, we have a controversial Stittsville development coming to Planning and Housing Committee next week for a 21-storey building on Hazeldean Road. The applicant is asking for less parking than the zoning requires for their 431-unit building. Based on the data above, we can expect that residents would own 362 vehicles in this new apartment. The applicant is proposing 389 resident spaces, 86 visitor spaces, and 446 bicycle parking spaces, which should be plenty.

1. Please see: Recommended Reading: Paved Paradise