Transportation Master Plan Update

The Transportation Master Plan – Part 1 was approved at the City Council meeting of April 26, 2023. The staff report, supporting materials and recordings of the Transportation Committee and Council meetings can be found on the City’s website.

Part 1 included the TMP Policies, Active Transportation Projects and Networks, and Transit and Road Project Prioritization Frameworks for TMP Part 2, development of the Capital Infrastructure. The document library on this website contains these documents.

The next step is the development of the TMP Capital Infrastructure Plan, including additional public engagement on travel patterns and trends, transit and road projects, and network investment scenarios. Please continue to watch this project website and subscribe to the newsletter for updates.

Staff will bring forward Part 1 of the TMP Update at a Special Meeting of the Transportation Committee on Monday, April 17^th. The staff report and supporting materials are available on the City’s website. Pending the approval of committee, the staff report will rise to Council on Wednesday, April 26^th.

For information on how to watch and participate in committee, please visit the City’s website.

Thank you to all participants in Part 1 of the TMP Update. The document library on this website includes reports on consultation results and changes to the materials following consultation.

The next step in the TMP Update process is the development of the Capital Infrastructure Plan (Part 2 of the TMP), including additional public engagement on proposed transit and road projects and network investment scenarios.

We are releasing updated TMP Part 1 materials, refined based on feedback received from residents and stakeholders during TMP Phase 3 Public Engagement. The updated materials include the following:

• TMP Policies and “Highlights” document
• Active Transportation project lists and network maps
• Road and Transit Project Prioritization Frameworks for the TMP Capital Infrastructure Plan

Part 1 of the TMP Update will be finalized in the coming months as staff prepare to bring forward a report for approval to a special Transportation Committee meeting and Council in April.

Thank you to all participants in the TMP Phase 3 Public Engagement. Along with the updated materials, the Document library includes reports on consultation results and changes to the materials following consultation.

The next step in the TMP update process is the development of the Capital Infrastructure Plan (Part 2 of the TMP), including additional public engagement on proposed transit and road projects and network investment scenarios.

If you have any questions or would like to provide comments, you can always do so through tmpupdate@ottawa.ca.

The updated TMP Polices document will guide our transportation decisions to 2046 and help Ottawa fulfill its vision of becoming the most liveable mid-sized city in North America. For an overview of the TMP Policies, a Highlight document is also available.

The TMP Policies were refined based on the results of the TMP Phase 3. A supporting report summarizes the changes to the draft Policies.

The updated Active Transportation Projects List is available for viewing in the Document library section of the website.

You can also view the updated active transportation networks at the links below:

• Crosstown Bikeways Network
• Active Transportation Major Structures
• Rural Active Transportation Networks

Staff are currently working to update GeoOttawa to reflect the Active Transportation Project changes and this should be available shortly. Changes to the proposed projects are the result of additional work undertaken by staff as well as in response to feedback received from the public and are documented in this report. Summaries of the TMP Phase 3 and Phase 2 engagement, including active transportation topics, are available for viewing in the Document library.

The TMP Capital Infrastructure Plan will identify transit and road projects that are needed to accommodate future travel demand and that should be included within the City’s ultimate future networks; transit options will be reviewed first, followed by roads. The transit and road projects in the Ultimate Networks will be prioritized for implementation using the proposed Transit and Road Project Prioritization Frameworks. The frameworks will be used to compare projects of the same type – i.e. to prioritize new roads and road widening projects relative to one another, and to prioritize transit projects relative to one another.

The Transit and Road Project Prioritization Frameworks were developed based on Official Plan objectives, TMP Policies, and the frameworks from the 2013 TMP. They were also reviewed and refined based on the results of the TMP Phase 3 engagement. A Consultation Summary Report presents the results of engagement on the prioritization frameworks and changes to the frameworks following the Phase 3 engagement.

Thank you to everyone who participated in the recent consultations on the Transportation Master Plan (December 2021 to April 2022). The TMP Team has been working to review the comments and feedback received. The following three documents provide summaries of the input received:

• “As We Heard It” report on the draft TMP Part 1 – Policies.
• “As We Heard It” report on the proposed active transportation candidate projects and rural active transportation network
• A “Question and Answer” document from the Open House on March 29, 2022

As part of finalizing the TMP Part 1 – Policies and the active transportation projects in Q1 2023, we will post a separate document that shows the changes. A separate report will document the results of the June 2022 consultation on the draft road and transit project evaluation frameworks.

Part 1 of the TMP, released in draft in December 2021, proposed sets of evaluation criteria (Policy 8-1 and Policy 9-2).

The City is now expanding on these proposed criteria and are inviting the public to provide feedback on the methodologies that will be used to score future road and transit projects in Part 2 of the TMP, the Capital Infrastructure Plan. Highest scoring projects will be prioritized for implementation and lowest scoring projects will not be pursued.

The proposed evaluation criteria can be found at these links.

Road Project Evaluation Criteria

Transit Project Evaluation Criteria

You can view an FAQ on the evaluation criteria here.

The evaluation frameworks address the prioritization of projects of the same types – i.e. evaluating new roads and road widening projects relative to one another, and evaluating transit projects relative to one another.

When will residents be able to provide input on the allocation of funding between different project types?

• Within the TMP Part 2, the City expects to develop two or three alternative network investment scenarios to meet future travel demand. These scenarios will consider the City’s climate change, mode share objectives, as well as affordability. The network investment alternatives would feature different levels of funding for different project types.
• The alternative network scenarios will be shared with the public once the Origin-Destination Survey has been completed and the City has analyzed future travel needs.

In the Roads evaluation framework, why is “Mobility Needs” weighted so much higher than “City Building”?

• The framework is designed to identify the new road and road widening projects critical for access to development and congestion reduction (i.e. mobility needs). If a project does not meet a mobility need, it should not be constructed.
• Once the mobility need is established, projects will rank better or worse based on their ability to support key City Building objectives, including their impact on natural systems, support for transit and healthy streets, and impact on equity.
• Projects that provide access to new development are expected to score the highest.
• Projects will score higher on the congestion metric if the corridor is already congested today, compared to projects that address anticipated future congestion.

What else is new in the Roads evaluation framework, compared to the 2013 TMP?

• The framework includes a minimum threshold. Not all candidate road projects are expected to be included in the Ultimate Network.
• We are proposing a separate evaluation process for complete street enhancements to existing roads. In the last TMP, there were only a few road projects that were of this type, as most complete street projects were intended to be implemented as part of other projects (such as road renewal). In the new TMP, we expect to consider more of these types of projects as stand-alone initiatives.

Why isn’t there a scoring rubric for complete street enhancements to existing roads?

• Before presenting a detailed scoring rubric with weightings, we would like to test the framework against a list of sample projects.
• The TMP team will be working on the scoring rubrics and a list of sample projects in the coming months. In the meantime, residents are welcome to provide feedback on the proposed bullet points in the Road Project Evaluation Framework document (pages 4-5).
• What is new within the transit project evaluation framework, compared to the 2013 TMP? The framework is designed to identify the transit projects that are most critical to encouraging mode shift, attracting new riders and improving service for existing riders.
• A a new type of equity metric for transit projects is proposed: expected number of transit riders using the corridor/project who live in an (Equity) Priority Neighbourhood.
• A new category of projects, called “isolated priority measures” has been added, focused on specific intersections or bottlenecks.

Is there overlap between some of the criteria such as Ridership Growth and Service Improvement?

• There is some “double counting” in the framework – projects that score highly on Ridership Growth are also expected to score well on Service Improvement and Major Destinations & Economic Development. However, we think all three criteria are required as they capture slightly different aspects of a project’s value.
• For example, Service Improvement captures the number of existing riders who will benefit from a project, while Major Destinations & Economic Development focuses on the need to provide high-quality transit service to destinations that support economic development and regional services.

Why are you consulting on this aspect of the TMP Part 2 now?

• It is important to get public feedback on the project evaluation frameworks before bringing them to Council for approval, since the evaluation frameworks will lead to the prioritization of different projects across the City.
• The TMP team would like to get Council approval of the project evaluation frameworks in Q1 2023 at the same time as the TMP Part 1 policies are approved, before applying the approved evaluation frameworks in Part 2. This is similar to the approach used for the new Official Plan, where the evaluation framework for expansion lands was considered by Council and approved before it was applied.
• The City is exploring how the project evaluation frameworks could be used to inform the next Development Charge Bylaw update.
• This component of the TMP Part 2 does not rely on the Origin-Destination Survey. The proposed evaluation frameworks are based on the new Official Plan and draft Transportation Master Plan policies.
• Establishing the evaluation frameworks now will help us set up our tools and models for efficient analysis within the TMP Part 2, once the Origin-Destination Survey is complete.

When will you be consulting on the other aspects of the TMP Part 2?

• Public engagement on Origin-Destination Survey results and existing travel patterns is expected to occur in Spring 2023.
• Public engagement on project priorities and proposed road and transit networks is expected to occur in Spring 2024.

On March 29^th, 2022 the Transportation Master Plan Team hosted a Public Open House.

Thank you to all residents that participated in this important discussion that will help guide our transportation decisions and networks to 2046.

The slide presentation that was presented at the Public Open House is now available here.

The TMP policy has created a Q&A document from the Public Open House and it can be found here.

Don’t hesitate to let us know at tmpupdate@ottawa.ca if you have any questions.