Carling Avenue
Carling Avenue is a major east-west arterial road in the west end of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It runs from March Road in Kanata to Bronson Avenue in the Glebe. The road is named for John Carling, founder of Carling Brewery and Conservative MP and Senator, Postmaster General and Minister of Agriculture.
Road description
It begins north of Kanata and runs east until the Ottawa River where it bends south to go around Crystal Bay and Britannia Bay. At this point it runs in a straight direction towards the city core and ends at the fringes of the Glebe neighbourhood. It used to run all the way to O'Connor Street, one block east of Bank Street, but the part east of Bronson was renamed Glebe Avenue in the 1970s. It is a four to six-lane principal arterial road for most of its urban length, with a speed limit of 60 km/h (37 mph). The portion through the Greenbelt and into Kanata is generally a two-lane rural highway (although widening is planned, which would also remove a substandard underpass in the 3700 block about midway between March Road and Moodie Drive), with a speed limit of 80 km/h (50 mph).
In December 2005 one lane in each direction between Booth Street and Cambridge South just before Bronson was converted to a bus-only lane. This very short (roughly 150 m) bus-only section speeds up bus traffic through the Carling/Bronson intersection during rush-hour.
Features
Located along Carling Avenue are Andrew Haydon Park, the Lincoln Fields Shopping Centre, Carlingwood Mall, Fairlawn Plaza, Westgate Mall, the Royal Ottawa Mental Health Centre, the Ottawa Civic Hospital and the Old Dominion Observatory, as well as the Carling Campus, the Communications Research Centre, Smithvale Stables and Mitel. It also runs along the northern boundaries of the Central Experimental Farm and Commissioners Park.
Others
Carling is now known as Ottawa Road #38 but used to be Highway 17B east of Richmond Road until the Ontario government downloaded the highway to the local government. Until the 1970s, the western part of Carling was also part of Highway 17.
In every year from 2004 to 2007, Carling Avenue has been named one of Ontario's worst 20 roads in a CAA survey,[1][2] citing frequent bumps and potholes. Construction is underway through certain portions of it.
OC Transpo service
Key OC Transpo bus routes on Carling Avenue include:
- route 14 between Holland Avenue and Parkdale Avenue,
- route 16 between Croydon Avenue and Carlingwood Mall,
- route 85 between Bayshore Drive and Bronson Avenue, serving Lincoln Fields Station and Carling Station,
- route 97 between Richmond Road and Lincoln Fields Station,
- route 101 between Highway 417 and Bronson Avenue, serving Carling Station,
- route 150 between Clyde Avenue and Churchill Avenue N,
- route 151 between Kirkwood Avenue and Merivale Road (trips to/from Westgate Shopping Centre only),
- route 152 between Bayshore Drive and Corkstown Road, and between Crystal Beach Drive and Carling Place/Grandview Drive,
- route 176 between Holland Avenue and Merivale Road, serving the Royal Ottawa Hospital, as well as Westgate Shopping Centre.
These are supplemented by peak hour routes:
- route 6 between Holland Avenue and Bronson Avenue, serving Carling O-Train Station,
- route 182 between Herzberg Road and Carling Place/Grandview Road, serving Shirley's Bay Complex, and between Corkstown Road and Holly Acres Road.
There is a Carling Station (OC Transpo), presently servicing the O-Train Trillium Line, that connects with the aforementioned routes.
Major intersections
The addresses change erratically on Carling; they are not consistent from point to point and rise rapidly in the eastern part, then slow down to a very slow rise west of Bayshore.
Major intersections (from west to east, approximate address point):
- March Road (4100)
- Moodie Drive (3500)
- Holly Acres Road, an approach to Highway 417 (3200)
- Bayshore Drive (3100)
- Pinecrest Road (2800)
- Richmond Road (2700)
- Sir John A. Macdonald Parkway (2500)
- Woodroffe Avenue (2200)
- Maitland Avenue (1800)
- Queensway/Kirkwood Avenue (1500)
- Merivale Road (1300)
- Fisher Avenue/Holland Avenue/Island Park Drive/NCC Scenic Driveway (1100)
- Parkdale Avenue (1000)
- Preston Street (800)
- Booth Street (600)
- Bronson Avenue (300)
Neighbourhoods
- Crystal Beach
- Bayshore
- Michelle Heights
- Britannia
- Pinewood
- Lincoln Heights
- Carlingwood
- Whitehaven
- Carlington
- Hampton Park
- Civic Hospital
- Glebe
- Queensway Terrace North
References
- ↑ "Ontario's worst municipal roads – top 20" (PDF). Canadian Automobile Association. 2007. Retrieved 2007-12-26.
- ↑ "Top 20 Worst Municipal Roads in Ontario for 2007". Canadian Automobile Association. 2007. Retrieved 2007-12-26.