Transportation Policy Statement

Aligning Plans

NRU
Dominik Matusik
Dec.13, 2017

Metrolinx is recommending the province create a transportation planning policy statement that would give the agency more input into the municipal planning process, and better integrate land use and transportation planning. 

The Metrolinx Act (2006) contemplates the province enacting a transportation planning policy statement, which has not been done to date. The draft 2041 Regional Transportation Plan, released in September, recommends the province enact this policy statement to provide more detailed transportation policies than those currently found in the Growth Plan. 

Metrolinx senior transportation systems planning manager Lisa Salsberg told NRU that a TPPS may be a good way to implement some of the goals of the RTP. 

"We are, in the draft 2041 Regional Transportation Plan, recommending that [the enactment of a TPPS] be looked at again as an option for moving forward with certain aspects that are highlighted in the Regional Transportation Plan," she says. "...There would be policies that would be developed as part of this policy statement, and then municipal official plans would have to have regard for those policies as they are developed. And the [Metrolinx] Act also talks about municipal transportation masterplans. Which, right now, don't have any official status per se. Most municipalities do them, but they're not required to do them, and they're not required to have any specific components or content... What the [TPPS] would do is set overall policy guidance for municipal transportation masterplans." 

Neptis Foundation executive director Marcy Burchfield is a vocal advocate for greater integration of land use and transportation policies, as a way to increase transit mode share. 

"I think that the idea of this Transportation Planning Policy Statement is to address that misalignment between where growth has been going, where the transit is, and where the transit is being planned," she told NRU. 

"Our research has shown [that] since 2001 and 2011, almost 86 per cent of new net population went to the edge of our region... The momentum in which land use planning has been going has still been focused on greenfield development. And Metrolinx's own modelling shows that even under the Growth Plan, future population and employment projections and where it sees that new growth going, will barely move the needle when it comes to increased ridership share when it comes to transit riders." 

Burchfield says that the TPPS may be a way to help accomplish a greater harmonization between land use and transportation by allowing Metrolinx more input into the official plan process. 

"I think this statement will allow Metrolinx to provide more policy guidance to municipalities and more input into the municipal official plan process in a way that's much more formalized and in a way that's much more specific to the RTP," she says. "Much more specific than, say, the Growth Plan is... [The TPPS] would require the municipal official plans to be consistent with the [TPPS]. So for instance, their by-laws cannot be in conflict with the [TPPS]. You can think about the zoning by-laws. If the zoning by-laws around a transit station area aren't good to produce the kind of densities that are specified in the [TPPS], then those [would] have to be changed." 

Salsberg says that the TPPS would be an opportunity to create transportation policy that is significantly more detailed than what is found in the Growth Plan. 

"The Growth Plan does deal with transportation issues, but it's at quite a high level," she says. "Same with the PPS. So I think that this policy statement could get into a greater level of detail. Just as the Growth Plan gets into detail on land use planning issues, more detail than the PPS, [the TPPS] would get into more detail on the transportation issues. And it would also be an opportunity to make sure that the policy framework for transportation and land use at the regional level fits together." 

Salsberg explains that the TPPS could provide direction for municipal transportation masterplans, which could address such details as road widths, and priority signals for buses. 

"The idea is that the [RTP] speaks to certain kinds of issues that are relevant to transportation across the region. And that municipal transportation masterplans would then have to flow from there to align themselves to regional policy directions that we talk about in the [RTP]. So we talk about things like standards for roads to accommodate transit, for example. There's different approaches being taken across the region by different municipalities and there's perhaps a need to look at some harmonization of how transit functions on the road might be implemented in a consistent way across municipalities."