Getting around:
Transit, Roads
& merivale
Choices, not penalties.
Some of us take the bus. Many of us drive, because the trip doesn’t fit a bus schedule. Some walk or cycle part of the way. Good policy makes every one of those trips safer and more reliable. It doesn’t treat your car as a problem to be designed out of the ward.
Bring the express bus back
On April 27, 2025, OC Transpo’s “New Ways to Bus” overhaul changed 123 routes. Ward 9 lost its direct ride downtown. Wanting it back is a reasonable ask.
What we lost
- Route 282, the peak-hour express downtown, was cut.
- Route 82 was stretched to cover the old 282 and more. It now ends at Lincoln Fields, reaching Tunney’s Pasture only in weekday rush hour.
- Manordale lost the 173.
- Route 89 was removed. Route 86 peak service to Antares Drive dropped from every 15 minutes to every 30.
Our current councillor has said his office fought the 282 cut and lost. In January 2026 he called the result a “transit desert.”
2026: new express buses, but not for us
In July 2026, Council approved a $29-million plan to handle extra commuting. Seven new rush-hour express routes started August 30. Every one of them serves Orléans or Kanata. The 82 got a longer posted travel time so the schedule matches reality.
A more honest timetable is not a restored express bus.
Week-to-week reliability of the 82 toward Baseline
of southbound weekday 82 trips ran more than 5 minutes late
for 15% of afternoon trips scheduled for 45 minutes
of almost 200 routes, per OC Transpo
Figures published by Councillor Devine from OC Transpo data (newsletters Oct. 28, 2025 and Jan. 20, 2026).
What I will push for
A rush-hour express from Ward 9 to Tunney’s Pasture and downtown, on the old 282 corridor, with fewer stops. The route number can change. The direct bus can’t.
A councillor can’t order OC Transpo to restore a route. But a councillor can challenge a cut before it’s locked in, demand the numbers in public, and keep Ward 9 on the list every time new buses are handed out.
A ring road: study it.
Don't pretend it's coming.
Ottawa has one real east-west highway. A southern ring road has been talked about since the 1970s. In April 2026, Ontario’s transportation minister said there’s “a good case” for looking at one, but the province hasn’t picked a route, a date or a budget.
In July 2025, Council voted 16 to 8 to take a ring-road review out of the city’s 20-year Transportation Master Plan. Sean Devine voted with the 16.
Support a real provincial study
What it costs, whose land it crosses, how many trucks it takes off the 417 and village main streets, and what it won’t fix. Fifty years of talk is not a study.
Make sure the west end is in it
A ring road would be a provincial highway. The councillor’s job is to get Ward 9’s needs into the study, not to promise a road the city can’t approve or pay for.
Don't trade today's roads for it
A highway that may be ten years away is no reason to neglect Merivale, Baseline, Woodroffe, Hunt Club or the Queensway ramps we use every day.
A traffic jam is not a policy tool.
Keep traffic moving.
A hospital shift. A job in Kanata. A parent in Barrhaven. Hockey in Nepean. A cart of groceries from Merivale. A visit to the vet. A local bus won’t replace those trips, and making driving slower won’t either. A traffic jam is not a policy tool.
Merivale is a road.
and a place to shop.
Merivale is Ward 9’s main shopping street and one of its main roads. Customers use it to reach the businesses that employ our neighbours. Any plan for Merivale has to work for everyone.
What's on the table
- The city’s Transportation Master Plan calls for continuous bus lanes on Merivale from Baseline to Slack Road, about 4 km. Baseline to Woodfield is on the priority list.
- An environmental assessment is underway. The city says it will look at bus, cycling and walking improvements “while continuing to accommodate vehicles and trucks.”
- Councillor Devine has listed the project at a projected $142 million. That’s a planning figure, not a contract, and no final cost has been published.
The study isn’t finished. It shouldn’t be treated as a decision to take away a traffic lane.
My priorities for Merivale
- Keep traffic moving and cut the lineups at the corners residents already name.
- A more reliable bus, including a rush-hour express. Bus priority only where it doesn’t take a general traffic lane or block a store.
- Protect turn-ins and customer parking for local businesses.
- Growth that’s ready for it. New building only when the pipes, the road and the bus can carry it.
- Safer crossings where people already cross, and paths that actually reach a station.
- Speeding handled by enforcement and targeted design at the spots that need it.
Two approaches to Merivale
Sean Devine’s positions below are in his own published words, with dates, so you can check them yourself.
WHO Merivale is for
Anna Ielo-Tal
A road and a shopping street. It has to move traffic and serve the stores the community depends on.
Sean Devine
Asked whether Merivale “should be a corridor for mobility (i.e. a road) or a corridor for activity (i.e. a street),” and wants “a place for people.”
Newsletters, May 6 and June 17, 2025
Bus lanes and traffic lanes
Anna Ielo-Tal
Better buses, with bus priority only where it doesn’t take a general traffic lane or block access to a store.
Sean Devine
Supports continuous bus lanes, listed at a projected $142 million. On Baseline’s bus-lane plan, wrote that keeping the existing car lanes “does little to disincentivize car use.”
Newsletters, May 6 and June 17, 2025
People who drive
Anna Ielo-Tal
Keep traffic moving. Don’t punish a trip people need or want to make.
Sean Devine
“We can do the difficult and challenging work of disincentivizing vehicle use, whether through economic measures or imposing restrictions.”
Newsletter, July 29, 2025
Road capacity
Anna Ielo-Tal
Fix known bottlenecks. Space on the road is not the enemy.
Sean Devine
On widening Prince of Wales Drive: “it will just be more space, for more cars, which will eventually create more congestion.”
Newsletter, May 6, 2025
New development
Anna Ielo-Tal
No new units unless the road, the sewers and the bus can carry them. A plan on paper is not infrastructure.
Sean Devine
Pairs the Baseline-Merivale Secondary Plan’s growth with continuous bus lanes to remake Merivale as a transit street.
Newsletters, May 6 and June 17, 2025
Express buses
Anna Ielo-Tal
A public, repeated request to bring back a rush-hour express, and a published on-time target for the 82 and 86.
Sean Devine
Fought the 282 cut and kept the 82 running all day. The 282 is still gone, the 86 was reduced, the 89 was removed, and 2026’s new express buses went to Kanata and Orléans.
Ring road
Anna Ielo-Tal
Support a provincial study. Don’t trade local roads for a highway that isn’t approved.
Sean Devine
Voted with the majority to take a ring-road review out of the city’s 20-year plan. The motion passed 16 to 8.
Council vote, July 23, 2025
Every trip should work.
Residents should be able to drive, take the bus, walk or cycle. The councillor’s job is to make each of those work, not to pick a winner and design the ward against the rest.
Sources
Sean Devine ward newsletters: May 6, June 17, July 29 and Oct. 28, 2025; Jan. 20, 2026; and his New Ways to Bus ward page. OC Transpo route changes, April 27, 2025. Capital Current, Nov. 21, 2025. CTV News. City of Ottawa Transportation Master Plan (Council, July 23, 2025) and Merivale Road study page. Council’s commuting plan, July 15, 2026.
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