RAPID TRANSIT IN ONTARIO: SHARING LESSONS

NRU
March 22, 2017
Leah Wong

Significant investments in rapid transit infrastructure are being made across Ontario now and over the next five to 10 years. But these projects are not without controversy over routes, cost, timelines and development impact, triggering strong emotional responses from local residents. However, new research identifies public engagement strategies that have been used successfully to explain the transit-building process and communicate the long-term benefits of the investment to residents.

A new report from the Pembina Institute and Evergreen examines public engagement processes used in four transit projects now under way in Ontario cities, identifying effective practices that could be applied to the next round of investments.

“We’re building a historic amount of rapid transit in Ontario to meet increasing population growth and build out a more sustainable transportation system, but in a lot of communities where it is being built, rapid transit is new,” report author and Pembina transportation and urban solutions analyst Lindsay Wiginton told NRU. “[We wanted to look at] where there was challenge, concern or conflict ... and understand where it is coming from.”

The report looked at four transit projects: Hamilton Rapid Transit, Hurontario LRT, Waterloo Region ION and the Ottawa Confederation Line. These projects are at different stages in the consultation and construction process and utilize different models of funding and governance.

The Waterloo and Ottawa lines, primarily funded by municipal governments, are currently under construction. By contrast, the Hurontario and Hamilton projects are still in the planning phase and are being funded by the provincial government. As the Ottawa and Waterloo projects are further along, Wiginton said the researchers were also able to assess the detailed land-use planning work that is occurring around the transit corridors.

One universal challenge, according to Wiginton, is that one team on an infrastructure project is responsible for landuse planning while another plans the transit construction itself.

“It can be tricky to understand who is calling the shots and to know who [residents can] go to if they have concerns,” she says.

Given the catalytic effect  of transit investment on development, Wiginton said local residents often express fears about increased density. However, researchers have found that, with effective public consultations, municipal leaders can broaden the discussion by identifying the over-all benefits to residents of transit investment—such as new services, shops and amenities— instead of looking only at concerns about increased density.

Wiginton said effective public consultation is important to win community support for a transit project.

“Transit is a super emotional issue in society today,” said Wiginton. “I think that’s because it is related to some of the bigger conversations that we’re having around the place of the car in the city, how we share limited urban space and how we allocate public money.”

To reduce residents’ fears, Hamilton project team members have made twice yearly visits to businesses and residents along the proposed LRT corridor to provide project updates and respond to local concerns. Through this process, staff were able to work with a property owner to address the impacts of the LRT on a building loading bay and start to work out a design solution for the owner.

The report also cites useful strategies for residents to understand the transitbuilding process. For example project teams should translate highly technical information in layman’s language, presenting it in a way that resonates with residents. Mississauga, for example, set up an LRT vehicle outside city hall so residents could interact with the new transit technology.

Waterloo Region, for example, has hosted delegations from other jurisdictions to share information on what LRT construction looks like on the ground and how the project team has addressed public engagement. One example of consultation in the Waterloo project was the City of Kitchener’s use of an online platform to collect the same type of feedback online that the city otherwise would typically only get from residents who attend in-person meetings.