Role of Transportation in Greater Golden Horseshoe

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Ministry of Transportation
Role of Transportation in Greater Golden
Horseshoe Growth Plan and Watershed Protection

Great Lakes Commission Annual Meeting
October 5, 2004
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Greater Golden Horseshoe

• One of fastest growing regions in North America
• Population to grow by almost 4 million people by
  2031 compared to 7.8 million in 2001
• Receives about half of all immigrants to Canada
• Economic engine for Ontario and Canada
• Economy will grow by almost 2 million jobs by 2031

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Greater Golden Horseshoe Area
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Ontario Developing a New 30 Year Growth Plan

• Identifying Priority Growth Areas
• Strengthening transportation linkages between
  them
• Encouraging more compact development
• Protecting and Managing Natural Systems including
  Key Watersheds as well as
• Greenlands
• Agricultural lands
• Using Available Tools to Implement These
  Objectives
• Invest strategically in infrastructure including
  for transportation
• Planning Framework
• Regulatory and Fiscal Tools

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Prioriity and Emerging Growth Areas Conceptual
Map
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Natural Heritage Features/Source Water Protection

• Greater Golden Horseshoe contains many
  significant natural heritage features including
  including wetlands, kettle lakes, rivers and
  valleys, Lake Ontario waterfront, the Niagara
  Escarpment and Oak Ridges Moraine
• These form part of the linked system of surface
  and groundwater features such as aquifers,
  headwaters, rivers, stream channels, lakes,
  recharge and discharge areas, springs and
  wetlands that are essential in sustaining and
  replenishing Ontarios water resources.

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Natural Heritage Features
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Protecting Water Resources

• Promoting integrated and co-ordinated approach to
  growth, source water protection and
  infrastructure planning within specific surface
  or ground watersheds
• Requiring municipalities to take into
  consideration long-term impacts of growth and
  infrastructure needs when developing
  watershed-based source water protection plans
• Directing development away from sensitive areas
  as identified in source protection plans
• Regularly assessing impacts of land-use change on
  water quality, water quantity and related
  hydrological functions

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Infrastructure to Support Growth Plan

• Infrastructure decisions on transit and
  transportation as well as water and wastewater
  pipes, hospitals, schools, cultural institutions,
  energy facilities, transmission lines, and waste
  facilities help determine growth patterns
• help direct development away from sensitive areas
  such as Oak Ridges Moraine
• To protect environment while reducing
  infrastructure costs, infrastructure investment
  should support pattern of development emphasizing
  compact urban form
• reduces pressure to develop in environmentally
  sensitive areas while optimizing use of existing
  urban areas to minimize additional impacts such
  as stormwater run-off, etc.
• Transit priority investment for moving people
  through urbanized parts of region
• Also need to invest in trade corridors to move
  people and goods long distances and to border
  crossings
• rail, highway, marine play key roles in
  trading/tourism economies
• planned properly to avoid sprawl/minimize
  environmental impacts

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A Transportation Vision for the Greater Golden
Horseshoe

• An integrated transportation network that
  supports the objectives of the Greater Golden
  Horseshoe Growth Plan.
• Objectives
• Connect the people living and working in the
  GTA communities
• Connect the GTA with vital markets in the U.S
  and Canada
• Increase public transit ridership
• Manage congestion
• Reduce average commute times.

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Key Transportation Strategies

• To achieve the objectives of the Growth Plan,
  transportation strategies are needed to
• Set out a future interregional transportation
  network that is integrated and interconnected
• Focus on transit as the first priority for moving
  people in the urban centres
• Link priority growth and emerging urban centres
  and future growth areas through integrated
  transportation networks
• Identify critical infrastructure investments
  required to support the priority areas
• Invest strategically in key trade corridors to
  support the economic competitiveness of the
  region and
• Identify new economic corridors that will be
  needed over the long term.

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Moving People by Transit

• Enhancing Transit in Urbanized Areas
• Invest in enhancements to rapid transit in
  urbanized communities
• Build strong links between transit friendly land
  use and rapid transit systems
• Developing high density transit corridors along
  key routes in Toronto
• Extensions of the subway system
• New urban transit systems in urbanizing areas
• Establish New Inter-Regional Transit Services
• Establish grid of interconnected transit
  corridors, east-west/north-south across GTA
• The 407 Transitway as primary inter-regional
  transit spine.
• Buses on roads and highways, gradually becoming
  more intensive as demand warrants, ultimately
  moving to rail based transit
• Transit priority measures
• All transit GO Transit, local transit operators
  or intercity bus companies

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Moving People by Transit / HOV

• 3. Strengthen the GO Transit Commuter Rail System
• New tracks on Lakeshore corridor
• All-day, two-way service on all corridors
• Extending service northward to existing urban
  centre of Barrie
• New services on additional corridors extending
  existing corridors where warranted
• Adding rolling stock, maintenance and storage
  facilities
• Upgrade Union Station in Downtown Toronto
• Build a Network of High Occupancy Vehicle Lanes
• Establish a network of HOV lanes on strategic
  provincial highways for inter-regional transit
  usage and to increase occupancy in vehicles
• Develop partnerships for an integrated network of
  HOV lanes
• Identify future needs for network wide carpool
  lots
• Develop information systems to allow carpoolers
  to connect

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Moving People by Transit / HOV
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Moving Goods

• Key elements
• highway network
• mainline rail corridors
• intermodal facilities
• main shipping ports of Hamilton and Toronto
• main airports in Toronto and Hamilton
• border crossings in Niagara in addition to
  Windsor Sarnia
• Strategies
• 1. Invest in the Strategic Goods Movement
  Network
• Direct investments to priority bottlenecks on the
  strategic network
• Ensure ready access between intermodal facilities
  and highways
• Relieve congestion at hot spots through
  capacity improvements
• Deploy intelligent transportation systems
• 2. Future Economic Corridors
• Planning needed to lay out future corridors now
• Needs to be done differently than in past limit
  location of interchanges, plan for multi-purpose
  corridors, take best practices approach to
  environmental standards

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Moving Goods
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Transportation investments Critical to Growth Plan

• Transportation and transit infrastructure
  critical to fulfilling growth plan objectives
• Priority and emerging growth centres supported by
  these transportation investments to improve
  environment, connectivity and livability