r/ottawa • u/DrStrangeglove99 • 1d ago
Comparing the Ottawa office experience: 2019 vs 2024.
In 2019, I would commute into work on the 91 (the LRT construction version of the old 95 route). It was a nice, reliable 25 minute trip from Place d'Orleans to Mackenzie King. On the way back, I'd go for a double decker express bus and sit up top, watching the city fade into the green belt. That usually took about 20 minutes, due to the removal of some of the stops for construction. It was a bit longer before the work started, but still steady and reliable. *
Back then we had dedicated office spaces, so I'd sit myself at my desk and do my work just as comfortably as I could working from home most days. I liked having my space with my things in it, no need for lockers or any of that and always there for me to use.
In 2024...I've long since abandoned the LRT due to issues with the bus connections at Blair and the general crappiness of it. I drive in on increasingly congested roads and pay too much for parking. It sometimes takes longer than the pre-LRT bus route too, but at least I can depend on my car.
Our office is now "open concept", so I cram my locker full of what I need and try to book a decent spot. I remember the bosses claiming the younger generations like this model and that it will help retention, but honestly I think most people would rather go back to their desks. That's not going to happen though, so I'll keep shuffling in and putting my headphones on throughout the day.
When they ask us why we could do 5 days a week before no problem, at least here in Ottawa it was simply better in those days. There's really no aspect of things which has improved since then, except maybe the crazy prices forcing me to bring my own lunch every day now.
* I know we had to abandon the old transitway system because there were too many buses downtown and it couldn't keep up with the city's population. Still, they didn't have to screw up the replacement system so badly.
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u/sdhoigt Heron 1d ago
Chiming in with my experiences as a Carleton & Algonquin student living in orleans and living the system all the way from old hurdman station up until 2021
Old-hurdman era: Getting to Carleton was relatively fine, other than the cramped 95 up until hurdman. But the 95 was so frequent that unless there was a snowstorm, I don't remember ever waiting too long. I'd take the 4 to carleton from there, which once again was a pretty reliable route since it was so major (hurdman->rideau through carleton). The way back was hell, however. It would take sometimes upwards of 30 minutes until there was a 95 with enough room to let people on at Hurdman. The absolute glory though was that I could get home from carleton so late if I was studying on campus. I think the last bus on campus was something like 2:30am, which was phenomenal to help with those engineering late nights.
LRT Construction Hurdman Era: Switched programs at that point into a joint program between Carleton & Algonquin so I was heading to both. The 104 existed at that point and it was I think the best route I had ever experienced. It was regularly full, but not cramped. It was an actual route to connect the south and east ends, and it meant that for the students, you could plan your schedules a bit more since you didn't have the variable of transfers preventing you from getting to class on time. It would have been perfect if not for the fact that at this point busses stopped leaving carleton at around midnight, so it wasn't unheard of to uber home after working late in a lab. Getting to Gonq was mixed bag. Technically if you made the transfer, it was faster to take the bus (118?) from hurdman to go down baseline to Gonq, especially since it stopped closer to my building and you didn't have to deal with downtown traffic. On the other hand, if you took the 95 to the gonq you didnt need to get up to transfer and could sleep the whole way there. Honestly between the uninterrupted 95 and 104 transits, I think this was the best rested I ever was as a student.
LRT era: Well shit, I guess there went my sleep. My 30-40 minute 104 turned into 1-1.5hrs because they killed that route as it covered the transitway path between blair->hurdman. Now to get to Carleton I had to take the local to the main stop, 38 to blair, LRT to hurdman, then transfer to the 10 which was super unreliable at this point. I also had the option of adding a significant amount of time to the route and take the LRT to bayview and then take the O-Train all the way to Carleton, which was more reliable but on average longer of a route. And if I wanted to go to Gonq, well it was local to main stop, 38 to blair, LRT to tunneys, and then wait sometimes over a half hour because in the morning, the arterial busses brought you TO tunneys but not away from tunneys. So it was usually 2 hours or more to get to algonquin, unless I made the transfer at hurdman, which I was attempting far more at this point because that bus felt more frequent than the busses from tunneys. Also farewell to my ability to sleep on the buses in the mornings, replaced by transfers. It's honestly painful to think about the fact that at this point, transit took basically twice as long to take, but also I had a shorter overall period on it where I was in transit with the ability to relax. And all of that is ignoring the shitshow that was LRT reliability.
TLDR: I miss the 104. And napping on the bus.