Roads Prominent streets Downtown Ottawa has a
grid pattern of streets, aligned either east-west or north-south with a number of the streets being one way. From east to west, the prominent streets are
Elgin Street,
Metcalfe Street,
O'Connor Street,
Bank Street,
Kent Street and
Bronson Avenue. Starting from the east: •
Elgin Street, a ceremonial route for the daily
Changing of the Guard and site of many prominent buildings and landmarks, and a restaurant district south of Laurier Avenue, • Metcalfe and O'Connor (which includes a bidirectional separate bike lane), both of which are busy multi-lane one-way streets, •
Bank Street runs through the heart of downtown and is a prominent retail centre, •
Kent Street, another busy multi-lane one way with high traffic volumes, • Lyon, the edge of the central business district, with a wall of towering office buildings and hotels to the east and shorter buildings and parking lots to the west, • Bay and Percy, are one way local residential streets, and, •
Bronson Avenue is a major avenue that forms the western edge of downtown. is a
pedestrian mall in Downtown Ottawa, closed off to vehicle traffic. The northernmost east-west street that crosses downtown is
Wellington Street, site of the parliamentary precinct,
National Library and Archives, and
Supreme Court. It is a major four-lane thoroughfare. To the east, it connects to
Rideau Street, and to the west, the
Kichi Zibi Mikan. South of Wellington is
Sparks Street, most of which is a pedestrian mall closed to vehicles. The heritage district runs from Bank to Elgin, with CBC broadcast studios at Metcalfe and Sparks. The streets to the south are dominated by office and hotel towers: Queen Street, Albert Street, Slater Street, Laurier Avenue and Gloucester Street. The City of Ottawa zoning restricts and regulates development to allow high-rises north of Gloucester St. and affords heritage designation to some areas and buildings.
Other streets Other streets in Downtown Ottawa which go east-west (from north to south) include: •
Wellington Street •
Sparks Street •
Queen Street •
Laurier Avenue Other streets in Downtown Ottawa which go north-south (from west to east) include: •
Bronson Avenue •
Kent Street •
Bank Street •
O'Connor Street •
Metcalfe Street •
Elgin Street Transit service Albert and Slater carry the
Transitway through downtown. A new light rail line, called the
Confederation Line opened in September 2019. Part of it is a tunnel under downtown's Queen Street and travel east to
Rideau Street and turn south under
Nicholas Street to eventually resurface south of
Laurier Avenue East. Construction of the 2.1 billion dollar line, including the subway tunnel did not end in time for the 2017 celebration of
Confederation's 150th anniversary. It includes three subway stations; one between Lyon and
Kent Streets, integrated with
Place de Ville, the next station was built between
O'Connor Street and
Metcalfe Street and one under Rideau Street with multiple entrances in the
Rideau Centre.
Major transit stations •
Parliament station •
Lyon station •
Rideau station ==See also==