Durham TMP: Transportation Refresher

NRU
June 11, 2014
Edward LaRusic

With new policies, population growth and a 400-series highway extension, Durham Region is looking to update its 2003 transportation master plan, with an eye on 2031.

Regional works project manager Doug Robertson told NRU that an update was necessary.

“We’re updating our [transportation] master plan largely to make our horizon year match our official plan, which is 2031. There’s been a lot of changes in the planning environment since the work was done for the 2003 [transportation master plan], including things like Places to Grow, our regional official plan update, we had a long-term transit strategy done and we’ve implemented a cycling plan [in 2012]. A lot has changed, so we need to freshen the document.”

Transportation planning and economic development manager Prasenjit Roy said there are various planning challenges for the region, including matching transportation to Growth Plan intensification, looking at non-traditional ways of commuting and including transportation demand management in the plan. Part of the solution, Roy said, is zooming in on what each municipality needs rather than creating a top-down solution.

“We have other regions in the GTA that are facing the same challenges, but we’re an even further extreme because we have quite rural areas to the north, but our lakeshore municipalities are quite urban.

The challenge always comes down to an unequitable distribution of planning and infrastructure… there is no one size that fits all.”

Roy added that a solid transportation master plan is just part of the planning puzzle and making communities more transit supportive is critical. Robertson notes that there were other big changes for the region, such as the amalgamation of lower-tier municipal transit services to create Durham Region Transit in 2006, and the creation of a cycling master plan in 2012. Another big change for the region is the Highway 407 extension.

“Back when the previous TMP was done, it was proposed, but there was no firm timeline for it. A lot of the planning that was done was considering that it might not be there by the 2021 horizon that we were dealing with… [Highway 407] is unique; you don’t have brand new freeways being built through your region every day.”

The extension of Highway 407 to Harmony Road is expected to be complete by the end of 2015, with the extension to Highway 35/115 by 2020.

The transportation master plan update is a joint project among regional works, transportation planning and economic development staff . IBI Group was selected last week as the project consultant.