M E M O / N O T E D E S E R V I C E

Information previously distributed / Information distribué auparavant

TO: Members of Transportation Committee

DESTINATAIRE : Membre du comité des transports

FROM: John L. Moser, Contact : General Manager, Planning and Growth Vivi Chi, Manager, Management Department Transportation Planning, Planning and Growth Management (613) 580-2424 x 21877, Vivi.Chi@.ca

EXPÉDITEUR : John L. Moser, Personne ressource : Directeur général, Urbanisme et Gestion Vivi Chi, Gestionnaire, de la croissance Planification des transports, Urbanisme et Gestion de la croissance (613) 580-2424 x 21877, [email protected]

DATE: September 22, 2014

22 septembre 2014

FILE NUMBER: ACS2014-PAI-PGM-0220

SUBJECT: Active Mobility Memo

OBJET : Note de service sur la mobilité active

The purpose of this memorandum is to provide members of the Transportation Committee (TRC) with supplementary information on active mobility investments further to the cycling and pedestrian updates provided by staff at TRC on June 4, 2014 and September 3, 2014, respectively.

Cycling

In June, staff provided an overview of the city's cycling program, including Term of Council achievements, and investments for 2014 and beyond. Further to questions at Committee, below is additional information on the status of cycling initiatives, results of inter-departmental collaboration, maintenance and renewal standards, as well as cycling safety, and tourism initiatives.

Status of Cycling Initiatives and Additional Funding Sources

Overall, 214 new kilometres will be added to the City’s overall cycling network over this Term of Council. A breakdown of these investments is provided in the table below:

City-Owned Projected to be Cycling Facilities Facilities Added this Built by end of Built as of 2010 (km) Term of Council 2014

Multi Use 165 73 238 Pathways*

Bicycle 138 42 180 Lanes/Tracks

Paved Shoulders 186 99 285

Total 489 214 703

*Includes National Capital Commission and City pathways

As Council is aware, there are two main sources of funding for cycling projects within this Term of Council: the annual cycling facilities infrastructure budgets, ($2-2.5 M annually), and the Ottawa on the Move program ($12 M dollars in the 2012 budget year). Additional investments are made in the cycling network from the following sources:

 Development initiatives: Term of Council investments to support new growth areas by providing the infrastructure necessary to facilitate connectivity include the planned Hickory Street Bridge over the O-Train, upgrade of a section of bike lane on Beechwood to a Bike Track, and a new multi-use pathway link from the Trim Park & Ride to the Cardinal Creek Development.

 Integrated road rehabilitation and renewal projects: Recent examples of built or planned upgrades to cycling infrastructure during road renewal work include the Bank Street widening (from Leitrim further south), new bike paths along the Hospital Link, bike track upgrades planned for the Confederation Line/Albert Street rebuild, as well as new cycling infrastructure (bike tracks) along Churchill and Main Streets. Further, new paved shoulders will be added while resurfacing rural roads, recent examples include Corkstown Road (Moodie to March), Albion Street (Tullamore to Lester), and Leitrim Road (Bowesville to Albion).

 Transit projects: Plans for cycling connectivity are built into the City’s future Light Rail Transit (LRT) system, including a multi-use pathway will be built between the University of Ottawa and Lees Avenue as part of the LRT project, a new multi-use pathway along Belfast will link the Trainyards across the new pedestrian bridge to Tremblay Road, and multi-use pathway connectivity to Bayview Station will be added from the southwest and northwest. Both the Coventry and Airport Parkway pedestrian/cycling Bridges were funded by Transit.

Inter-Departmental and Partner Collaboration

To continue to build cycling infrastructure across the city as outlined in the Ottawa Cycling Plan, collaboration happens at all levels across departments and with partner organizations. Specifically, there are ongoing coordination meetings between Planning and Growth Management, Infrastructure Services, and Public Works staff, and opportunities are regularly discussed to maximize cycling investments where applicable. Recent examples include:

 A tunnel was added during the Somerset roadway reconstruction project in anticipation of the O-Train pathway that was built a year later; a further extension is planned for this year.

 Cycling enhancements over the St. Patrick Bridge were planned to coincide with a scheduled 2014 resurfacing project.

 The Belfast multi-use pathway is being advanced to coincide with Confederation Line delivery.  The Complete Streets concept lens is being applied to major roadway construction and reconstruction projects, with recently approved projects on both Churchill and Main Streets.

This collaboration also ensures appropriate asset lifecycle management for cycling infrastructure. The Ottawa Cycling Plan (OCP)’s directions and initiatives are a component of the Comprehensive Asset Management work, and input into the State of Asset Report and Long Range Financial Plan updates. The OCP also assists in prioritizing cycling needs, and planning and renewal coordination opportunities for capital investment plans.

Public Works’ current programs such as the Safety Improvement Program, the New Traffic Control Signals Program, and the Network Modifications Program also contribute to the implementation of cycling improvements throughout the City. In addition, there are other Public Works initiatives that encompass improvements to both cycling and pedestrian facilities such as Safer Roads Ottawa, Pedestrian Countdown Signals Program, and the development of new Pedestrian Crossings (PXO’s).

Finally, staff look for opportunities with other partners; for example, the City worked with the Ministry of Transportation of to coordinate the addition of bike lanes to the Cyrville Bridge (west) project, and continue to work with the Ministry on cycling design guidelines and data collection efforts. The City also worked closely with the National Capital Commission to deliver the O-Train pathway.

Cycling Safety

In response to serious cycling accidents, staff were directed to determine best practices and make recommendations to implement an on-going program to improve the safety of cyclists on city roads. On April 7, 2010, the Transportation Committee approved the terms of reference for a Cycling Safety Evaluation Program (CSEP), as presented by staff in report ACS2010-ICS-PGM-0071.

The principal objective of this project is to develop a customized process that combines traffic engineering, observed behaviours, and risk mitigation measures to enable on-going road safety improvements of benefit to cyclists within the . The CSEP project recommendations included an on-going Cycling Safety Improvement Program (CSIP) be established, which was approved starting in 2012, and addresses 10 locations across the city where safety concerns for cyclists have been identified. A list of CSIP projects for 2012, 2013 and 2014 has been appended. As part of this ongoing program, the Public Works Department will track the effectiveness of new ‘super sharrows’ on the Bank Street Bridge, and will monitor conditions at the Cummings Bridge and St. Patrick locations.

Further, the Safer Roads Ottawa Program helps coordinate cycling safety awareness initiatives, promotion of pathway etiquette and sidewalk cycling, in addition to a number of cycling education initiatives that support the cycling plan. In 2014, a few specific outreach efforts included the Vanier Vélofest, National Capital Commission Sunday Bike Days (July and August), Residence St. Louis Pathway Initiative, and the Heatherington Cycling Safety Event.

Cycling Tourism

The combined pathway network in the National Capital Region – 834 kilometres as of year-end 2014 - is extensive, and promoting it to residents and visitors alike is a priority from both an economic development and tourism angle.

To maximize the potential economic development benefits of cycling, and to action the Ottawa Cycling Plan recommendation 6.5 (“a cycling tourism initiative for Ottawa shall be launched within 2014 to increase visibility of Ottawa as a tourism destination for cyclists”), the City has partnered with Ontario by Bike to promote bicycle tourism throughout the Ottawa area. The City partnered with this group to deliver three workshops this year, and as part of Velofest, organized a feature ride called the Downtown Explorer route which highlighted the cycling connections between neighbourhoods.

The City is also working with Business Improvements Areas (BIAs) and Ottawa Tourism to promote the benefits of this membership, which gives us a significant web presence throughout Ontario.

Further, to assist visitors in navigating the city’s cycling facilities, new wayfinding signs are being provided on major new City pathways (to complement existing National Capital Commission path finding), as well as along each Cross-Town Bikeway starting this year with “East West Bikeway #2”.

The City provides its network map on-line through GeoOttawa, as well as through a GIS toolkit via the Open Data program.

Pedestrian Plan update

On September 3, 2014, staff provided an update to Committee on the Ottawa Pedestrian Plan (OPP), including current and future projects, sources of funding, inter- departmental collaboration, and overall Term of Council achievements.

During the meeting, staff were requested to report back regarding the potential to make the various GIS shapefile layers used in the production of the Walkability Map presented in the OPP available as Open Data. The list of these layers is presented in Table 1 of Annex D of the OPP.

The Walkability Map, presented graphically in the OPP is constructed of many layers of shapefiles that contain data sets presented in the Arc GIS format to create the graphical Walkability Map as a means to visually display and relatively present the various data sets.

A review of the file layers has been undertaken to determine if any of the file layers are currently available as Open Data and to determine if there are any limitations or restrictions associated with making publically available those files not currently available as Open Data. This review has determined that there are limitations and restrictions associated with certain files, including:

 Several of the file layers are not City of Ottawa data and are proprietary to external organizations. The City was granted permission by external organizations to use the external data explicitly for the development of the OPP; however, the City does not have ownership nor rights to distribute this external data.

 Certain file layers contain imbedded extraneous information that is restricted and would be in contravention of the Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (MFIPPA) were the City to distribute. For example certain files contain information regarding private property ownership for which MFIPPA prohibits distribution.

 Certain file layers are derived data for which a shapefile was created specifically for the Walkability Map exercise with data extracted from other native file formats (for example some were created from information contained in a spreadsheet) and/or partial information extracted from other sources, typically static data. As this information is typically static data, it is not routinely updated in a GIS format so current data will not be available in shapefile format in an ongoing manner. Planning and Growth Management staff are currently taking the necessary steps to position the existing Pedestrian Network into the Enterprise Environment so it will be publically available on the Open Data Catalogue in a few weeks.

There are many initiatives underway to enhance cycling and pedestrian mobility throughout the city. Further to these recent updates at Committee, and recognizing the interest, staff will be reviewing cycling and pedestrian metrics that can be easily reported out on a regular basis as part of the Term of Council priority setting exercise.

Please do not hesitate to contact me with any questions.

John L. Moser, General Manager

Planning and Growth Management Department

CC: Vivi Chi, Manager, Transportation Planning

Supporting Documents:

Document 1 CSIP 2012

Document 2 CSIP 2013