Abstract Manager

The Neighbourhood Streets Plans (NSP) program is a new service stream being developed by the City of Toronto. The objective of the program is to create an equity-oriented, transparent, & user-friendly process to deliver the service of street network improvement at the neighbourhood scale.

Like many peer municipalities, Toronto has faced challenges addressing requests for neighbourhood-wide street network improvement. In cities across North America the processes for requesting such service are typically opaque and requests for attention are made predominantly by a small number of communities in affluent and well connected areas of the City, while similar needs in less affluent communities go unexamined. When service is provided it is typically driven by warrant analyses for spot-treatments, ignoring input from the community and underlying network based causes that result in location-specific problems.

Neighbourhood Streets Plans aim to address these issues by creating a program that directly incorporates the principles of equity, transparency, and accessibility to this type of service. Requests for an NSP in a community can be made directly by residents or community groups via a short and simple web form. Projects are selected and prioritized based on criteria that considers serving equity-deserving areas, potential for change, alignment with planned road works, and community support. Each project begins with an engagement strategy focused on better understanding the local transportation problems faced within the community, and works to develop holistic area-wide solutions to address underlying issues.

This presentation will provide an overview of the design of this program, presents details on the project selection and prioritization method, provides examples of on-going NSP projects, and concludes with lessons learned and future plans for the program.