Reflecting on Sustainable Transportation

The City of Mississauga is currently making a significant push to advance our thinking and strategic direction to realize the aspiration of becoming a city “where people can get around without an automobile.”11City of Mississauga Strategic Plan (City of Mississauga, 2009), 33. The City has a series of major planning projects underway, including Mississauga Moves, the Cycling Master Plan Update, and the Transportation Demand Management Strategy. We are also listening to people’s needs in ways we have never done before through our MiVoice rider panel and the Mississauga Moves website. We are working with Peel Region on unprecedented regional transit investments, such as the Hurontario LRT. Once completed, this light rail network will run twenty kilometres from Port Credit to Steeles Avenue, through Mississauga City Centre.

Through this work, we are seeing that Mississauga, when compared to its peers across the region, is in fact more multi-modal than we realized. Mississauga has approximately 1.5 cars per household,22Transportation Tomorrow Survey (City of Mississauga, 2011), 25. which is fewer than the majority of municipalities in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area, including Brampton, Hamilton, York Region, and Caledon.33Canadian Transit Factbook, Canadian Urban Transit Association, October 2016. Transit ridership has grown by over twenty-five percent since 2011, and cycling rates are growing for both commuting and recreational travel.44City of Mississauga Business Plan and Budget 2018–2021 (City of Mississauga, 2018), D-9; City of Mississauga Business Plan Update (City of Mississauga, 2012), F-4. Nevertheless, there is still work to be done.

Through our community consultation for Mississauga Moves and the Cycling Master Plan Update, we have learned that people recognize mobility as essential to a high quality of life—and although personal vehicle use remains high, the City as a whole is not as car reliant as we might think.

Mississauga residents want to take transit more, and would do so if it were better integrated in the region, provided more frequent service, and were more convenient. We have also heard that people want to bike and walk more—but the most significant barrier, especially to cycling, is feeling unsafe or uncomfortable. For cyclists, this sense of stress is largely related to sharing the road with larger vehicles. Many studies have shown a similar significance of “traffic stress” on cyclists in cities worldwide. It is therefore a recognized City priority to provide comfortable bicycle facilities within the road rights-of-way to encourage more people to cycle. Increasing the number of cyclists using a roadway network is one of the most effective ways to improve overall cyclist safety.

A successful cycling network is one that makes it possible for people to get to where they want to go (Connected), without significant detours (Convenient), and without exposing cyclists to conditions that are beyond their tolerance for traffic stress (Comfortable).55Draft Cycling Master Plan (City of Mississauga, April 2018), 7. Therefore, bicycle network planning and implementation must consider cyclists’ tolerance for traffic stress in order to figure out the changes—large and small—that can create a low-stress network.

We know that people want to take more trips on foot or by bicycle, but feel that safety is a major barrier. The City is working to address this need. Mississauga recently adopted the Vision Zero philosophy,66Vision Zero is a multi-national strategy aimed at reducing and ultimately eliminating all pedestrian, cyclist and motorist fatalities. On average, there are 960 collisions on Mississauga roads per year, according to municipal statistics, with 185 involving pedestrians. Of those, fifteen result in fatalities. and will also be developing a Road Safety Plan. The Cycling Master Plan Update is premised on the philosophy that our cycling infrastructure must be built to prioritize safety and comfort, so that even the casual “interested, but concerned” cyclist is confident using the City’s network.

There is tremendous potential to shift more trips to active modes. According to the 2016 Transportation Tomorrow Survey, eighty-seven percent of bicycle trips in Mississauga are five kilometres long or less, which is the generally accepted “bikeable distance.”77Transportation Tomorrow Survey (City of Mississauga, 2016). On a typical weekday, approximately forty-four percent of all automobile trips in Mississauga are five kilometres or less. Many of these trips could feasibly be taken by bicycle.88Draft Cycling Master Plan, 18. The Cycling Master Plan outlines a proposed network with supporting actions that, if realized, will provide more residents the opportunity to ride their bike more often.

In terms of transit enhancements, Mississauga’s busiest GO Train stations (Port Credit, Clarkson, and Malton) can expect some major changes when train service starts running every fifteen minutes in both directions by 2025 through the Regional Express Rail Program.

Throughout the summer, Mississauga Moves will be circulating the proposed vision statement and goals for our transportation system. This phase of public engagement will ask:

Visit www.mississaugamoves.ca or email [email protected] to get connected with this project.