Nate Mailhot, a University of Ottawa master’s student, stands in front of his apartment building in the ByWard Market. Mailhot used to live in Avalon but moved after being fed up with the lack of transit service in his area of Orleans.
Nate Mailhot, 22, stands at the corner of his new apartment in downtown Ottawa. He lives in the ByWard Market – almost as central as living could be in Canada’s capital. But, life wasn’t always so close to the downtown core as it is now for him.
“I used to live in Avalon during the first 4 years of my undergrad and I spent a majority of that time – or the whole time, I should say – travelling back and forth between the University of Ottawa and my home back in Orleans,” he said.
Maillot used to be one of the estimated 1700 Avalon residents who would use public transit as his primary mode of transportation to and from work. According to an analysis of data from the 2011 census, the Orleans neighbourhood has the highest concentration of people in the city using public transit as a means to get to work.
The reason, he says, for moving to his new home in the Market was because of the lack of better service provided to his community in Orleans.
“I lived a bit more in the back of Avalon, so at that point it wasn’t just a matter of walking and catching the 94, which was a quicker route,” said Mailhot. “I had to wait for a local route which ran every 30 minutes. The difference that one or two kilometres can make for transit is huge especially with the poor layout of the local routes in Ottawa.”
The largest concentration of Ottawa residents using public transit to get to work is in Avalon, on the east end of the city, according to census data.
Mailhot lived at home with his family in the suburbs. They moved into Avalon in 2002. His father currently works as an employee for Stats Canada and his mother works as a school teacher for the Ottawa Catholic School Board.
“It’s the definition of suburb,” Mailhot said. “A whole lot of nothing happening at one time. You can kinda get lost in how similar all the houses look.”
His father used to commute to work, but recently purchased a car to allow more freedom to his job at Stats Canada.
“If you only use transit to get to a place far away it is really tempting to use a car,” said Mailhot. “When you use a bus, it does save money. But in terms of quality of life and freedom how you get to a point, having a car can almost outweigh the cost.”
The cost of a U-Pass, a bus pass for full-time students at the University of Ottawa, costs $395.04, as of September 2016, according to the OC Transpo’s website. This compares to the rate of an eight-month parking permit at the University of Ottawa, which could cost $804.60, according to the University of Ottawa’s website. In 2011, the University of Ottawa was listed in Maclean’s as being one of the top 10 schools in the country with the most expensive parking permits. The current going rate for an adult monthly bus pass, including express routes, is $130.50. Mailhot says that while a U-Pass may be less expensive than a parking permit, the issue is more than money when it comes to taking public transit.
According to transit info on Google Maps, a commute from Avalon to the University of Ottawa could be as long as one hour. Mailhot reflects back on his life and undergrad years in the suburbs and the opportunities he claims he missed because of the distance between his home and the downtown core.
“It sucks,” he said. “You have some friends who live closer to downtown or live downtown and say, ‘Why don’t you come out tonight?’ Is it worth bussing two hours or sometimes more?”
In the recent 2017 City of Ottawa draft budget, John Manconi, the general manager of the OC Transpo, stated that the city transit service would be increasing services in 12 suburban wards across the city. Manconi could not be reached for comment for the piece.
In the Convent Glen area of Orleans, north of Avalon, University of Ottawa undergraduate student Alexander Dale had different experiences with transit during his university years. In his area, he described the availability of transit to be more frequent.
“I just used the express bus and that’s fine,” said Dale. “It just takes some time to get to Orleans in the evening, which used to be 25 minutes before the construction.”
He added that sometimes using a car could cost less than most students believe it could.
“I wouldn’t even bother getting the [parking] pass,” he said. “With a little bit of leg work you can park in Sandy Hill and if you’re there for just one or two classes you can find free parking there.”
Nonetheless, Mailhot looks back on his move to downtown with no regrets.
“It became a question of do I value the extra money per month versus the time I spend on the bus?” said Mailhot. “That’s the reason why I chose to move downtown.
“If you spend the majority of your working life and even your social life downtown, why would you wanna live an hour away? It isn’t a question of do I want to go there, it’s a question of do I want to bus there. That’s not a good mindset to have.”
