Climate Action Council

Active Transportation

A Charged Conversation: An E-Micromobility Device Expert AMA

Transportation and planning staff at cities are increasingly being tasked with micromobility governance. For many municipal staff, knowing what matters in policies, regulations, and programming involving electric micromobility might seem daunting given the pace of the evolution of e-devices. This Ask Me Anything (AMA) session, provided a judgement-free space to answer questions — from device specifications, to batteries, to charging, to safety.

 

Emicromobility in Ontario Series – Shortening that Last Mile: How Shared Micromobility Systems Connect with Regional Transit Services

A persistent challenge in shifting commuters from personal vehicles to regional transit systems is the “first and last mile” gap, when travellers struggle to conveniently access transit stations from their homes or final destinations. While park-and-ride models have often been used to attempt to address this issue, they often reinforce car dependency and present their own urban planning challenges, such as simply displacing rather than resolving congestion. Within dense urban areas, shared micromobility systems, such as (e-)bike and e-scooter sharing, have gained traction by offering flexible, low-emission alternatives that complement transit networks.

In this session, we explored the extent to which these shared systems can be effectively extended to less dense communities and those with high volumes of intercity commuters. We heard from both a practitioner and research perspective, with speakers from McGill University’s Platial Analysis Lab, providing critical context and insights from the wider evidence base, and the City of Mississauga, reflecting on real-world insights from their shared micromobility program.

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Who Uses and Benefits from Toronto’s Parks and Multiuse Trails?

Access to green space is widely recognized as a key indicator for mental, physical, and emotional health. Much of Toronto’s green space is found through its extensive ravine system, much of which is linked by a multi-use trail system. On top of providing benefits as a space for recreation and nature, much of Toronto’s multi-use trail system provides cyclists routes removed from vehicular traffic that connect many parts of the city. Despite these benefits, there is very little publicly available information on who currently uses and benefits from Toronto’s parks and multiuse trail systems, and whether their amenities are equitably accessible to all Torontonians. To address this gap, between June and August 2024, The Centre for Active Transportation (TCAT) at Clean Air Partnership conducted intercept surveys and travel counts in three major multi-use trails across the city.
In this webinar, TCAT Project Manager and study lead Sophie Callahan shared key transferrable insights for Ontario municipalities. Sophie shared highlights from an analysis of cross-cutting trends in the data as well as a demographic analysis that identified associations between demographic variables and trail behaviour, perceptions, and barriers and opportunities to increase trail use.

 

Additional Resources

 

If you would like a copy of the slide deck, please contact us at cap@cleanairpartnership.org

Road Diets in Complete Streets and Vision Zero

With more and more cities considering how to allocate street space and the need to prioritize those who walk, bike, and roll, two prominent road safety approaches, Complete Streets, and Vision Zero, have spread across Ontario. Both of these strategies employ Road Dieting (i.e. the removal of car space from the road in favour of sustainable modes of transportation), making road diets an increasingly important yet politically contentious tool in the transportation toolbox. This raises the question: how critical are Road Dieting to Complete Streets and Vision Zero road planning approaches? In this webinar, Alex Hanes, the author of Road Diets in Complete Streets and Vision Zero: A Comparative Analysis Report, discussed the research and findings from municipalities across Ontario.

If you would like a copy of the slide deck, please contact us at cap@cleanairpartnership.org

Barriers to Implementation: What Prevents Municipalities from Building More Complete Streets and Vision Zero Infrastructure

The movement for safer and more equitable streets in Ontario has been growing in recent years, with an increasing number of residents demanding improved road safety infrastructure. To meet this demand, municipalities across Ontario have been adopting and expanding approaches in their policies, with two prominent approaches being Complete Streets and Vision Zero.

Earlier this year, The Center for Active Transportation shared a report that investigates barriers to advancing Complete Streets and Vision Zero policy implementation. In this webinar, we heard from Alex Hanes on the main takeaways from his research on this topic.

For a copy of the slide deck, please email cap@cleanairpartnership.org