Abstract Manager

Ottawa’s Transportation Master Plan (TMP) is the City’s blueprint for planning, developing, and operating its transportation networks from now to 2046. The TMP is presently being updated in two parts; Part 1: Policies is scheduled for approval by City Council in April 2023.

Healthy and inclusive communities are vitally important to the City and are core strategic directions underpinning its Official Plan. The TMP builds on this direction by defining progressive, pragmatic, and action-oriented transportation policies that will steer how the City plans for and operates its transportation system.  These include:

•           Applying equity, health, and climate change “lenses” to transportation project planning, design, and construction;

•           Identifying “equity priority neighbourhoods” with a high concentration of socially and economically vulnerable residents;

•           Accelerating investments that benefit priority neighbourhoods;

•           Designing public engagement activities to reach residents of priority neighbourhoods and members of equity-deserving groups;

•           Refining transportation planning tools to consider public health;

•           Mitigating the effects of extreme heat on transportation system users; and

•           Designing the transportation system to achieve GHG emission reduction targets;

The objective of this presentation will be to highlight some of the health- and equity-related policies in the TMP and discuss the lessons learned from their development.  Particular focus will be given to specific actions that can be most readily adopted by other Canadian jurisdictions.