A visitor enters his local branch of the Ottawa Public Library (OPL), and makes his way towards the public computers. They are probably on top of a stand next to a pillar, so he cannot sit down, but he clicks on the homepage and then types something in the search bar in the top right.

What do you imagine he searches?

If you were gambling, the answer with the best odds would be ‘museum pass’. Over 30,000 searches for ‘museum pass’ or ‘museum passes’ were made over a period of time ranging from January 2015 to February 2016, according to data released by the Ottawa Public Library to Ottawa’s open data website.

Other entries in the top ten include ‘harry potter’, ‘game of thrones’, ‘dvd’ and ‘star wars’. But ‘museum pass’ tops them all, and ‘Museum pass’ places fourth before grouping together similar entries.

Data retrieved from Ottawa’s open data website.

“People really do clamour for them,” said Ann Archer, the Content Services Manager for the OPL.

Museum access passes are available at Ottawa libraries as part of partnerships between the OPL and a number of different museums in Ottawa. They are stocked in every branch and provide free access to their corresponding museum or museums for two adults and three children. The passes are on a seven-day loan period.

They were introduced to the OPL in 2004, according to Archer. At first, people could place holds and pick the passes up after they became available. The problem was that happened rarely.

“How we originally did it was they were in our regular collection…but within a few years we quickly realized we couldn’t sustain all the requests that were on them,” said Archer.

Now, they are part of the library’s express system. That means that no holds can be placed on the items – the person who gets the pass is the person who gets it off the shelf, even if somebody else called beforehand.

“We’ve decided that you have to be there in person to pick it up. You just have to make a decision on that sort of thing,” said Archer when asked if something like an hour hold system could be implemented.

But the OPL recognizes how popular the service is. 2013 through 2015 saw about 20,000 passes circulated each year according to Archer. While Archer noted feedback is quite positive, there have been suggestions that the seven-day loan period be reduced to a three-day loan period. This would greatly affect the availability of passes and is something the OPL is currently contemplating, said Archer.

Something that is unlikely to change is the number of passes given to the OPL by the museums said Archer when asked about a potential increase in demand during Ottawa’s 150th anniversary.

“The museums are conscious that this is a great partnership but we cannot sustain giving more…and our chances of negotiating to get more are fairly unlikely; they’re hoping for some good revenue from ticket sales,” said Archer, laughing.

Still, for Archer the partnership with the museums and the popularity of museum passes is something fantastic. On her right hand she wears a black wristband with the words “Be forever curious” inscribed, and people visiting libraries and museums means curiosity is alive.

The museums themselves see the passes as a way to ensure everybody can get into the museum, even families who feel it may be difficult to cover the admission price.

“It’s worked pretty well as a way to offer people access. We try to offer some means of free access to folks; we don’t want to have anyone excluded,” said John Swettenham, Director, Marketing and Media Relations at Canadian Museum of Nature.

Along with partnering with the OPL, museums like the Canadian Museum of Nature and the Canadian Museum of History partner with library systems in other municipalities around Ottawa.

A list of OPL branch locations. Location data retrieved from Ottawa’s open data website.

When Tony Lui wakes up in the morning at his usual time of 5:15, he rarely does anything other than brush his teeth before he’s out the door. Fifteen minutes later, he’s arrived as his workplace near Hunt Club and Riverside and is ready to start his work day, working with software and doing programming jobs. It’s something he’s been doing for almost seven years. But he didn’t always have it so easy.

Lui lives in Ottawa’s Kanata South suburb, an area with median commuting times reaching up to 26 minutes one way, according to data collected in the 2011 National Household Survey. Most of Ottawa’s suburbs have median commuting times approaching 25 to 30 minutes, with Orléans, Barrhaven and Stittsville being the most noticeable (excluding the area the census tracts attribute to Ottawa east of Cumberland but do not actually fall inside Ottawa’s wards).

Lui used to have a similar commute time – during rush hours, the drive from his house to his workplace can take at least 30 minutes.

“When I first started [at my workplace], people started around 8:00, 8:30. Those times I started around that time, but we were living pretty close to work back then so it was okay. Then we moved here, and since we had to take my son to school sometimes I still left around 8:00, so the commute time back then was at least half an hour for sure,” said Lui.

Back then, Lui and his wife had recently moved to Kanata to find a good school for their only son. A large reason they choose Kanata, Lui said, was that he had worked in the area previously and was familiar with it. However, the move combined with the fact the Lui drove his son to school every day meant a long trip to work.

According to Margo Hilbrecht, former Associate Director of Research for the Canadian Index of Wellbeing, commuting times upwards of an hour can have noticeable health effects.

“We found that if you are commuting for longer than that, it tends to decrease the amount of time you spend in social activities, it decreases time for just about everything. If you look at time, and you have twenty-four hours in a day, there are going to be trade-offs,” said Hilbrecht.

According to a paper Hilbrecht co-authored on the issue, being stuck in heavy traffic can add even more problems.

It makes sense, then, that as soon as Lui had the chance he tried to alter his commute time. His workplace allows its employees to work flexible hours, and it was something Lui took full advantage of.

“I don’t like getting stuck in traffic,” said Lui, smiling. “So after we don’t have to take [my son] in anymore, I experimented a few times and decided there’s no such time as a good time. So the best time is to go early.”

But Lui’s solution doesn’t work for everbody. Some people are unable to work flexible hours, and have fixed start times and end times. Others, like Lui used to, have to drive their children to school and are forced to commute to work after, often during rush hours. For these people, Hilbrecht has a suggestion.

“If you can work some kind of physical activity into your day, it seems to lessen the negative effects of a long commute. Whether that means parking farther away from your office and walking there, or going to the gym during lunch time, try to somehow integrate it into your day. And it’s difficult, when you have less time because you have a longer commute. But people who were able to do that were better off than the people who weren’t.”

Still, it is no longer something Lui needs to worry about. After coming in at 5:30 a.m., he works 7 and a half hours before leaving work at 1:00 p.m. On the twenty minute drive back (on average, Lui said) he plays a game, analyzing other drivers and trying to guess where they are going. Then he is home – just in time for lunch.

Residential parking. It is a strategy everyone has tried, or at least everyone who dreads trading off a portion of their hard-earned paychecks for a few hours of safety from parking control. Instead they take their car, park by the curb on a residential street, and enjoy the feeling of beating the system.

But there’s a catch.

Parked more than three hours between 7:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m.? You can be ticketed for that. Fines generally run about $30 according to data from Ottawa’s open data website. Since 2011, over 169 thousand tickets have been written up for cars exceeding the three-hour limit. It is the sixth highest parking violation in Ottawa.

Some readers may be confused – in the suburbs, places like Kanata and Barrhaven, residential streets often have cars parked on the side of the road. Friends visiting, people with full garages, or even those too lazy to pull into the driveway. Still, they’re rarely ticketed – no Barrhaven streets appear in even the top 50 ticketed, along with only one Kanata street (Hearst).

The city’s parking data shows violations are far more likely to be noticed, and fined, on residential streets near areas where many people conglomerate. Prime examples are university and college campuses, along with the ByWard Market. The most ticketed area is on Bathgate Drive, between Den Haag Drive and Montreal Road. In the past five years, 1921 tickets have been issued along that stretch of road for people parked more than three hours.

One of the complaints Ottawa has seen about the bylaw before is the obscureness. Not everyone knows it exists, and some people assume because there is no signage, they are free to park.

Monterey Drive – The Outlier

For the most part, the top 25 ticketed streets regarding this violation are located in the downtown core, or at least nearby. One street, however, sticks out from the rest – Monterey Drive.

Located in Nepean, just off Baseline Road, Monterey saw the 23rd highest number of tickets over the past five years, totalling 900. Unlike the other streets in the top 25, it was not downtown. Nor was it located near a university or college or even a shopping area.

According to Monterey resident Simon Callsen, the reason is due to the residential setup of the street.

“I know a lot of people are aware that the bylaw exists, including myself, but we choose to ignore it because we have more vehicles than our building allows, so everyone in our building parks on the street,” said Callsen.

Monterey’s housing has residents living in connected houses with no street access by car – no driveways, and just a single spot in the communal garage per household, said Callsen.

Usually, in Ottawa, situations like that can be dealt with. The city offers residential on-street parking permits for $30 a month in the summer, $140 in the winter. Callsen said he would get one – if his street offered it.

“If there was a permit available I would buy that permit but there is not,” said Callsen after admitting to parking on the street. “There’s a lot of streets nearby that do have public permits available, but Monterey from some reason doesn’t.”

So with no other options, the citizens of Monterey have been forced to adapt.

“Occasionally Bylaw does come and mark tires, but we all have a system where we warn each other when someone sees Bylaw and we all move our cars,” said Callsen. “When the officers do come by, we’re all going to get an email and a phone call warning us.”