Abstract Manager

Municipalities across Ontario are developing land use and transportation policies to ensure they are able to meet provincially mandated residential and jobs densification targets for areas around transit stations. Ontario has directed municipalities to bolster density within Major Transit Station Areas (MTSA), which generally refer to the zone within a 500- to 800-metre radius of an existing or planned higher-order transit station. The aim is to concentrate growth to reduce sprawl and car dependence while promoting the development of transit-supportive density.

This presentation will showcase a replicable methodology to calculate pedestrian and cyclist demand on existing and proposed streets within MTSAs. Using open-source tools—including R, JOSM, and Open Trip Planner—and data—including Open Street Map extracts, census population estimates, and regional origin-destination survey results—the presenters will use a case study to explain how to create origin and destination points, estimate the number of pedestrian and cyclist trips, route trips between origins and destinations, and aggregate demand to individual street segments. The presenters will highlight how the results of the analysis can be used to improve active transportation facilities in MTSAs by identifying busy active travel routes in need of dedicated infrastructure as well as overly circuitous routes that could be made more direct through the provision of new connections. Based on these data-driven findings, municipalities could have a better understanding on where to allocate the resources to promote active transportation as part of broader land-use strategies.