York Region seeks your input on transportation master plan

Yorkregion.com
Oct. 3, 2014
By Laura Finney

York Region is updating its transportation master plan and wants your input.

“We really value the feedback that our residents, our businesses and our road users provide us,” infrastructure management and project management office director Stephen Collins said. “I would encourage everyone to become involved and to provide their input into essentially what is going to become their master plan for transportation service.”

The transportation master plan is like a blueprint for dealing with and providing transportation service to those living and working in the region.

“Not surprisingly, one of the biggest issues that we have that keeps coming up is traffic and people’s ability to move around within our region,” Collins explained.

And that will continue to change as new services are brought in, like the subway extension into Vaughan and the development of bus rapid transit service on Hwy. 7, he said.

“Given the fact that we will be growing in response to the provincial growth plan and the desire to live in York Region, we need to continue to evolve our transportation system,” he said.

The region is doing a number of things to make it easier for residents to provide feedback, Collins said.

A new, user-friendly interactive online tool launched Thursday.

It features a series of tabs residents can click through to find information, answer questions and leave comments.
While the region will also host public meetings in November, Collins said the website tool gives people another means of providing feedback.

“It provides people an opportunity to be engaged when it’s convenient for them, as opposed to just when it’s convenient for us,” he said. “If you want to be able to provide input in the comfort of your own home, here’s a tool where you can provide that.”

The region also has a booth at the Markham Fair this weekend, providing information, answering questions and taking comments.

The transportation master plan was last updated in 2009.

The updated plan will provide a framework for how the region will address its transportation needs for the next 25 years. It is expected to be complete by early 2016.

The transportation plan update is being done in co-ordination with two other reviews.

The municipal comprehensive review will look at the area’s population, employment forecasts, land budgets and its official plan.

The water and wastewater master plan will also be updated.