Climate Action Council

Transportation

Sustainable Fleet COP Meeting June – NYC Fleet Renewable Diesel Experience

In this meeting, Thomas Conboy, provided a detailed overview of the city’s transition to biofuels for heavy-duty vehicles, ferries, and building heating to meet aggressive greenhouse gas reduction targets. He explained that New York has successfully moved over 12,500 heavy-duty units to renewable diesel, which serves as a drop-in replacement for fossil fuels while offering significant emissions benefits. The discussion highlighted the technical advantages of renewable diesel over biodiesel, such as its performance in Arctic conditions and reduced particulate matter.

Reducing Obstacles to Public EV Charging Deployment

In this webinar we explored new GTHA focused research on the logistics, economics, and regulatory challenges of deploying public EV charging. The session shared initiative from Future Charge and the Canadian Charging Infrastructure Council (CCIC) projects and invited municipalities to take part in follow up discussions shaping practical approval pathways.

Resources:

About Future

Charge Future Charge Toronto is a citywide action plan for public EV charging on non-city public and private sector properties in Toronto. This work is being undertaken at the direction of Toronto City Council, which has asked TAF to convene partners and develop a practical, implementable plan to accelerate access to public EV charging where the City does not directly own or control land. The intent is to complement — not duplicate — City-led charging efforts on municipal property, and to unlock the much larger opportunity that sits beyond it.

Future Charge GTHA is a project supported from a TAF grant, where the Climate Action Partnership and Asset Market are engaging select local governments and utilities across the Greater Toronto and Hamilton region to strengthen their ability to plan for, attract investment in, and support the deployment of public EV charging where communities need it most.

Sustainable Fleet COP Meeting May

The group discusses current challenges regarding electric vehicle (EV) procurement, specifically the limited availability of work-ready trucks following the discontinuation of the Ford Lightning. Participants explore the impacts of the Buy Ontario Procurement Directive and the logistics of managing EV charging infrastructure for both public and private staff use. Beyond electrification, the conversation covers the potential for renewable diesel as a transitional fuel and the administrative process for claiming Clean Fuel Regulation credits.

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.

Additional Resources

SFWG Roundtable

This roundtable provided an opportunity to discuss the following:
  • Key initiatives or projects you’ve been working on over the past year, along with the key learnings from those efforts
  • Any challenges or successes you’ve experienced along the way
  • Upcoming priorities or plans for the year ahead

Meeting Summary

E-micromobility in Ontario Series -Dedicated e-micromobility strategies: Why are some Ontario municipalities developing them, and how?

Micromobility devices, including e-bikes, e-scooters, and e-skateboards, are quickly joining their ‘analog’ alternatives as viable transportation and recreation options. With micromobility use only continuing to grow, including in places where these devices are technically banned, there is an urgent need to develop new, integrated design standards that safely and equitably incorporate micromobility into our existing urban fabric.

In this first session in the CAC E-micromobility in Ontario series, the City of Burlington and City of Richmond Hill will share insights into how they have approached e-micromobility planning. They’ll discuss the motivations behind their respective strategy approaches, the steps they took to implement them, and the implications of these strategies on promoting the safe, healthy, and equitable use of micromobility devices in their communities. Attendees will also gain valuable lessons and practical guidance that can inform their own.

Additional Resources

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

Sustainable Fleet Working Group Meeting #2 – Electrical Upgrades

In this meeting, Adam Vaiya, from Peel Region, shared an RFQ for a consultant to identify the facility’s new electrical demand profile to incorporate the current and future electrification of the fleet and what surplus electrical upgrades are needed.

In the second part, we provided updates and reviewed Markham’s survey on EV Charging. This survey focuses on how municipalities plan and execute their electric vehicle charging infrastructure to support their low-carbon transition from internal combustion engine vehicles (ICEVs) to zero-emission vehicles (ZEVs).

 

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

 

Equity in Transportation: Peel Community Cycling Program

This webinar shares the opportunities and challenges of creating a coordinated cycling program that leverages municipal government and local non-profit organizations and advances transportation objectives along with broader equity and community-building goals. Brandon Quigley from the Region of Peel discussed the history of the program, and how it has grown from a 2015 pilot into a multi-year program with partners across the Region. Rahul Mehta from CultureLink and Linda Wang from Peel Multicultural Council spoke about how they have been able to reach newcomers and other residents in northwest Mississauga through the Mississauga Cycles project.  Sonia Maset spoke about the Brampton and Caledon Bike Hubs, a partnership between Punjabi Community Health Services, Bike Brampton, the City of Brampton, and Town of Caledon.

Resources

Municipal Electric Vehicle Strategies Workshop

In this workshop, we collectively identified potential opportunities and barriers and key considerations for the implementation of high priority actions that came out from the Municipal EV Strategy Actions Survey.

Presentations:

Group Discussions on EV Charging Infrastructure; Education, Awareness Building and Advocacy and Regional EV Activities & Workplan

Other Resources: