STAFF REPORT ACTION REQUIRED "Feeling Congested?" – Update on Progress to Date Date: May 26, 2014 To: Planning and Growth Management Committee From: Chief Planner and Executive Director, City Planning Division Wards: All Reference P:\2014\ClusterB\PLN\PGMC\PG14076 Number: SUMMARY The current review of the Official Plan's transportation policies has been divided into two approval streams. One set of policy amendments is proceeding towards final approval within this term of Council, while the remainder continue under review with a target approval date of early 2015. This latter set of policies comprises four important transportation planning areas, namely: Rapid Transit Evaluation Framework (RTEF); Surface Transit Network; Cycling Policy Framework; and Street Related Maps and Schedules. This report provides an update on the progress being made on the ongoing review of these four transportation policy areas. RECOMMENDATIONS The Chief Planner and Executive Director, City Planning Division recommends that: 1. The Planning and Growth Management Committee receive this report for information Financial Impact There are no financial impacts resulting from the adoption of this report. Staff report for action on "Feeling Congested?" Update Report 1 DECISION HISTORY Section 26 of the Planning Act requires each municipality to conduct a review of its Official Plan within five years of it coming into force. At its meeting in May, 2011, the Planning and Growth Management Committee adopted, with amendment, the Chief Planner’s recommendations regarding the general work programme and public consultation strategy for the City’s Five Year Official Plan Review and Municipal Comprehensive Review contained in PG5.2 Five Year Review of the Official Plan and Municipal Comprehensive Review. The public consultation strategy for the Official Plan Review was launched in September, 2011. The review of the Official Plan's transportation policies is being undertaken under the banner of the "Feeling Congested?" initiative which was launched in February, 2013. An earlier status report on the "Feeling Congested?" initiative (see PG29.6 Update on the "Feeling Congested?" Initiative - A Consultative Approach to Transportation Planning) was considered by the Planning and Growth Management Committee at its meeting of December 4, 2013. Subsequent to the Committee's adoption of item PG29.6, the "Feeling Congested?" work program has advanced along two broad fronts. The first is the major ongoing policy review related to the four areas of: Rapid Transit Evaluation Framework (RTEF); Surface Transit Network; Cycling Policy Framework; and Rights-of-Way Map and Schedules. The second work stream comprises a number of "Other" transportation policy areas where it is proposed that amendments be brought forward and adopted within the current term of Council. These "Other" proposed transportation policies were presented to the Planning and Growth Management Committee at its meeting on April 10, 2014 (see PG32.3 "Feeling Congested?" Draft Transportation Policies: Official Plan / Municipal Comprehensive Reviews) and the Committee authorized their release for public consultation. This report provides an update on the progress of the ongoing Official Plan policy review related to the four transportation areas mentioned above. ISSUE BACKGROUND Much of the early emphasis of the "Feeling Congested?" initiative has been on two principal tasks of developing a comprehensive rapid transit network plan and an accompanying strategy for enhancing surface transit (bus and streetcar) services. These major tasks remain on-going and, as reported previously, are scheduled for completion in early 2015. The "Feeling Congested?" initiative is also in the process of addressing the following two important transportation policy areas of the Official Plan: • Developing a Cycling Policy Framework; and • Updating street related maps and schedules, namely: Staff report for action on "Feeling Congested?" Update Report 2 o Map 3: Right-of-Way Widths Associated with Existing Major Streets; o Schedule 1: Existing Minor Streets with Right-of-Way Widths Greater than 20 Metres; and o Schedule 2: The Designation of Planned but Unbuilt Roads. COMMENTS The following sections of this report describe the progress of the "Feeling Congested?" initiative’s ongoing review of the four transportation policy areas related to: Rapid Transit Evaluation Framework (RTEF); Surface Transit Network; Cycling Policy Framework; and Rights-of-Way Map and Schedules. The target completion date for these tasks is the first half of 2015, at which time, final Official Plan amendments will be brought forward for the Committee's consideration. Concluding in the Fall of 2013, a series of eighteen Focus Group meetings were organized for nineteen Councillors and were attended by a total of approximately 200 people. At each meeting, City staff gave a presentation on the progress of the "Feeling Congested?" initiative as described in the Phase 2 Toolkit. Topics included the Cycling Policy Framework and the Rapid Transit Evaluation Framework (RTEF). The main item of the presentation was the RTEF, its structure and results. The Focus Group discussions are reflected in the update of the RTEF presented below. 1. Rapid Transit Evaluation Framework (RTEF) The RTEF is being developed to provide a consistent and transparent approach to the task of identifying a recommended long-term comprehensive rapid transit network plan for inclusion in the Official Plan. As described in the November 28, 2013 report entitled Update on the "Feeling Congested?" Initiative, the RTEF comprises eight criteria and over 20 associated measures. A number of these measures are generated as output from the City's Regional Travel Demand Model (GTAModel V2). Refinements are continuing to be made to the RTEF, including the transportation modelling component. Refinements to the RTEF: As a result of the Focus Group meetings, a number of changes to the RTEF have been proposed, both to the project list of alternative rapid transit proposals and the measures used to evaluate the criteria as set out below: a) The west extension of the proposed Relief Line had originally been excluded from the project list because the Downtown Rapid Transit Expansion Study (2012) had found that it was not as high a priority as the core section and east extensions of the line. However, the 2012 study centered on the Relief Line issue only and did not include consideration of any of the other 22 local rapid transit or 11 GO Rail proposals. For the purposes of evaluating a comprehensive set of network elements, the Relief Line West has been added back to the project list. The revised and complete project list, including the current Relief Line proposals, can be found in Attachment 1. Staff report for action on "Feeling Congested?" Update Report 3 b) A new measure for auto accessibility is being considered. The measure responds to comments from the public that the evaluation process needs to explicitly consider transit's effect on other modes, particularly the car. The measure would be calculated in a similar way to the Toronto Transit Jobs Accessibility Index as described in Attachment 4 to the November 28, 2013 report entitled “Update on the “Feeling Congested? Initiative” (see item PG29.6 Update on the "Feeling Congested?" Initiative - A Consultative Approach to Transportation Planning) using auto travel times instead of transit travel times. c) After thorough consideration of the evaluation process, a number of measures were refined to eliminate duplication and reduce overlap. Initially, many of the measures were calculated on both a City-wide basis and a GTHA-wide basis. In most cases, the GTHA-wide measure is retained as this provides the fairest basis of comparison between the proposed rapid transit lines and better takes account of the nature of potential travel in the region. In the case of the customer-focused accessibility measures, those related to the Toronto population are retained. Measures which duplicated output related to ridership and connections have also been eliminated. d) Council has recently adopted new Neighbourhood Improvement Areas (NIAs) to replace Priority Neighbourhoods (see item CD27.5 Toronto Strong Neighbourhoods Strategy 2020 - Recommended Neighbourhood Improvement Areas). In adopting these NIAs, Council also endorsed a method for calculating Neighbourhood Equity Scores (NES). These scores have been adapted in the RTEF to weight, on a zero to one scale, the social significance of NIA’s impacted by the proposed transit lines. Previously, the RTEF simply took the number of residents in a Priority Neighbourhood that are within 500 metres of a proposed transit line as one of the measures of the Social Equity evaluation criterion. Now, the number of impacted residents in an NIA can be weighted by applying the zero to one factor derived from the NES to yield a more refined measure of the social variations between the NIA’s. The revised list of measures can be found in Attachment 2. Integrating GO Rail: To date, the RTEF has been applied to the comparative assessment of future subway, LRT and BRT proposals. These proposed rapid transit lines feature relatively close station stops and are primarily designed to serve trips within the City throughout the day. By contrast, GO rail services, with faster travel speeds and wider station spacings, primarily serve longer distance, inter-regional, peak-period, commuter trips, mainly into and out of Union Station. Integrating the 11 Metrolinx