Why are there very few traffic jams and traffic accidents in Ottawa, Canada?

Firstly, all the drivers are well and strictly trained. The drivering licenses can be divided into many kinds. License A is for transpo drivers, B for school buses, C for city buses, D for trucks or ambulances, E for small school buses, F for tractors and G for motorcycles. People can drive from 16 to 65years old. If you are over 65, you should pass a certain kind of medical test so that you can only drive during the daytime. That’s the law.

Secondly, When the driver comes to the corner or at the crossing nearly every driver will stop for a moment until they are safe enough. They are all aware of the sigh “Stop”.

Thirdly, in many areas, there are three roads: buses only, path and walkway for people, so in some parts along the Ottawa River, the drivers can drive very fast, even at the speed of 90 kilometers per hour.

Fourthly, the streets are not so crowded as I imagined, although most families usually, have one car at least, because the government has built some special parking areas called “Park and Ride” near the bus station. Such as Baseline Bus Station, Queensway, Bay, etc. which can offer free parking (except Baseline). So some people working in downtown can park their cars in the Park and Ride and then they can hop on Transitway Route 95, 96 or 97 for a quick trip to downtown to work. So the streets in downtown are not very crowded. At the same time Lots of money can be saved, for parking in downtown is very difficult and expensive, while Park and Ride is free of change for these drives after 11 o’clock a.m every weekday. That’s why the traffic is not so heavy.

Fifthly, the government has made some conveniences for the passengers. For example, almost all the bus stops are built just like a shed with glass around, inside which people won’t get wet when it is raining and people won’t get very cold in very cold weather. If you want to change another bus, there are some high crossing bridges called transitways. Walking through the transitways is absolute safe for the passengers, and the buses usually get to the bus stop on time within 2 minetes. So they needn’t watch their buses or walk across the road in a hurry or in a sudden. Meanwhile people can buy some papers to read at the stop, for usually there are some paperboxes.

Sixthly, there are some other conveniences for the passengers, esp. for the disabled. What impressed me most is many buses are supplied with a kind of lower board that is if a disabled person with wheel chairs gets on the low-floor buses, the driver will lower the stepping board to let him get on. In the bus, there are two boxes beside the driver. You can put some coins for the ticket or just put the ticket into one box and then you can get another ticket called “Transfer”. By means of the” Transfer” ticket, you can take any bus within an hour in Ottawa. Inside the bus we can also notice there are two long side seatings called “Priority Seatings”, which are special for the eldly, the disabled, the pregnant and the women with babies. Those side seatings can be folded up to keep the wheel chairs. In the bus I also notice there are some red buttons in the walking poles and some yellow lines along the side seats. No matter how crowded it is inside, you just press the red button or pull the yellow line, the driver will hear the ring bell and understand.

As a result of these conveniences and rulers. It is very safe and convenient to live and work in Ottawa.

In addition to what I have mentioned above, there are some punishment laws, ie. if you break the rulers on transp you may be fined at least 55 $ a person. So it’s unnecessary for the Canadians to break the transpo laws. And now theOttawa Police play an integral role. They made a road safety program called “Road Safety Stay With You”.

The following is a group of data from theOttawa Police to prove what I have said above. It was reported that the number of the total CCC (Criminal Code of Canada) offences per 1000, 000 population is.

Some numbers related with Ottawa traffic collisions:

Time	2000	2001	2002	2003	4-Year Average
People number of the CCC	1045	1237	1106	1241	1157.3