[3 min read]

[Feature photo: Trille des Bois School Street in Feb 2024, Ottawa’s only School Street to date. Implemented with the leadership Councillor Stéphanie Plante and the school community.]

Good news: School Streets are finally coming to Ottawa.

But there’s a problem.

Ottawa is doing what Ottawa does best—turning a simple, proven public health intervention into a narrow traffic management exercise. Instead of seizing an opportunity to improve community safety and children’s health, the City is approaching School Streets as a risk to be managed, rather than a solution to be embraced.

What is a School Street?

School Streets temporarily close a segment of road in front of a school during drop-off and pick-up times, creating a safe, traffic-free environment for children and families. Check out our post on School Streets.

They are not new. Cities across Canada and around the world have implemented them successfully. Ottawa’s own Transportation Master Plan identifies School Streets as a tool to enable safer, more active school travel. Councillors have expressed support. The evidence is clear.

And yet—Ottawa is going to “Autowa.”

An Approach Without Vision

Ottawa’s approach to School Streets is telling. It is framed almost entirely through the lens of traffic operations: closure parameters, traffic management plans, insurance, staffing, legal risk.

These things matter. But they are not the point.

What’s missing is any meaningful articulation of why School Streets matter:

• Healthier children
• Safer communities
• Reduced greenhouse gas emissions
• Independent mobility for kids
• Stronger neighbourhood connections

Instead of designing a program to maximize these outcomes, the City has designed one to minimize disruption to drivers.

This is not how you deliver transformative change.

A Missed Opportunity to Meet Ottawa’s Own Goals

Ottawa has set targets for increasing sustainable mode share and creating healthier communities. The Transportation Management Plan states a goal of modal shift to 50% sustainable trips by 2046. School Streets directly support these goals.

What better way to shift behaviour than by making the school journey safe and inviting for children? Walking, cycling, and wheeling to school are habits that last a lifetime.

Yet the pilot does not connect to these strategic objectives. There is no clear framework for scaling, no ambition to expand, and no commitment to measure success in health or mobility outcomes.

Ottawa is missing an opportunity.

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Where the Plan Falls Short

1. Motonormativity at City Hall

At its core, this plan reflects a familiar bias: the prioritizing motor vehicles as the default, and everything else must work around it.

School Streets are treated as a “traffic problem” because they are led by Traffic Services. But what if they were led by Public Health? Or Planning?

The result would likely look very different.

School Streets are not about managing cars—they are about reclaiming streets for people, especially children.

2. Barriers to Entry

The proposed model places the burden on communities:

• Uncertain commitment to funding
• Liability is transferred away from the City
• A 66% approval threshold is required from residents

This creates inequity from the outset. Communities with more time, resources, and social capital will succeed. Others will be left behind.

Volunteer-run School Streets are not sustainable. If the City believes in this program, it must fund and staff it accordingly.

3. A Culture of Risk Avoidance

The report is built around minimizing liability and managing legal risk.

What’s missing is any assessment of the risks of doing nothing.

Because the status quo is not neutral:

• Children are injured in school zones
• Streets remain unsafe and intimidating
• Families default to driving because they feel they have no alternative

The real risk is maintaining a system that prioritizes vehicle convenience over child safety.

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Setting School Streets Up for Failure

Let’s be clear: this pilot could succeed despite its design—but it is not being set up to succeed by design.

Limited locations.
High barriers.
No dedicated funding.
No City-led ownership.

This is not how you build a scalable, city-wide program.

Other cities have already shown what works:

• Dedicated municipal leadership
• Centralized funding and staffing
• Clear public health framing
• Simple, repeatable implementation models

Ottawa does not need to reinvent the wheel. It needs to follow it.

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The Bottom Line

School Streets are long overdue in Ottawa.

They are a proven way to:

• Improve child safety
• Enable active transportation
• Build healthier communities
• Reduce emissions

But this pilot lacks the ambition—and the conditions—to succeed.

If Ottawa is serious about its own policy goals, City leadership must:

• Treat School Streets as a core public health and mobility initiative—not a traffic experiment
• Reduce barriers and take ownership of delivery
• Fund, staff, and scale the program
• Measure success based on safety, health, and mode shift—not just operational feasibility

Because children shouldn’t need courage to get to school.

City Hall needs it instead.