Council Orientation and Education Workshop

9:48Good evening, Mr. Mayor. The time is 6 o'clock and we do have a quorum of council available so you can call the meeting to order whenever you're ready.

9:54Okay, thank you very much to the clerks and good evening everybody. It is Wednesday, April 26, 2023.

10:07It is 6 o'clock and so I'll call the meeting to order. This is another one of our council orientation education.

10:14Workshops and this one is specifically in regards to a couple different titles. The first one is transportation 101.

10:24The transportation master plan vision zero and the transportation engineering modernization information.

10:32And the second one is the wealth transit on your way roadmap.

10:39And so we're going to get briefed and have a little bit of a discussion on everything that's going on around those 2 themes.

10:46And so with that, just asking before we head into the presentation from staff and others.

10:51If there's any disclosure of pecuniary interest or any general nature thereof for the items in front of us today.

11:00And I don't hear or see anybody.

11:04So I'll declare that matter closed. And with that, I will turn it on over to our deputy CAO, Jane Holmes, to kick things off.

11:16And just before you take the mic there, Jane, just because it is a workshop, just to let everybody know we can be a little bit more casual.

11:29It doesn't have to always go through the mayor this and through the mayor that if we need to figure that out.

11:35And also just because of hybrid chairing, if those in the chambers that have come, maybe you guys can kind of self select yourselves there to jump in when you need to.

11:51If I can't quite see the hands going up or whatever. Again, I think we can all manage it.

11:57With that, Jane, if you could also just let all of us know whether or not you want us to hold questions till specific times throughout the presentations.

12:09That would be a good thing to let us know as well.

12:12All right, with that, I'll mute and turn it on over to you. Thank you very much.

12:17Okay, thank you. And good evening, Mr. Mayor, members of the public and council.

12:21So today we're here as part of an ongoing series of orientation workshops to introduce you to the work that our staff are doing to support the existing strategic plan, primarily within the navigating our future pillar of the existing strategic plan and.

12:37City building of the strategic plan refresh that was discussed last night.

12:41The strategic theme is focused on delivering safe and connected transportation services to all members of our community, ensuring robust goods movement and supporting improvements to inter regional travel.

12:55This work is led by transportation services, which is part of our engineering and transportation services team in the service area.

13:02As a brief reminder, transportation services includes transportation planning, which includes long wage planning, sustainable transportation.

13:09Transportation engineering, which includes traffic and road safety and also downtown parking services.

13:17Transit services will be covered until the next presentation from this evening.

13:22The next hour provides an educational opportunity from 3 of our dedicated staff leaders to share some of the key projects and initiatives that you can expect to see and hear from in your term of council.

13:34We have about 40 minutes of material to cover and there'll be opportunities for questions at the end of the transportation part and at the end of the transit presentation.

13:45All of our team's work is made possible through commitments of the multi year capital and operating budgets.

13:51And as you know, without without adequate resources to support this important work, we'll fall behind on delivering our promises to the community and struggle to address some of the new regulatory change changes that we've been tasked with in the.

14:03In recent months, so this is an opportunity to understand the previous commitments that have been made through policy decisions and funding programs and to understand how the next 4 years move us towards a future ready.

14:14Resilient and sustainable city that Mr. Mayor, I will turn it over to Terry gayman, our general manager and city engineer of engineering and transportation services to outline the existing policy framework that directs transportation services.

14:29Thank you, Jane. Good evening, mayor Guthrie and council. So before we go much further, I'd like to introduce my colleagues who play key roles in developing and managing wealth transportation system.

14:39I'm joined tonight by Dr. Lear as Friedman road safety supervisor Jennifer juice manager of transportation planning and Steve Anderson manager of and transportation engineering.

14:49This team of talented professionals pushes well forward every day and puts us at the forefront in terms of vision safety and functionality when it comes to our transportation system. And I can't thank them enough for their excellent work.

15:00Now, before each of them come up to explain aspects of transportation, I'd like to quickly look back at wealth journey as is so much has really changed in the last 10 years in the world of transportation.

15:10The past several years have been formative to taking law from traditionally car focused transportation to a future where we plan design and operate our city to meet the needs of all members of the community, young or old, working or not.

15:22All abilities and all modes of transportation. We know cities can no longer base their planning around this assumption that the personal automobile is the only mode of transportation. This old approach requires too much land, too much energy.

15:35And comes at a great personal environmental and societal cost.

15:39Changes to how the city plans the land to accommodate population and employment growth increasingly prioritizes more compact development and density over sprawl.

15:48And these are good changes. They make distances shorter for people to travel and provide opportunities for amenities to be available in a smaller area.

15:55The 2019 community plan asked our residents what their vision was for golf on the theme of transportation.

16:03Well fights wanted a connected sustainable community that got them around safely and efficiently by all modes. And that was well connected to other urban centers nearby and it was future ready.

16:14The vision set the stage for the 2019 strategic plan and drove the themes of the transportation master plan, which was approved in 2022.

16:22The community and strategic plans also support staff's ongoing advocacy for regional investment in Metrolinx to connect our community with major employment centers and provide an alternative to highway driving.

16:33All of those investments and improvements at, excuse me, as all of those investments and improvements come online.

16:39We now need to ensure we can support and facilitate these services with adequate access to stations parking and supportive land use planning.

16:47As I mentioned earlier, safety remains a priority for our community, both in the community plan and in the strategic plan.

16:53In 2020 council approved the community road safety strategy that resulted in updated traffic calming policy and introduced red light cameras and automated speed enforcement to go off.

17:04These changes set the stage for the transportation master plan to recommend we become a vision zero community with the goal of zero serious injuries or deaths on our road.

17:13And speaking of zeros previous council decisions have also made commitments to address climate change, such as the community energy initiative and committing to race to zero in 2021.

17:24These commitments challenge us to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions from the transportation sector through supporting electrification of personal vehicles and increasing the mode share of our more sustainable options for personal travel.

17:36The 2022 transportation master plan hold all of this together and presented a path forward for Guelph for a future that is sustainable and resilient and how we move around.

17:46This master plan sets us on a path to accommodate growth in Guelph to 2051 with a sustainable and resilient transportation network featuring priority transit, safe and attractive cycling networks, complete streets and adopting that philosophy of vision zero.

18:01The plan prioritizes equity, safety, affordability, and of course sustainability.

18:07It is a plan to make travel times in our city more equitable, no matter where you live or how you move about.

18:13It's a plan to act on our climate change and excuse me to act on climate change and be adaptable and resilient in the face of unexpected changes in our future.

18:22It is above all a plan to move people rather than focused on moving vehicles.

18:27There are several projects coming up over the next four years that begin the exciting work of implementing this master plan.

18:33I'm going to pass it over to Jennifer juice, manager of transportation planning to highlight the projects her team is going to be delivering.

18:39Thank you, Terry.

18:45So as he mentioned the TMP embodies five core values to be safe, equitable, sustainable, affordable and tied to land use.

18:54These values are woven throughout the plan to deliver a multimodal network plan policies that direct transportation services for the next 25 years and recommended programs to help us in achieving our performance metrics and becoming a future ready city.

19:10So here's a quick recap that we developed for the TMP and it's a great way to show you how we developed the master plan.

19:19The city of Guelph is always evolving as it grows.

19:22The same is true for the way we move around this Royal City of ours.

19:26See Guelph's population is expected to reach more than 200,000 by 2051.

19:31Our goal is to ensure that people are able to get where they want to go, when they want to go there, no matter how they choose to go about it today and in the future.

19:39Our dedicated team took to the streets to work firsthand within the community to learn about their transportation needs and wants.

19:46We talked to people who were walking, biking on rollerblades.

19:49We engaged with people on public transit.

19:52We interviewed people driving cars, trucks and motorbikes.

19:55We only missed out on speaking with the kayakers.

19:58We experimented with bus or bike only traffic lanes, checking in on how the community and traffic responded.

20:04We held discussions all over town, such as the Brandt Avenue Community Barbecue, various industry events and the farmers market.

20:11During the height of the pandemic, we shifted gears, checking in virtually with a series of focus groups, stakeholder workshops and online stores.

20:19We also held online surveys.

20:21We hosted over 60 hours of virtual community engagement in the form of community conversations and open houses.

20:28This was no one-way street. You spoke and we listened.

20:32What we found is that residents of Guelph value safety, connectivity, equity and affordability.

20:38Our community wants and deserves a resilient, sustainable future.

20:42And that's what's in store for us all with Guelph's Transportation Master Plan.

20:46See, any person of any age, of any ability will be able to move through our great city safely, comfortably and efficiently.

20:54Guelph will continue to develop new and innovative tools to improve and build better transportation networks and services.

21:01By ensuring Guelph is resilient to the changing needs of tomorrow, Guelph will accommodate businesses, industry and residents and ensure the city of Guelph is future ready.

21:10So, whether you hop on your bike, jump in the car, ride the bus, walk or take a future self-driving taxi, with our Transportation Master Plan, we're all moving in the right direction.

21:23Now, we're ready to plan and implement the Transportation Master Plan as we continue moving Guelph forward.

21:29So, I think that's a great preface for how I'm going to present some of the upcoming activities under the Transportation Master Plan.

21:38It sometimes helps to think of a location as an example.

21:43So, throughout this evening's presentation, we'll refer to the example of Gordon Street and College to illustrate why we're doing some of the work and the projects that we have over the next four years.

21:52In this intersection, it's of two high-use corridors.

21:57It's in a designated heritage district and it's at the edge of our University of Guelph campus.

22:02There's a lot happening.

22:03Both roads are transit routes.

22:06Both have cycling and sidewalk infrastructure on them.

22:09Both are limited in terms of how much we can widen the road.

22:13We have 47,000 trips being of people moving through this intersection every day by cars and trucks, bike and on foot.

22:21So, we have to think very carefully about how we plan and design this space.

22:25How do we know if, how do we know how people are using it and when they're using it?

22:29How do we design the space to prioritize the different road users in the way the Transportation Master Plan envisions it?

22:36If we need to make trade-offs in terms of what can fit into that space, what guides and justifies these choices?

22:43Is it fully accessible to all users and can everyone use it safely all year?

22:48And how can we mitigate the frequency and severity of collisions that happen in this intersection?

22:52So, the TMP, the Transportation Master Plan, sets the direction that the city wants to go in in terms of all of these questions throughout the networks for all modes of transportation.

23:04So, the vision of the TMP was clear, but how do we know if we are succeeding?

23:09One of the fundamental components of the TMP is setting our targets for how many trips per day by each mode of transportation we want to aim for by 2051.

23:19This is called the Mode Share Target, and it's the key performance indicator that tells us if we're trending in the right direction and at the right pace as we implement the TMP.

23:30So, why are Mode Share Targets important?

23:33They indicate whether we are building the sustainable transportation services and infrastructures to a standard that actually makes them attractive to people to use them.

23:42It's also a proxy indicator for greenhouse gas emissions because we know that moving by bike, walking, and transit has a much lower carbon footprint than driving an internal combustion engine.

23:53And if we really want to get into the nitty-gritty, we can also find MTO data and figure out how many vehicles are sold in Guelph that are electric vehicle and we can figure out exactly how many emissions we're saving.

24:05This Mode Share Target also tells us if we're building the supporting infrastructure and services fast enough to mitigate congestion and reach our 2051 targets.

24:15So, let's look at these numbers a little closer.

24:18The city's population is planned to grow to about 206,000 by residents by 2051.

24:25Today's population is roughly 136,000 and nearly 80% of all trips made every day with in Guelph are made by car.

24:34If we were to continue growing to reach our planned population and kept that Mode Share split, then we would run out of space on our roads pretty quickly.

24:43Widening our roads to accommodate growth and traffic is, as Lewis Mumford once said, like loosening your belts to cure obesity.

24:51This isn't the future that our community and our council has chosen.

24:56Instead, we're looking to accommodate all of those new people that are coming to live and work in our city by providing efficient, convenient, sustainable forms of transportation.

25:04The TMP has set a target of 42% of trips within Guelph every day will be by sustainable Modes in 2051.

25:13So, I just want to make a little note that this number does not include trips that end or start outside of Guelph because those trips we don't really have as much direct control over.

25:25So, this Mode Share target is specifically for trips that are contained within Guelph.

25:29What we can influence is how easy we make it for people to travel by other modes within our city boundaries, including how they get to regional transportation options.

25:39Today, our sustainable Mode Share percentage is only 11%.

25:46So, obviously, we're not going to get to 42% overnight.

25:50So, the TMP has identified some stepping stone targets every 10 years as guideposts to help us reach our 2051 target.

25:58It will take a combination of infrastructure improvements to the various networks as well as policy change and programs to help achieve that 2051 Mode Share target.

26:08So, let's take a look at what's coming up next to start this important work.

26:12I'm going to go fairly quickly over the next two slides, but basically, this is to say the TMP is delivering a lot of projects and activities over the next 25 years.

26:22All will be tied to the multi-year budget.

26:24So, these are some of the highlights for the next four years that you'll see coming up in the 2024 to 2027 multi-year budget.

26:32As part of transportation systems, we've already started a goods movement strategy.

26:37It's up on our Bids and Tenders page today, and we hope to get that started this year, and it will go into next year.

26:43We have our Complete Street Design Guideline that's also underway right now, and will also be delivered in 2024.

26:50We're looking at developing annual Mode Share tracking.

26:54So, in terms of making sure that we're progressing as quickly as we need to, we need to be able to collect that data more quickly than ever before.

27:01And then current methodology allows.

27:03So, we're looking at developing that methodology now.

27:07Right now, we're using the Transportation Tomorrow Survey, which is like census for transportation data, and it's on a five-year cycle.

27:15That's just too long of a gap for us to see if we're trending in the right direction or not.

27:20So, we want to try to increase that for our KPI tracking.

27:24Under Road Safety, we're going to talk about a couple of projects later on today that Liraz and Steve are going to speak to in a few minutes.

27:34Similarly, we've got transit coming up after our presentation today, so they're going to talk you through a couple of their initiatives.

27:40And I'll speak a little bit more about how we're implementing the Quality Transit Network as part of that body of work later this evening.

27:49And under sustainable transportation, there's a whole number of initiatives. I'll get into a little bit more of the details shortly.

27:55But they include the master plan update for the Cycling Master Plan, a new pedestrian master plan, a TDM or Transportation Demand Management Action Plan,

28:05continuing to implement our Active Transportation Network, and developing a wayfinding strategy.

28:10So, the inputs that we use for modeling and for planning our projects and our growth in the city comes primarily, as I mentioned, from the Transportation Tomorrow Survey.

28:23I'll call it the TTS, and it's the sort of transportation census every five years that municipalities across the Greater Golden Horseshoe use for all of their modeling purposes as well.

28:34Incidentally, this is one of those survey years, so residents may be receiving their personal code to complete the survey, and we just, that'll go until the end of June.

28:43So, I just want to reemphasize that it is a legitimate survey, and we want to encourage people to take it if they get their code.

28:48And Guelph has participated in the TTS since at least the 90s, maybe longer.

28:54The survey collects data on how people travel every day. What mode of transportation should they use? What time of day do they travel? What destinations are they traveling to and from?

29:04What times of day? What purpose and from where to where? What routes are they using?

29:09We use this data to build our transportation model, and there's two screenshots of examples of what that model looks like, but it's very technical.

29:16It serves us in making both short and long range decisions, including policy infrastructure and development applications.

29:25So, let's explore how we use the model to support development, because I know that's something that we talk a lot about in this room.

29:31Many developments require a traffic impact study, or TIS.

29:36The TIS identifies how much traffic is generated from a new development and how the traffic from the site will circulate in the nearby vicinity.

29:44The TIS also helps differentiate how much traffic is generated by the existing conditions that are already present and other developments called the background traffic.

29:55Our transportation model is used regularly to quality check and validate a developer's assumptions in their TIS and make adjustments and recommendations as necessary.

30:04This review ensures appropriate application of development charges and local service charges to our transportation infrastructure and really optimizes the city's budget spending.

30:15Finally, the TIS and staff identify any safety and congestion issues with recommendations on how to mitigate them.

30:23We regularly make recommendations to improve site access, intersection operations, active transportation infrastructure, and just generally trying to meet the standards for road safety and sustainability based on the findings of these TISs.

30:37We review development applications holistically to ensure that the cumulative impacts are accounted for and verified with our model, and this also results in recommendations to developers to mitigate congestion.

30:51So you may be wondering how we are reacting to the pace of development, especially in light of the city's recent housing pledge to support bills 109 and 23.

31:02With these bills now in place, Guelph's growth to 2051 may happen faster than we had originally planned. However, the ultimate population target hasn't changed, so we're still planning for the same ultimate number of people in Guelph.

31:16The TMP notes that we cannot accommodate that ultimate population with the existing mode shares, i.e. 80% of those people driving in cars unless we were to widen all of our roads, and that would mean huge expropriation.

31:31I think we can all appreciate that.

31:33So the TMP does demonstrate that we can accommodate that growth by directing investments into expanding transit and active transportation and making traffic management system improvements.

31:46Excuse me a minute.

31:48Supporting growth faster is also about being more proactive.

31:54So with development, with development by finding opportunities to deliver optimal transit services and active transportation before the residents actually move in.

32:05Our staff take measures to review each and every development application and offer suggestions to make these improvements for our future workers and residents.

32:13We also partner with the development community to make improvements within the right of way, such as traffic signals to ensure safe access to properties, connecting sidewalks and providing improved bike facilities.

32:24Being reactive often results in having to encourage people to make different choices once their travel habits have already set in.

32:32This is more challenging to manage and that's why the TMP is recommending a robust and comprehensive transportation demand management action plan, which we are starting later this year.

32:44The action plan is designed to take evidence based data to develop incentives, programs and educational outreach materials to help people make transit choices that are more transportation choices that are more aligned with our mode share targets.

32:59An example of this might look like move in packages with discounts to car share memberships or transit passes for their first month or their first six months or year, whatever in Guelph.

33:10It might look like behavior change apps that reward participants with prizes or incentives when they perform sustainable travel choices like riding their bike or taking transit to work.

33:21The bottom line is where growth is happening, there will be congestion.

33:25Growth is concentrated in certain areas that are experiencing the most development in Guelph, for example, along Gordon Street and sections of Victoria Road.

33:35This can definitely be frustrating for residents today, but the kinds of developments we are seeing are helping to set the foundation to deliver high frequency transit, shorter walking and biking distances between amenities and more mixed uses.

33:48So this is a good thing and is helping bridge that connection between land use planning and transportation planning.

33:56So I just want to speak a few minutes about the sustainable transportation projects that we have coming up.

34:05Sustainable transportation is essential to providing an equitable transportation system.

34:10Cycling and micro mobility are key strategies for moving people of all ages and abilities all the time.

34:15Research proves that bike facilities that are separated from traffic are the most effective at attracting more people to choose cycling, scooting and rolling as their mode of transportation.

34:27The city's protected cycling network includes two main systems.

34:31The most obvious cycling network is what we see on the roads.

34:34This is our cycle tracks, our multi-use paths, our protected cycling facilities.

34:39The second active transportation network combines our protected on-road connections with some of our off-road primary trails.

34:48The All Ages and Abilities or AAA network is designed to accommodate self-propelled modes of transportation on wheels.

34:57This can include scooters, skateboards, roller skates, roller blades and bikes, of course, and they are intended to be fully protected and separated from vehicle traffic citywide year round.

35:08Staff from Parks and Transportation are working together on a way-finding strategy and improvements to these networks so that the user experience remains completely seamless regardless of whether you're off-road on a trail or on-road on the road network.

35:23We're also starting to build significant expansion of the city's cycle tracks and multi-use paths over the next four years.

35:31The designs are underway and construction will be budgeted for College Ave, sections of Gordon Street, Air Massa Road, Stone Road, and Silver Creek Parkway by 2027.

35:43Staff are also planning more protected on-road bicycle lanes like the ones that we see on Gordon Street in front of McDonald's, close to City Hall here.

35:51And as part of our efforts to improve equitable transportation, we've also created an informal, equitable transportation working group that includes our Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Advisor and our Road Safety Supervisor.

36:05The working group informs where connectivity improvements are most needed from an equity lens, and we will be prioritizing improvements in the west end and in the north end of the city where residents experience the highest marginalization and the lowest connectivity and their network.

36:20And while it's important to build our network, it's equally important to promote and celebrate it. So this is my cue to remind you that every June is Bike Month, and we invite you to come out and enjoy many of the events that the city organizes with our city staff, but also with many of our partner organizations.

36:37And we do things like the Tour de Guelph group rides, bike bingo contests, and much more. So keep an eye out for that. This year Bike Month will kick off on June 3 right here in Market Square, and we hope to see you all there.

36:52And finally, from a sustainable transportation perspective, the TMP has recommended that we develop a comprehensive pedestrian master plan.

37:00This would be the first pedestrian master plan for Guelph, and we're going to look at starting that in 2024. And one of the big improvements over our current approach to sidewalk connectivity is really looking at it from an accessibility perspective, and looking at it as well from an equity perspective.

37:19Next slide. I just one moment please. The joys of having a head cold. Sorry about that.

37:38All right, public transit. So again, I won't go into too much detail here because we have our colleagues from transit joining us soon, but I just want to emphasize how critical it is for us to really invest in public transit to achieve our mode share targets.

37:54Our 2051 mode share target is 17% of daily trips are going to be by transit. And that's a pretty big increase from where we are today.

38:01But as you can see from this image, the space it takes to move 200 people by car is vastly greater than the space it takes to move those 200 people on a bus.

38:13This image also shows if they were in the space of those cars versus all together on the bus and if they were on bicycles, but it's a very compelling image nonetheless.

38:22So if we think back to our example of college in Gordon, where we have real constraints in terms of how much we can widen the road, you can start to see why public transit makes a lot of sense, especially in key areas of the city where we are growing the most.

38:36Investment in public transit service makes buses more efficient on their routes, shortens travel times for passengers and closes the disparity between travel time by car versus travel time by bus.

38:48You can consider that a sort of time equity if you want.

38:53And as the city continues to grow improvements and investment into transit is going to be a critical component to supporting the city's growth.

39:01The quality transit network is one of the networks that was recommended in the TMP and it refers to road corridors where we will focus on improving transit service levels through various measures.

39:13Operational improvements is always the first level, the first step of where we try to make improvements to travel times and improve that level of service for customers.

39:23The next level is looking at signal priority measures, which Steve is going to speak to a little bit later, but it can include signal technology as well as Q jump lanes.

39:33And then the ultimate improvement for transit service will be dedicated travel lanes for transit on certain key corridors.

39:39And the trigger for that would be met when the ridership meets or exceeds the typical lane capacity for the number of people that lane can carry in an hour.

39:49So it's really about we're not we're moving the same number of people but just in a more efficient way.

39:54So this is going to allow frequent bus service to bypass congestion and truly make transit.

40:00transit convenient and attractive for people to move around the city of Guelph.

40:05And over the next term of council, you can expect to see the start of transit signal

40:08priority, a Q jump lane built at Gordon Street and Arkle Road, and transit will speak more

40:13to some of their operational improvements later on tonight.

40:19So for now, I've mostly been talking about local transportation, but I don't want to

40:23forget about the importance of inter-regional transportation, as this is also essential

40:27to commuters and goods movement.

40:31The need of transportation services ongoing efforts to improve inter-regional transit

40:36includes coordination with our partners at the Ontario Ministry of Transportation, MTO,

40:41and at Metrolinx.

40:43Our staff meet frequently with these agencies to ensure that our community needs are shared

40:47and addressed appropriately in their projects and their plans.

40:51This helps to ensure that the regional transportation network and services meet our communities needs

40:56too.

40:57For instance, staff coordinate with Metrolinx studies and construction projects that supports

41:02the two-way all-day-go passenger rail service.

41:06Starting this year, staff are initiating an environmental assessment to evaluate all

41:10the possible crossing alternatives for the Metrolinx corridor at Edinburgh Road.

41:15This is part of how we support two-way all-day-go, but also how we ensure that we maintain safe,

41:20connected transportation networks within our community.

41:23Dave, our Metrolinx staff liaison has a few updates here on regional transit trips.

41:28Thanks, Jenny.

41:31During the economic development orientation in March, Council asked a few questions related

41:35to transportation to and from Guelph.

41:37I'll quickly update you on our current service frequencies.

41:41Earlier this month, Metrolinx added one eastbound towards Toronto train trip in the AM period.

41:46Currently, there are 10-week-day-go train trips to and from Guelph.

41:51One of these trips originates and extends to London with the rest beginning or ending

41:55in Kitchener.

41:56Additionally, there is one via-trip each way between Sonny and Toronto through Guelph.

42:00The most recent Metrolinx business case, dated March 2021, indicates two-way all-day-go

42:06service to Guelph beginning in 2025.

42:10To date locally, Metrolinx has completed two bridge replacements and one bridge rehabilitation.

42:16In 2022, they completed the retaining wall reconstruction between Dublin and Wellington

42:20streets, which was necessary to reinstall a second track between Silver Creek Parkway

42:26and Wellington Street planned to start later this year.

42:29This will allow trains to pass in Guelph.

42:32The construction of a platform on the south track at Guelph Central Station is to be completed

42:36and in use by this time next year.

42:39Also, in April of this year, go train service between Mount Pleasant, just east of Georgetown,

42:45Union Station began operating hourly services on weekends with bus connections to Guelph.

42:50This is an important first step to providing weekend go rail service to Guelph.

42:56There has been volatility with inner city bus operators in Guelph of late.

43:00Greyhound and Flix bus are two bus service providers who have stopped serving Guelph.

43:05Presently, there are two different operators serving Guelph.

43:08Go bus and the Guelph-Olinx Sound Transit.

43:12There's no worthy that go introduce service between Waterloo and Hamilton Viagwelf earlier

43:16this month.

43:18This is the first go bus route to not serve Toronto directly or connect to a train to

43:23or from Toronto.

43:24I could talk transit all day, but I'll pass it back to Jenny for now.

43:29Thanks, Steve.

43:31Okay, moving from buses and trains to goods movement.

43:35Staff are also coordinating with MTO on construction projects related to the Hanlon Expressway

43:40and the new Highway 7 interchange, as well as improvements to the south between the river

43:46and Maltby Road to improve traffic flow.

43:50These don't get excited because they take a long time, so just know that we are constantly

43:54working with them on their designs and plans.

43:57Our staff advocate to see improvements of these two critical connections across our community,

44:01to support goods movement to our employment areas, and to support commuters to access

44:05jobs here or in our neighbouring regions.

44:09Also starting this year, coming back to council for approval in 2024, is the goods movement

44:15strategy.

44:16So this will review our existing permissive truck route networks and regulatory framework,

44:22and we'll recommend updates to bring it in alignment with the transportation master

44:24plan and growth plan.

44:27Staff will also be working with the Guelph Junction Railway, or GJR, and consider the

44:31opportunities impacts of GJR transport on the transportation network as well.

44:40In conclusion, the last point I want to make tonight is about the need for us to transition

44:44into a future-ready city.

44:46The future really is now, and we can't really wait to start investing in some of the changes

44:52that are likely happening over the next four years.

44:56Technology and services will change significantly by 2051, and they are already changing.

45:02Guelph needs to be aware of, prepared for, and advising on how to accommodate these changes

45:07in the best interest of our community.

45:09The Emerging Transportation Technology Office will analyze, recommend, and test new concepts,

45:16technologies, services, and approaches to community transportation that best meets the

45:20city's goals.

45:23This resource also ensures that we can take advantage of government and industry incentives

45:28and apply for funding.

45:30The work also needs to evaluate who stands to gain from these new services or products

45:35and who loses, and we need to mitigate the negative consequences on those who are most

45:40impacted.

45:42This will be ongoing work of the Emerging Transportation Technology Office with the Equitable

45:47Transportation Working Group as well in the years to come.

45:51Looking ahead, we should start considering technologies like autonomous vehicles, drone

45:55delivery vehicles, mobility as a service, electric micro-mobility, and more.

46:01What is their role in our transportation ecosystem?

46:05How do we want to regulate them?

46:07What opportunities can they offer?

46:09And of course, safety has to remain a constant focus of our work.

46:13And now that the city has formally adopted Vision Zero, we have strengthened our resolve

46:17to take a systems approach to proactive and preventative safety measures for all road

46:22users, even the ones on electric skateboards or One Wheels or whatever else the world comes

46:28up with in the next four to 25 years.

46:31So with that, I'm going to pass the baton to my colleague, Dr. Laris Friedman, your

46:34new supervisor of Road Safety to discuss more on the road safety programs coming our way.

46:44Wonderful. Thank you for that great overview of the TMP.

46:48As Jennifer mentioned, I will be providing an update on Vision Zero and road safety

46:51initiatives in the city.

46:53Over the past four years, City Council has approved multiple policies geared towards

46:58keeping our community safe on the roads.

47:01These include the Community Road Safety Strategy, the updated Traffic Calming Policy, and most

47:06recently, the adoption of Vision Zero, which supports the use of automated technologies

47:10such as red light cameras and automated speed enforcement to enhance safety and reduce severe

47:15and fatal collisions.

47:17We know that road safety has a societal cost that amounts to almost $98 million between

47:242017 and 2021.

47:27This is an increase of over $1.5 million since the previous five years.

47:32These include direct costs such as property damage, emergency response service, and insurance

47:37costs, as well as indirect costs such as disability workdays lost and pain and suffering.

47:43Every year, City staff release a collision report that highlights trends in road collisions

47:50and areas that have a high proportion of injuries.

47:53We know, for example, that between 2017 and 2021, one collision happened approximately

47:58every 4.5 hours in the city.

48:01Additionally, almost 4% of collisions involved a cyclist or a pedestrian as a vulnerable road

48:08user, and 0.9% of collisions resulted in a major injury or fatal outcome.

48:14One of the key performance indicators under transportation is the percent reduction in

48:19collision severity over time.

48:22This aligns with our Vision Zero goals.

48:24In the previous collision report between 2016 and 2020, major and fatal collisions made

48:30up 1.4% of total collisions.

48:33We can see that we're already noticing significant improvements in our data, and we'll continue

48:38to monitor these trends over time.

48:41Some other trends that we tend to observe are things like what age groups are disproportionately

48:46affected by injuries from motor vehicle collisions.

48:49In this example, we can see that young adults aged 20 to 29 are often involved in collisions

48:54on the road.

48:56This can help us identify our target audience when we seek to implement a road safety campaign.

49:00Similarly, we always review the locations with the highest percentage of major and fatal

49:06injury collisions over time.

49:08This map shows the combined locations for both intersections and midblocks, and we've

49:13highlighted this information here because, again, it will align with our Vision Zero

49:17goals to reduce the most severe injuries down to zero at these locations.

49:23In order to work towards our Vision Zero goal, we need to first acknowledge that no deaths

49:27are acceptable on our roads.

49:30And the following video that I'll show was produced in Victoria, Australia.

49:33It really helps to illustrate how we can work together to essentially reframe the conversation

49:38and ensure that safety is paramount on the road.

49:44So last year, 213 people died on our roads.

49:47What do you think would be a more acceptable number?

49:52So I don't know about you, but every time I watch that video, it still seems to evoke

50:47a lot of emotion, and it reinforces the importance of the message that the only number we should

50:52ever accept is zero.

50:57So now that we've outlined a bit of the why and we frame the conversation, let's talk

51:01about the what.

51:02So what is Vision Zero?

51:04Vision Zero is based on the belief that serious injuries and deaths on our roads are unacceptable

51:09and that the system should be designed to account for human error.

51:14We therefore as city staff have responsibility to design our roads to mitigate collision

51:18forces and reduce the likelihood of severe and fatal injuries.

51:23Vision Zero was adopted by Swedish parliament in the 1990s, and over the past three decades,

51:28Sweden has seen major declines in severe and fatal injuries on their roads, really showing

51:33the strength and potential of the program.

51:36Edmonton was the first Canadian city to adopt Vision Zero in 2015, and since then, 22 municipalities

51:42and regions across Canada have followed suit, with wealth adopting Vision Zero in January

51:47of 2022.

51:50If Vision Zero outlines the what or the goal, then the safe systems approach spells out

51:55the how or the steps that we take to achieve this goal.

51:59We move from a traditional model of believing that severe and fatal collisions are inevitable

52:03on our roads to one that states that they are both predictable and preventable.

52:09We acknowledge that people will make mistakes and that they are vulnerable on the road,

52:13therefore we have a shared responsibility through safety design to improve our environments

52:18and mitigate these risks.

52:20We take a proactive approach to road safety rather than waiting for a collision to happen.

52:26We focus on interventions that impact safe land use planning, safe roads, sorry, safe

52:31road users, safe road design, post-crash care, and most importantly, safe speeds.

52:38So why is speed so important?

52:40To put it simply, it's physics.

52:43Drivers moving at slower operating speeds have more time to react and stop, which ensures

52:48that if a collision does occur, it doesn't necessarily involve a serious injury or a

52:53fatality.

52:54A driver who strikes a pedestrian traveling at 30 km per hour versus 40 km per hour increases

53:01the likelihood of survivability by 20%.

53:04We must plan for people making mistakes by ensuring that all parts of the system are

53:09strengthened so that if one component fails, road users are still protected.

53:16This is an example of what's called the Swiss cheese model.

53:19So each piece of cheese represents a layer of protection, so for example, safe vehicles

53:24or safe speeds.

53:26And as you can see here, if the holes in the cheese all line up and every layer of protection

53:30fails, then a severe or fatal collision will occur.

53:34If we, however, build in redundancy by strengthening every piece of cheese, we are less likely to

53:40see collisions that result in life-threatening outcomes.

53:45Equity should be the thread that is woven throughout the development of our road safety

53:48policies as well as the distribution of interventions throughout the city.

53:52The transportation engineering team undertook a study through Guelph Lab with the University

53:57of Guelph to review three variables.

54:00One was where traffic collisions with vulnerable road users were occurring.

54:04The second was where traffic requests were coming from.

54:07And the third is where equity-deserving groups existed throughout the city through something

54:11called the Ontario Marginalization Index.

54:14This study was conducted to help inform whether our current policies and the subsequent interventions

54:19were equally distributed among areas of need in Guelph.

54:23What we learned is that the likelihood of being involved in a severe motor vehicle collision

54:28with a pedestrian or a cyclist was significantly higher in areas with higher marginality.

54:34So in other words, areas with more equity-deserving groups.

54:37Although not statistically significant, we also observed less traffic studies in areas

54:41with more equity-deserving groups.

54:44This helps to inform how we allocate future resources across the city to ensure that we

54:49are being equitable.

54:53All of our Vision Zero initiatives can be bucketed into six categories.

54:57Engineering education and enforcement are the first three.

55:00The initiatives on the slide outline current and future projects that have been approved

55:04through the Community Road Safety Strategy, the Traffic Calming Policy, and our new Vision

55:08Zero plan.

55:10As we work towards zero, we will continue to collaborate with a broad range of stakeholders

55:14through our steering committees and our working groups to tackle road safety.

55:19Some engineering initiatives that we've already explored through the Community Road Safety

55:22Strategy include updates to our traffic calming policy, installing leading pedestrian intervals

55:28to make pedestrians more visible within an intersection and reduce the number of conflicts

55:33with both right and left turning drivers, and installing in-road flex posts to visually

55:38narrow our roads, and reducing speed limits to area 40 neighborhoods.

55:43We have also taken on some education initiatives, such as providing residents with a please slow

55:48down lawn sign, which you can see pictured on that slide, and our participation in national

55:53campaigns, such as National Injury Prevention Day and National Teen Driver Safety Week.

55:58Our Don't Rush the Red Road Safety Campaign, which was launched prior to the operation

56:02of our speed limit program, and our radar speed boards, which remind drivers of their

56:07operating speeds, essentially queuing them to slow down within a local neighborhood.

56:12Finally, we help supplement the great work of Welf Police Services by implementing automated

56:16technology programs, such as our current red light camera program and our upcoming

56:21automated speed enforcement program.

56:25The other three E's we typically see are evaluation, equity, and engagement.

56:30We continue to monitor the effectiveness of all of our work by performing before and after

56:35studies on traffic calming interventions, for example, to see if speeds are significantly

56:40lowered after we've implemented the intervention.

56:43We also annually release our collision reports, as mentioned previously, and have been

56:47involved in some interesting research projects related to both distracted driving and leading

56:52pedestrian intervals.

56:53Finally, our road safety dashboard ensures that our data is transparent and publicly

56:58available.

56:59For those who wish to understand what types of safety interventions we have at the city, we

57:03also put a huge emphasis on equity.

57:06Jenny alluded to this earlier with our internal working group, but we've also done the equity

57:11mapping work that I mentioned, and we are currently involved as one of 10 municipalities

57:16in a large grant called capacity that looks at equity within the transportation network

57:21and safety policies across the country.

57:24In terms of engagement, we did extensive work with the community to help inform the

57:28community road safety strategy and are currently engaging with community members through our

57:33traffic calming open houses and our Vision Zero pop up events.

57:39When we think about Jenny's example of Gordon Street and College, we can also

57:42reference which of the six E's have been applied to this intersection to enhance road

57:46safety.

57:47The two main areas that we have focused on are driver compliance and pedestrian safety.

57:52Some of these engineering examples include painting ladder crosswalks and implementing

57:56no right turn on red restrictions during school hours when we'd expect there to be a lot of

58:00students crossing the road.

58:02These are two examples of simple interventions that can be used to ensure that no serious

58:07collisions occur and that we see zero injuries in our data.

58:13The idea behind being proactive in areas we've identified that have a safety need is to ensure

58:19that nothing happens and we want to see the number zero in our data.

58:23That is the true metric of success.

58:26While this video that I'm about to show is targeted towards all injury prevention categories,

58:32it's not specific just to road safety.

58:34I want everyone to think about how continuing to invest in road safety through things like

58:39automated technology, traffic calming and education help us to see nothing in our data.

58:45I have nothing to tell you.

58:47Nothing to tweet.

58:49Nothing to post.

58:50Nothing you read about in the papers or see on the news.

58:54That's because nothing happened because your car seat was installed correctly.

59:00Your family put medicine out of a child's reach.

59:04There were working smoke alarms in your home.

59:06You put your baby to sleep on their back and in their own crib.

59:10And you talked to your team about distracted driving.

59:13So a tragedy was prevented.

59:16A family wasn't grieving.

59:18A community wasn't torn apart.

59:21Nothing happened.

59:22Nothing.

59:24And for a parent, that's everything.

59:35So learn more.

59:39So the main way that we can see nothing in our data is by really focusing on speeding

59:43interventions.

59:44Slower speeds have positive impacts on all of these focus areas.

59:49Vision zero interventions are typically targeted towards improving pedestrian safety,

59:54cycling safety and motorcyclists, as these are the most vulnerable road users.

59:58Additionally, vision zero targets aggressive and distracted driving as these often result

1:00:03in severe injury outcomes.

1:00:05Finally, vision zero also recognizes the need to protect particularly vulnerable road users,

1:00:10such as older adults and children by making pedestrian crossings more accessible and

1:00:15addressing school safety, which I will now hand over to Steve to expand on.

1:00:25Thank you.

1:00:25You're as I'm back in this time to focus on the transportation engineering work happening

1:00:30or plan for the future.

1:00:32As Lair has mentioned, school safety is a top priority for us.

1:00:35The school overseas and operates the adult school crossing our program.

1:00:39And I'm happy to say we're coming up on 20 years of operation of this program in the city.

1:00:44As with many sectors these days, recruitment and staffing is an ongoing challenge.

1:00:48So I'd like to take this opportunity to plug recruitment and we're eager to welcome some

1:00:53new adult school crossing guards onto our team.

1:00:56Today we staff 33 locations with a team of nearly 50 regular and spare guards.

1:01:01Proud of the passion and work this team provides us during the school year, sometimes not in

1:01:05the most ideal weather conditions.

1:01:08A shout out to our longest serving active guard wrapping up their 14th school year with the

1:01:12program this year.

1:01:13Please mark your calendars for the week of June 5th as that is crossing go depreciation week.

1:01:20To provide a quick overview of the transportation engineering team, we respond to day to day

1:01:24concerns related to the operation of our roadway shown as quite busy annually.

1:01:29We receive over 300 requests to review concerns related to speeding, signal timing, trucks,

1:01:36on street parking and more.

1:01:39Parking team is responsible for the operations in the downtown.

1:01:42The pandemic supercharged our work to modernize our operations, give customers more online

1:01:47tools and options to limit their need to come to City Hall to visit for service.

1:01:52Discussed previously, we continue to work towards our transportation, our downtown

1:01:57master parking master plan, which will be brought forward in September of this year.

1:02:03This slide provides a quick overview of the many agencies that produce guidelines and

1:02:07documents we refer to create standards in Guelph.

1:02:10Our team are active members of many of these organizations and regularly present Guelph's

1:02:15work during conferences.

1:02:19Having personally spent 15 years as a traffic signal technologist here in Guelph, I'll forever

1:02:23have a soft spot for traffic signal operations.

1:02:27We have made incremental advances over my time at the city with the introduction of

1:02:31accessible pedestrian signals, leading pedestrian intervals, overhead radar

1:02:36vision, video detection, which improves the ability to detect cyclists and motorcycles

1:02:41and increasing the visibility of our signal heads to name a few.

1:02:45In 2022, we activated our very first bicycle signal, which gives direction to bicycle,

1:02:51which gives direction and bicycle specific timing for cyclists where cyclists are

1:02:55permitted to ride across a roadway.

1:03:00We've come a long way in our day to gathering and reporting capabilities.

1:03:03Historically, traffic, pedestrian and cyclist volumes were often gathered by hand and

1:03:07that one day snapshot would have factors applied to normalize how that one day data

1:03:13would represent the average day of the year.

1:03:16Happily, the reliance on manually gated data snapshots is going away.

1:03:222020, the city issued an RFP and has partnered with MileVision, company based

1:03:26out of Waterloo, where permanent real time sensors have been installed that gather

1:03:30all sorts of data.

1:03:32We now have daily traffic, pedestrians, cycling and truck volumes at key intersections to

1:03:37better time, our traffic and pedestrian signals and understand the impacts of severe

1:03:42weather, university schedule and other factors which impact volumes on our roadway.

1:03:47We plan to have 50 installations completed and active by the end of 2025.

1:03:52I cannot overstate how transformative this has been for us with our data maturity.

1:03:58Just here's another snapshot of the level of data we're receiving from these installations.

1:04:04Additionally, we have a traffic signal system which communicates to our traffic signals.

1:04:08We are leveraging the city's own fiber network to connect our signals to avoid relying on

1:04:13third parties for communications.

1:04:15We're almost halfway through this process of connecting our signals to the city's fiber

1:04:19network.

1:04:20There have been some growing pains as we complete this work which likely results in your

1:04:24experience.

1:04:25A few more red light stops than you'd like, but I can assure you better days are soon ahead.

1:04:31It's absolutely critical that the traffic signal time clocks are accurate to the second to

1:04:36maximize the likelihood of achieving several green signals in a row on a main roadway.

1:04:42For example, in this corridor, we have a 15 second green ban for traffic to pass through

1:04:46several signals in a row.

1:04:48If a time clock was out by even just five seconds, that reduces that green ban window by

1:04:5333 percent.

1:04:54Hashtag math.

1:04:55So here we have Stone Road between Gordon Street and Scottsdale as an example.

1:05:01And I'll remind everyone watching at home that when traveling at the speed limit, you

1:05:06will get through these six traffic signals ideally without stopping.

1:05:10Whoa.

1:05:12What do we have here?

1:05:15Any guesses in the room?

1:05:17Counselors?

1:05:18Counselors?

1:05:20Is it for buses?

1:05:21Yes.

1:05:22Yes.

1:05:22You get a prize.

1:05:23See me afterwards.

1:05:25So as Jenny mentioned earlier, we are very close to having a really revolutionary thing with our

1:05:29signal system.

1:05:29So that horizontal white bar that was shown is a transit signal indication.

1:05:34And I'm happy to say they're coming to go off.

1:05:37It's not often everyone can get excited about traffic signals, but this is that moment.

1:05:43We're soon to be implementing a new GPS based system that will work with our five

1:05:47signals.

1:05:48And we're going to be able to do that.

1:05:50We're soon to be implementing a new GPS based system that will work with our fire,

1:05:55ambulance, transit, and even operations vehicles to provide improved service to these users.

1:06:03Our present system is only available to fire vehicles called an opti-com system.

1:06:08And it's nearing the end of its life.

1:06:10It relies on line of sight between the vehicle and the receiver.

1:06:13And if you haven't noticed, Guelph has lots of hills, curves, and trees that impact those

1:06:19operations.

1:06:20This project will eliminate that reliance and immediately provide green signals to fire

1:06:26and ambulance vehicles while also being capable of altering timing for transit vehicles behind

1:06:32schedule.

1:06:33There's functionality too that can assist operations vehicles.

1:06:37If it's 2 a.m. on a cold snowy February morning, why not hold a green signal a little bit

1:06:42longer to keep that snow cloud moving, allowing our streets to be cleaned faster.

1:06:47You'll see and read more about this exciting project in the 2024-2027 multi-year budget.

1:06:55So in summary, you've heard an awful lot about exciting work.

1:07:00Trust me, it is exciting.

1:07:02That is happening or coming soon.

1:07:04We appreciate the community's passion for moving people and goods throughout the city

1:07:09safely.

1:07:10But staff can't do it alone.

1:07:13We can't re-engineer the entire city overnight.

1:07:17We need you, the community, to join us in our efforts and ensure anyone who leaves their

1:07:23house to get to a destination by foot, bicycle, car, or transit gets back home safely.

1:07:32And I'm a bit jealous of ECDEV's heads and beds, Ryan, so I've created my own.

1:07:37It's a work in progress.

1:07:38So don't be sporty and brace the 40.

1:07:42So with that, there was a groan.

1:07:46Okay, I got a groan.

1:07:47I'll work on it.

1:07:47Okay, I'll come back and work on.

1:07:49With that, thanks for your attention.

1:07:51We'll take questions till about 7.15 and then transit's going to come in.

1:07:55And if we miss any questions, we can always catch them at the end.

1:07:59So I know the mayor said, so maybe I'm happy to stick handle if there's any questions in the room.

1:08:04And then we'll take any questions from the counselors at home.

1:08:08So I, well, okay, why don't we start?

1:08:11So I two hands immediately for that.

1:08:12So council or alt, why don't you go ahead?

1:08:16Thank you very much, Mr. Anderson.

1:08:18I've got five questions.

1:08:19I'll try to get through them quickly.

1:08:22I was wondering, first off, do we have any data that we can report on about the impact

1:08:27of reduced speed limits as of yet?

1:08:32Not yet.

1:08:32We still haven't finished all the implementations, but definitely we'll be reporting back on the

1:08:37measures of effectiveness when we've had time to calculate that.

1:08:41Thank you.

1:08:42Just one feedback for you from neighborhoods that I received quite frequently is that there is a

1:08:48real frustration with empirical data and the, the feet on the ground concerns are felt by many

1:08:56neighbors and neighborhoods to be ignored.

1:08:58Are we going to be able to address those anecdotal or heartfelt concerns through these studies?

1:09:09I can take that one.

1:09:10So thank you, councillor Allt for that question.

1:09:13I think in part of that equity map that we were showing is that there's often,

1:09:18sort of one of the reasons that we rely on data to make a lot of our decision making around road

1:09:23safety is because, and I feel this living on my street, there's a difference sometimes between

1:09:30the perceptions of how you feel in a community in terms of people either speeding or being very

1:09:35close to a sidewalk or something like that.

1:09:37And sort of the reality that we see when we go out there and put out a pneumatic tube.

1:09:41And so we've ensured that our traffic calming policy and all of our road safety interventions

1:09:45are therefore very data driven.

1:09:47So it's not to say that we would ignore community needs by any means, but that's why we built in

1:09:52the community road safety strategy is it's sort of some of those other measures outside of our

1:09:57traffic calming policy that we can put in that can help a community really work on themselves.

1:10:04Things like please slow down lawn signs, driver feedback signs, things like that that really

1:10:10empower the community to sort of encourage people that maybe shouldn't be in that community

1:10:16because they're cutting through or whatever the case may be to slow down and think of the

1:10:20community members that live there.

1:10:22Thank you perhaps.

1:10:23The rhyme for Mr. Anderson.

1:10:25Don't be a clown.

1:10:26Please slow down.

1:10:28There are three other points that I have.

1:10:31I'm extremely concerned about a critical mass of cyclists and alternative transportation devices

1:10:36on our roads ultimately, and I think fairly soon approaching.

1:10:43What role do police play on road safety associated with pedestrian cyclists and those

1:10:49un-mobility scooters?

1:10:51Many times I hear from people saying the police should act on this and I think it's important

1:10:56for the public to know.

1:11:00So we meet with 12 police often and we share data and have conversations about where we can try to

1:11:07maximize the efficiency and effectiveness of their enforcement.

1:11:12So I think that's we recognize we would always like a little more enforcement, but what we do is

1:11:18just help 12 police make sure where they are enforcing the data is there to support that

1:11:23they're enforcing where we have the highest needs.

1:11:26Okay, thank you.

1:11:27Will they be engaged more in bicycle and alternative transportation safety in the future?

1:11:34Do you know or will we be handling it through the traffic department or collegially?

1:11:42Yeah, as I indicated, we meet with Guadalpollis Montres.

1:11:45So we're in regular contact with them on all of our initiatives.

1:11:49Yeah, but I'm wondering with a public input, community groups and so on.

1:11:56That's what I'm really wondering about.

1:12:02Sorry, I'm a bit...

1:12:03Do you mind repeating the question?

1:12:04Will the police be offering any future safety programs that we're aware of for people using

1:12:13bicycles, mobility scooters, and even the those new motorized scooters that we're seeing on the

1:12:21streets now?

1:12:25Well, I'm not going to speak for police, but I know that part of our sustainable transportation

1:12:29program is offering CAN bike courses to teach people how to cycle safely in traffic.

1:12:36As part of the emerging transportation technology office, if that gets resourced through the

1:12:40multi-year budget, that would be an opportunity for us to look at programming that supports

1:12:44safe use of e-scooters and e-scooters and all that other stuff as well, but we don't have the

1:12:49resources right now for it.

1:12:51This one, I think I'm quite certain to know the answer to this, but I have this question come

1:12:56up quite frequently.

1:12:58Many people are quite excited about the possibility of GJR's potential, especially

1:13:06as the foundation for an LRT.

1:13:09I was wondering if we could get a comment on the rail lines that the city currently owns

1:13:15and their capacity for an LRT in Guelph.

1:13:20Thanks, Councillor Allt.

1:13:21We did look into that as part of the Transportation Master Plan and based on the population projections

1:13:28to 2051, there isn't the appropriate land density or population density to support LRT on the GJR,

1:13:35but we have made a recommendation to continue to monitor it in case the policy direction

1:13:41changes with time.

1:13:42Great. One last question.

1:13:45There's also been discussion and excitement about business plans for scooters and rentable

1:13:49bikes and rentable electric bikes.

1:13:52Is there anything that you can offer?

1:13:54Can you expand on anything that we as a city might be doing beyond developing the business plan?

1:13:59Where are we on it, really?

1:14:03So through the chair to Councillor Allt, that is coming forward for your consideration at

1:14:08next week's committee of the whole.

1:14:09Councillor Goller is bringing forward some motions on that that you will be considering

1:14:13on Tuesday, I believe.

1:14:15Is that just on scooters or is that on all of those things that I just mentioned?

1:14:20This specific motion is related to the legalization of e-scooters,

1:14:25and that is the first before you.

1:14:27It's certainly part of, I know, the broader transportation master planning work to look at

1:14:31other modes of transportation, but at this point, you'll be considering e-scooters next week.

1:14:36Thank you. Maybe I'll talk to my good neighbour, Councillor Goller, and maybe we can broaden it.

1:14:41Thank you very much.

1:14:45Okay. I saw Councillor, or Councillor, that's our throwback reference to Marigatou, but

1:14:51I see Councillor Goller in the room, so we'll go there and then back to the screen.

1:14:57Thank you. Thank you for the wonderful presentation. I'm really excited about this.

1:15:03So I'll start with what my first question is about the change to 40 kilometres per hour.

1:15:08When I was campaigning, one of the mayor's neighbours actually pulled out a flyer from the

1:15:1290s, the police had to fly, blanketed the city saying the new speed limit is 50.

1:15:17So I was wondering what are the plans to get everyone on board with the 40?

1:15:23I know we just finished putting the signs up, so I just wanted a little more information about

1:15:27the marketing and the promotion of the new speed limit.

1:15:31For sure. Thank you, Councillor Goller. So in the over the coming months, and I kind of alluded

1:15:36to it a little bit in the presentation, you'll see a number of Vision Zero pop-up events,

1:15:40and what we're really hoping to do is frame, rather than going out into the community with

1:15:44every individual intervention, we really want to look at it as a holistic toolkit.

1:15:49Because as we know, signage alone isn't necessarily the most effective, and that's why

1:15:53we've sort of put in the 40 kilometre signage to prep for community safety zones and the

1:15:58upcoming installation of automated speed enforcement. So the idea would be as those

1:16:02interventions come up, they would be seeing reinforced messaging within the community

1:16:06that all relates back under that Vision Zero umbrella.

1:16:09Okay, that is very exciting. Looking forward to that.

1:16:14Another question related to what you mentioned, the automated speed enforcement,

1:16:17we have a number of red light cameras presently in the city. Have we started seeing a return on

1:16:24that investment so that revenues will potentially pay for other automated speed enforcement?

1:16:32So two-part answer. Actually, there's a there's a release going out tomorrow that's going to speak

1:16:37to the 2022 operation of the red light cameras. So that's coming tomorrow. And in terms of like a

1:16:43driver behavior change and a reduction in collisions, it's probably still a bit early to see that

1:16:48driver behavior change, but in June we'll be releasing the updated collision report,

1:16:53which will capture 2022 data. Perfect. And well, so just going back to the question about

1:17:01the revenue that is generated. Is it just to cover for the program or is it more to

1:17:06invest in new technology? In 2022, we created a reserve account. So any revenues from the

1:17:13automated programs will go into that reserve account, which then we can use for future road

1:17:19safety initiatives. So we don't know yet whether it's enough money that we're getting to pay for

1:17:27other more cameras. I can spoiler for tomorrow's news. We did cover our operating expenses in 2022.

1:17:36Okay. Great. Thank you for that. I appreciate that. On slide eight of the presentation,

1:17:42there was a mention of the parking master plan that it was coming this year and next year,

1:17:46but that is the downtown parking master plan. I did not see reference to the city-wide

1:17:50parking master plan. What is the timeline for that? Thanks, Councillor Goller. So we do have

1:17:56that on our work plan for 2025 to start in 2025 under transportation planning.

1:18:01Perfect. Okay. Thank you. Thank you for that clarification. And my last one,

1:18:07timely because of the construction happening with the red light systems that we have,

1:18:14is it adjusted whenever there's construction in a part of the city to accommodate that? Or is

1:18:19that not something that we currently do? Well, the locations are fixed, but where there's construction

1:18:25at a location with a red light camera, we deactivate it or modify it. Sorry. I mean,

1:18:31red lights signals all the time. Yes. We certainly adjust signal timing to accommodate detour routes.

1:18:36Okay. Okay. Thank you very much. I really appreciate it. And Councillor Richardson, that's all your

1:18:41hand. Yes. Thank you. Just two quick questions. So do we have a timeline for the automated

1:18:47speed enforcement program? Do we know when that's going to start? Yes. It starts August 1st this

1:18:53year. Signs will be posted on Monday, May 1st. Great. And my second question, is there a minimum

1:18:59criteria for a resident to request a calming, a traffic calming remedy in their neighbourhood? Or

1:19:06how would they go about doing that if they're looking for something? Sure. So there's no minimum

1:19:11request in terms of the number of residents that live on that street. But the way that it would work

1:19:15is that if a request came through, we would then set up data collection to make sure it meets the

1:19:20warranted criteria as part of the traffic calming policy. And then they would be prioritized based

1:19:24on the list. And then as budget allows, we sort of go down that list and implement temporary measures

1:19:30and then they go into permanent years later. Great. Thank you. Councillor Downer, we have about

1:19:38five minutes. Then we'll go to transit. We can come back at the end. So go ahead, please. Thank you.

1:19:43So Steve, despite your love of signals, this may be more of a road design issue, but why has Guelph

1:19:49never utilized the traffic circles like other communities have, like the Waterloo Region and

1:19:57some areas of the county? I can answer that.

1:20:00Councillor Downer. I can't see you over there. So we are starting to look into a

1:20:06roundabout strategy to identify candidate intersections in Guelph as

1:20:10part of implementing the TMP and there are a couple of projects that we've

1:20:16identified but they're going to be pushed out further in the planning

1:20:19horizon. There's one that we're going to look at through Victoria Road and Stone

1:20:24Road EA at Stone and Watson. That one's coming up fairly soon and then we're

1:20:29going to reconsider Downey and Niska as part of the Niska Road EA and the work

1:20:34that MTO is doing south of the river. Okay, thanks. I'll go to Councillor

1:20:43Bousatile and then I've got Councillor Caden and Guthrie but we might come back

1:20:48to you after transit if that's okay just to keep us on schedule. Go ahead. Thank

1:20:53you and I have a thank you for the presentation. I found it very informative.

1:20:56A couple questions just one around language. Does wayfinding mean signage?

1:21:02Is that the same language? Thanks Councillor Bousatile. Yes, it's mostly

1:21:08going to be signage. We're looking at making sure people can identify how to

1:21:14get from point A to point B on the active transportation network, how long it

1:21:18will take, maybe some information about you know easy route versus challenging

1:21:23route and we're also hoping to engage with our Indigenous partners on

1:21:27opportunities for identifying key landmarks and places of interest. Thank

1:21:32you for that. My second question, I think you hit them all like enforcement,

1:21:37traffic, common crosswalks, transit stops. I heard that campaigning in the

1:21:41West End and so my question is whether or not there are neighborhood level plans

1:21:46that are accessible to residents to look at what are the plans in my ward, in my

1:21:52area, in each of those areas? That's an excellent question. The transportation

1:22:02master plan looks at it city-wide so we haven't identified that as a strategy

1:22:06that we would do moving forward. Most of the reasoning behind that is

1:22:12because the transportation system is a network and we have to look at it as an

1:22:15ecosystem with interactions outside of a given boundary. So that's not something

1:22:20we're currently considering. Thank you. So my next question might be more

1:22:24suited to the after the transit because it crosses over but I know you work

1:22:28together is I hear a lot about transit is on, I get out on this side of the

1:22:33street and I can't cross Elmira Willow Road, Fife Road to get to the other side

1:22:38and you know just recently last week a young person was injured on Willow Road.

1:22:42So is that a transit? I'm happy to save it for transit and give it to them but a

1:22:47lot of concerns I heard about crossing those very busy roads, high speeds, lots

1:22:52of incidents around there and then I have one last one. Thanks Councillor

1:22:57Bousetel. So we don't have a strategy in place per se but right now we're

1:23:02working on the complete street design guideline and one of the tools we're

1:23:07building into that guideline is a way to make decisions on who we want to

1:23:13prioritize at different locations. So we had an example in front of council

1:23:17about a development on Lowe's Road and we were talking about whether or not to

1:23:22signalize that crossing for pedestrians. That's where that tool comes in handy as

1:23:26an example. So if we put a signalized crossing for pedestrians does that

1:23:29slow down transit or does that make transit work better? Does it

1:23:34prioritize pedestrians as a priority cyclist? How does that affect the overall

1:23:38interconnectedness of the network? So that would be a tool we want to have

1:23:42developed before we start putting in random crossings to support transit but

1:23:46it's something that we also hear about and want to make sure that we're taking

1:23:49into consideration moving forward. Thank you for that and you know it's a

1:23:54mum pushing the carriage that I hear from and the you know elementary school

1:23:58students that are crossing dangerous you know speeding roads so I'll look for

1:24:03that. The last one is you made reference to Metrolinx and the work that's

1:24:07coming up around the Edinburgh crossing again in the West End. This is around

1:24:13the connectivity of Margaret Green and we've been waiting a long time just how

1:24:18much control, conversation, timelines, priority with Metrolinx around the

1:24:24underpass and the plans that are in the trails, master plans and so on.

1:24:31So the Margaret Green underpass will be it'll come up through the budgeting

1:24:36process in terms of the workload capacity, project planning and prioritization.

1:24:42The first thing that we want to plan for is to get a better better understanding

1:24:47of who that underpass will best serve in terms of justifying that cost because

1:24:53it would be quite a quite a large cost. We just want to make sure that we have

1:24:56a good business case for pursuing that connection and then following that

1:25:00study and council support then we would look at putting the capital project

1:25:04into the the budget forecast. So that would be something you would look for

1:25:09through the budget. Thank you. Just a clarification and how do you determine

1:25:14who would benefit? It would likely be a sort of a geospatial study of some

1:25:23sort as long along with community engagement. So we would be looking at

1:25:27things like wetland uses and amenities are within a reasonable cycling and

1:25:32walking distance that become more accessible to areas of the city with

1:25:37and without that crossing available to them. And then it would be a bit of a

1:25:43combination qualitative and quantitative analysis, but we don't have the details

1:25:46exactly of what the scope would be at this point. Thank you. And does Metro

1:25:50links have data on the crossing that took place before they put the eight foot

1:25:54high fence up? We don't want people crossing the rails, but there were a

1:25:58number of there's no data. I can ask Metro links. I don't know that answer off

1:26:03the top. So so thanks everyone. Maybe just a quick time out. I did know

1:26:09Councillor Kate and America three still wanted to ask some questions.

1:26:13If you don't mind me jumping in, I think because Councillor Katelyn was the

1:26:18last in this section, let's just let her go and ask that question. And then I

1:26:24just have a comment afterwards before we start the next one. Go ahead, Councillor.

1:26:31So my minor about the equity deserving groups, so I'm glad we brought that up.

1:26:36So a couple of things. I was just wondering about when you're doing the

1:26:39metrics, I noticed that you're using a lot of the provincial standards. And

1:26:44sometimes they're missing some of the things that I would consider accessibility

1:26:47standards. How are we bridging the gap between what they have listed as their

1:26:54requirements for things like crosswalks and things like that? Because we've got

1:26:57areas where there are bus stops on one side and heavy traffic, but we don't

1:27:03have any safe crossings for folks who are in that area. I mean, we've got folks

1:27:07who are wheelchair users and things like that. But those aren't listed in the

1:27:11provincial standards that we're making our decisions by. So do we have any kind

1:27:16of internal standards that we can add on to that to make it safer?

1:27:25Councillor Katelyn, there's a couple of things we can we're looking at. So one is

1:27:29through the pedestrian master plan, we want to take a closer look at accessibility

1:27:33and whether there's improvements to the policy framework we have that need to

1:27:37happen. When it comes to crossings, anything within the road right of way, we

1:27:42do have to follow standards and guidelines that exist. So we do continue to follow

1:27:48those regulatory standards and guidelines through my colleague Steve and his team.

1:27:52And then the last component that I mentioned previously to Councillor

1:27:55Bousatel is the I think it was Councillor Bousatel is the multimodal level of

1:27:59service tool that helps us determine, you know, with and without a certain

1:28:07amenity in the right of way. How best does it serve different priority groups that

1:28:11we're trying to achieve at this particular location so it can be used case by

1:28:15case for planning and design purposes. So would that include things like adding

1:28:24an accessibility best practices like 30 to 60 meters in between safe crossings

1:28:29and things like that in the multimodal portion? I'm not sure at this point we

1:28:36haven't started developing it so that'll be developed through the complete

1:28:40street design guideline process. And there will be some there will be a bit

1:28:45of engagement external to city staff on that, but it's a very technical document

1:28:50and that will come before council in 2024 for your discussion and approval.

1:28:56It is based on an Ontario traffic council guideline that was developed on

1:28:59M.M.L.O.S. tools. So we're starting from something that's already been

1:29:04well researched. And I think the accessibility question will be worked

1:29:10into there, but I just don't have the details right now of what that will

1:29:12look like. Sorry, Councillor, we're not able to hear you right now. Apologies for

1:29:33interrupting. Councillor Caton, if you're able to hear us, we're not able to hear

1:29:37you in council chambers right now. You might need to adjust microphone settings.

1:29:46We can we can we can hear you now, but we didn't capture any of that.

1:29:50Sorry, it's my internet keeps on jumping out and I'm glad that I have the

1:29:54captions on because sometimes I can't hear you guys either.

1:29:59So can you hear me right now?

1:30:02Yes, we can hear you loud and clear right now.

1:30:04So I'm just wondering about speed bumps and if we're capturing any of the

1:30:08injuries that disabled people are sustaining on some of our traffic calming

1:30:13measures.

1:30:17Yes, we've heard those concerns. We've researched it and that will be part of

1:30:23a factor when we review the policy in 2025.

1:30:27Perfect. And last question.

1:30:30When we have areas for bike lanes that don't require streets be rebuilt, is

1:30:35there a way to prioritize those because they seem like easier to do like on

1:30:39Grange Road, for example, versus York Road, which requires like a whole rebuild?

1:30:47Yes, Councillor Caton, there's a number of factors we consider. So where there is

1:30:52reconstruction, we integrate the proposed cycling network into the reconstruction.

1:30:57Where there isn't, we look for opportunities through the annual repaving

1:31:02program where they're going to have to remove existing pavement lines and put

1:31:06in new ones. Grange Road is actually on our list to look at in the next four

1:31:11years for potentially protected on street bike lanes. So we are going to be

1:31:15investigating that a little further in the next four years.

1:31:19Perfect. Thank you.

1:31:22Okay. I also have Councillor's class in or work in Marigot 3, but we're going to

1:31:26take a timeout has promised. I love your passion for transportation. So team

1:31:31transit's coming down, but you can't get rid of us. We'll stick around and come

1:31:35back and answer any other questions you might have. So just 30 seconds here.

1:31:40We'll, we'll tag out and transit's on.

1:31:46Okay. Well, I'll just during this, this transition, I'm just going to jump in.

1:31:50If you don't mind, I think there was a major problem with connection there for

1:31:55quite a while during Councillor Caton's questions and comments. I certainly

1:32:02lost my connection very poorly here. So I'm going to ask Councillor Downer,

1:32:08please, to officially take over as the chair for the rest of the meeting and

1:32:15hoping everyone can hear that. And I may also have to leave anyways, even though

1:32:22my connection might be better now, but I may have to leave for a meeting that I

1:32:25have coming up anyways. So I'll just stay on as long as I can, but I'll just

1:32:30turn the chair ship over to Councillor Downer for me. Thank you very much.

1:32:57Chair Downer, do you want me to wait as a few members of Council have stepped

1:33:00out or do you want me to just proceed? We have quorum. I think we can start

1:33:08them. They're probably very quick. Thank you. So good evening. And so welcome to

1:33:14part two of tonight's orientation session. And obviously, hopefully it's

1:33:19evident why we paired these two together tonight. And so as we transition into

1:33:23part two of your orientation training today and before I turn it over to our

1:33:27transit team, I just wanted to provide a bit of context for this portion of the

1:33:31workshop. And you may be thinking, wow, we spent a considerable amount of time

1:33:34this month already talking about transit. And that of course is true. But what

1:33:39you considered and voted on last night was solely related to transit fare

1:33:43revenue. And there's a lot more to running a transit system than simply the

1:33:47fares that we charge. And so this workshop is to cover everything else. So

1:33:51it'll be a little bit shorter than it might otherwise have been because we

1:33:54did do a lot of that heavy lifting regarding fares last evening. But tonight

1:33:59we're going to be providing you with an orientation of all the other facets of

1:34:02our transit system. And then we're happy to answer any questions that you may

1:34:05have. But as I said, what's excluded from tonight's discussion is certainly

1:34:09revisiting any of that fair strategy discussion because you made those

1:34:13decisions last evening. And I do also want to acknowledge that in addition to

1:34:17the transit management team who will be presenting tonight, we also have our GM

1:34:21of operations Doug Godfrey available if there are any questions related to our

1:34:24transit fleet and GM of facilities and energy management anti-villacose given

1:34:29his role and oversight of our Guelph transit and fleet services facility

1:34:33project as well as our electrification activities. And with that, I'm going to

1:34:37turn things over to our Guelph transit general manager Robin Garris. Good

1:34:53evening, Mayor and Councillors. Those of you who may not know me, my name is Robin

1:34:57Garris and I'm the general manager at Guelph transit. And I'm here today with

1:35:01my management team members Courtney McDonald, manager of transit business

1:35:05services and Laura Catalino-Ragas, supervisor of scheduling and service

1:35:10planning. And thank you both for being here and for the great job you do for

1:35:13Guelph transit and the city of Guelph. We're pleased to update you about the

1:35:21great things that we are doing at Guelph transit and what you can expect to

1:35:25see during your term of council and beyond. Similar to our transportation

1:35:30colleagues, Guelph transit services projects and programs mainly fall under

1:35:35navigating our future pillar of the strategic plan. However, there are some

1:35:41projects that cross over into powering our future, sustaining our future and

1:35:46building our future pillars. Within these pillars, we strive to ensure that

1:35:51transit remains affordable, attractive and provides the means of connecting

1:35:56workplaces towards Guelph sustainability. We also look to align our services with

1:36:03active transportation throughout the city and encouraging safe, efficient

1:36:08connectivity through all methods of transportation and mode shares. As many

1:36:15of you know, we have taken our first steps towards electrification and our

1:36:21two 2050 vision of net zero carbon emissions. In today's session, we will

1:36:26talk about our current testing methodologies and planned implementations

1:36:30of our to operationalize our first clean transit vehicles in 2023. Aligning

1:36:36with both the strategic plan and the transportation master plan, the Guelph

1:36:40transit future ready action plan also speaks to improving local transportation

1:36:46and inter regional transit connectivity. The transportation master plan provides

1:36:53the roadmap that will lead Guelph along the path of developing a transportation

1:36:58network that is future ready. The plan prioritizes safety, equity, affordability

1:37:04and sustainability within this plan. Transit aims to increase this model

1:37:08share up to 17% from our current 7% supporting other modal share targets

1:37:14and focusing on improving the safety and customer experience for all travelers

1:37:20walking, cycling and using transit. The goals identified for transit's growth

1:37:27and future design are to build and maintain a quality transit network that

1:37:32meets our customers expectations is convenient and competitive with

1:37:36automobile transit travel. Our main focus is on prioritizing active

1:37:42transportation access to our transit network, improving transit's level of

1:37:47service and working with adjacent municipalities towards increasing

1:37:52cross boundary transit trips through go rail service and inter regional

1:37:56transit opportunities that align with our transportation master plan goals to

1:38:01provide opportunities for people of all ages and physical abilities to travel

1:38:07safely within the desired transportation mode. Ultimately, we are planning for

1:38:13future ready changes while delivering a quality transit service today.

1:38:20So let's take a quick look at our on your way roadmap and where we've been

1:38:26because it helps to better understand the direction that we're heading.

1:38:29In 2010, we developed the transit growth strategy plan to set the stage for

1:38:34implementing short term goals while planning for long term strategies.

1:38:39With the implementation of our updated scheduling software in 2015, we increased

1:38:44use of technology to help support our daily operations. In 2017, we

1:38:49realigned our routes to commit resources towards transit's routes and had the

1:38:55highest demand and that had the highest demand and introduced a 99 route main

1:39:00line, which has become our most traveled route in our transit network.

1:39:06In 2019, our Guelph Transit Business Service Review highlighted a recommendation

1:39:11to conduct a transit route review. The on your way fare card was introduced in

1:39:162020, modernizing our fare collection process. The transit route review was

1:39:22approved by council in November of 2021 and renamed the Guelph Transit Future

1:39:27Ready Action Plan. In 2022, transit introduced to year one of implementation

1:39:33of our approved future ready action plan. And now in 2023, we are working on

1:39:39year two implementations. The first stop on our 2023 journey starts with the

1:39:49arrival of our first electric transit bus. Working with our partners and fleet

1:39:53services, as well as corporate energy management, we have begun our first

1:39:57round of acceptance testing to identify patterns of efficiency and track overall

1:40:03battery life and performance. It is important to understand that battery life

1:40:07and state of charge can differ depending on temperature, heat, air conditioning,

1:40:12road conditions, weather like snow and rain, driving styles and road designs. To

1:40:20understand how best to integrate these new vehicles into our network design, we

1:40:25split our transit routes into three buckets of testing scenarios. As part of

1:40:30our acceptance testing, we have a set of methodology for each time that test is

1:40:35conducted to provide consistency towards better analysis. And we plan to pair

1:40:41this analysis with a new telematics program that can display health check

1:40:46details for all of our electric vehicles. So what's next for our electric

1:40:51vehicles in 2023? As we focus on the months ahead, we will see our three

1:40:58remaining buses arriving for a total of four electric vehicles planned for the

1:41:03network implementation. We will continue testing these vehicles using the same

1:41:07methodologies we've set out in conjunction with available telematics. This

1:41:13process will ensure successful acceptance of future electric buses as our

1:41:19transit fleet continues to evolve. Now I'd like to introduce Courtney McDonald,

1:41:26who will talk about some of our upcoming capital projects beginning with an

1:41:30update on our digital sign project. Thank you, Robin. And good evening, Mayor and

1:41:42Council. Currently, our signage across the city is not digitally integrated or

1:41:47easily updated. The digital signs project will allow Guelph Transit to provide a

1:41:52combination of information, announcements and infotainment features to the public.

1:41:58Guelph Transit's digital signs will support the navigating our future

1:42:01strategic pillar with a commitment to improve service. We will be looking to

1:42:06add real bus time information, service alerts and other key messages along with

1:42:11the state of the art infotainment functionality. The digital sign project

1:42:15is two phases. The first phase being the installation of digital signs at Guelph

1:42:20Central Station, the University Center Terminal and Stone Road Mall. The second

1:42:25phase will include digital signs at the busiest stops along the routes. Here you

1:42:31can see an example of a kiosk on the right hand side where either interactive or

1:42:36static information would be available to the user. This will bring additional

1:42:41revenue with the new kiosk as they have space for advertising as well as route

1:42:45and schedule information. Phase one is also paired with platform digital

1:42:51signage that will provide real time bus information at Guelph Central Station,

1:42:55the University of Guelph and Stone Road Mall. These signs will eventually replace

1:43:00our existing info post schedules at the terminals. Our second phase of the digital

1:43:06sign project will begin in 2024 and will provide digital signage and selected bus

1:43:11shelters outside of the terminal locations. These digital signs will provide

1:43:16real time bus information at bus stop locations that see the highest demand and

1:43:20use. Here you can see an example of what a digital sign within a shelter will look

1:43:26like when installed. The digital sign project envisions a system that is

1:43:31configurable and scalable, allowing for an increase in the number of digital signs

1:43:36over time and expanding to other city departments if required. As we move

1:43:43through 2023 and into 2024, we have two projects at Guelph Central Station that

1:43:48are coming up. Our customers have spoken and we listened. The city is replacing

1:43:55the existing open type shelter waiting areas at Guelph Central Station with

1:44:00more weather protective shelters. The Guelph Central Station's shelter project

1:44:04is currently underway and shelters are being fabricated. These shelters have

1:44:09planned installation date of June of this year. The project will improve the

1:44:13customer experience by offering shelters that are fully accessible. The shelters

1:44:18will also offer better protection against the elements and include large

1:44:22advertising panels for additional revenue generation. With these new upgrades, we

1:44:27will see 18 new shelters. These upgrades will occur in stages to minimize

1:44:31customer disruption in June of this year. When designing the shelters,

1:44:37considerations were made to ensure accessibility for all customers that

1:44:41look to utilize these new structures. As part of the 2019 Transit Business

1:44:49Service Review, recommendations were to develop a transit system with multiple

1:44:53hubs, the downtown hub being the main one, with smaller hubs located at the

1:44:58University of Guelph, Stone Rown Mall, and the Smart Center on Woodlawn Road.

1:45:03These hubs would lay the groundwork for future transit in the city and require

1:45:06upgrades to service, including passenger facilities at the Central Station.

1:45:11The new Guelph Central Station building will be located directly across the

1:45:15Cooperators building and will replace the existing platforms 21 and 22,

1:45:20located on Macdonnell Street. Visibility activities for the new facility have

1:45:24already taken place. The Via Train Station building was considered as part of

1:45:29the business case, but no other properties were evaluated as they did not meet

1:45:33the programmatic requirements of Guelph Transit. The new building replaces the

1:45:37currently leased space within the train station, owned by Metrolinx, which does

1:45:42not sufficiently provide a safe, convenient, and cost efficient space for

1:45:47staff in the public. The new building aligns with the collector agreement

1:45:50requirements to provide employee washrooms and lunchroom for breaks.

1:45:55This project has ICIP funding available and the 5.99 million budget will be

1:46:00brought forward through the 10-year capital forecast for future budget

1:46:04consideration, which aligns with staff capacity and timing of construction.

1:46:10Pending approval through the multi-year budget, the new terminal building is set

1:46:14to begin design in 2024 to 2025. Given the location of the project and impact

1:46:20on the public, the project has been deemed a Tier 1 project and will be

1:46:24reported within the Tier 1 project portfolio. The federal government

1:46:29extended the timeline for completion of the approved ICIP transit projects

1:46:32from 2027 to 2033. This will allow staff the time to properly plan and execute

1:46:39the project. And just a reminder that ICIP stands for Investing in Canada

1:46:44Infrastructure Program. Guelph Central Station is envisioned to have a mix of

1:46:48public spaces and operational spaces. It will provide better access and encourage

1:46:54cycling connections to transit as an outdoor bicycle parking area will be

1:46:58available. The building is anticipated to be sustainable and energy efficient,

1:47:04outlined in the energy initiative set by the City of Guelph. The aim of the new

1:47:09terminal hub is to meet and exceed the net zero carbon targets. The ground floor

1:47:15will provide the bulk of the services to the public. Customers will also be able

1:47:19to view passenger information within the building, purchase food or drinks from

1:47:23vending machines, and use the fair media kiosk. If a customer is looking for more

1:47:28help, they can speak with an in-person representative that can help with

1:47:31customer service needs, travel questions, and fair media sales. The facility

1:47:37focuses on accessibility for all types of customers with a waiting area for

1:47:42approximately 48 people. It will have access to public washroom facilities and

1:47:46elevator access to the second floor. There will also be a large outdoor

1:47:50covering to provide shelter for platforms 20 and 21 from the elements. Now we

1:47:57mentioned the operational spaces within the building and the second floor is

1:48:01where there will be more focus on the operational facilities for bus drivers

1:48:04and transit route supervisors. In detail, this floor will have a driver lounge,

1:48:09washrooms, IT room, electrical room, mechanical room, and office space with

1:48:16workstations and a couple offices for staff in a meeting room. Our next stop

1:48:23that we will continue to guide our network design is the Guelph Transit

1:48:26Future Ready Action Plan. Laura Catalano-Bragus is going to continue our

1:48:30transit journey to discuss the Future Ready Action Plan and the great things

1:48:34we have in store.

1:48:40Thank you, Courtney. And hello, Mayor and Councillors. I am currently leading

1:48:45the transit team in implementing our 10-year Future Ready Action Plan. As

1:48:49previously mentioned in November 2021, Council approved the Guelph Transit

1:48:54Future Ready Action Plan, which is our new official name that we use for our

1:48:58plan. Our plan is set to be fully implemented by 2032. And with this,

1:49:03our system will be a blended model designed to get people where they want

1:49:07to go with more route types, faster travel times, frequent service, and

1:49:13service reliability. The Future Ready Action Plan, which saw its first

1:49:19implementations back in 2022, has already seen some success. Route 16 was

1:49:24reintroduced as conventional service and Route 19 introduced as conventional

1:49:29service for the first time, moving out of the on-demand structure from COVID.

1:49:33And from the conversion of these routes from on-demand to conventional,

1:49:38we've seen overall one and a half time ridership growth, which equates to

1:49:43about 36% growth since its conversion. The Route 99 saw an increased to nine

1:49:49minute service in the AM and the PM peak periods, which has helped reduce the

1:49:53number of instances where buses were too full for passengers to actually

1:49:57board. And along with the Sunday extension of hours for the Route 99,

1:50:02it operates approximately 7 AM to 10.15 PM, where our regular service

1:50:07operates from 9.15 to approximately 6.45 PM. With this extended service

1:50:13hours, we've seen 22% of boardings occurring in the extended hours of

1:50:19service and 80, sorry, 78% within our regular service windows. So this

1:50:25statistic is very promising for us as next year in the plan, we're looking to

1:50:29introduce Sunday extended on-demand service in that same time window of the

1:50:35extended period of the Route 99. Now, our year two, and that's this year,

1:50:41in May, we will see an increase in midday service for the routes 10, 12, and 13.

1:50:47Though these routes see high passenger demands, their boardings weren't what

1:50:52was completely linked to their service enhancement. The adjustment to service

1:50:58hours is linked to their on-time performance in the midday period.

1:51:02Planned implementations in September include an increased weekday frequency on

1:51:08Route 8 Stone Road Mall, increasing service from every 30 minutes in the AM

1:51:12peak midday and PM peak to every 20 minutes. This adjustment is directly

1:51:17linked to the passenger demand on the route. And after thorough engagement and

1:51:22analysis, Woodland Glen Drive has been selected as the option for the Route

1:51:2619 extension to Stone Road Mall. After implementation in September of this

1:51:31year, we'll continue to monitor the impacts and use the service standards

1:51:35that are outlined in the future Ready Action Plan to help determine any

1:51:39future adjustments that need to be made. As we move towards a network that has

1:51:46several route types available for travelers, we'll see that there will be

1:51:50four types of routes, core routes, base routes, university routes, and on-demand

1:51:56community routes. Our Route 99 is our current first core route in our network,

1:52:02providing higher frequency and grid-like connections throughout the city. Between

1:52:07years three and six, we will introduce the Route 96 Victoria, which will begin service

1:52:13at Woodlawn Smart Center, providing core service on Victoria Road to the future

1:52:19Claremaltby Terminal, Route 97 Edinburgh, which will service at Woodlawn

1:52:24Smart Center using Edinburgh Road as the core service to the future Claremaltby

1:52:29Terminal, and Route 98 Speedvale, which will begin service at Guelph Central

1:52:34Station using Speedvale as the core service route to a future transit

1:52:40layover point on Elmira Road. Now for the upcoming implementations for our base

1:52:47routes and university routes, they're similar in nature. However, the difference

1:52:51between base and university routes is that university comes out when the school

1:52:56terms for college and university are not operating. So from September to May, we

1:53:00see our university routes. These changes that are upcoming can be split into two

1:53:05categories of implementation, and that is new service and route introductions,

1:53:11along with improved frequencies. So over the next seven years of the plan, we will

1:53:15see four existing routes in our network have route extensions added, seven routes

1:53:22will see route modifications, four routes will see service modifications, nine

1:53:28routes will new routes will be introduced to the network, and once the Claremaltby

1:53:33Terminal is built, we'll see that route extension of six routes down to meet that

1:53:38terminal, along with introducing potentially two new routes to service the

1:53:42Claremaltby area. Now on-demand growth is anticipated to have a set growth of

1:53:50five percent with each year, adding more hours to expand the existing service,

1:53:55and with this, community routes may be introduced via on-demand service where

1:53:59opportunities are identified. Our holiday service operates with on-demand paired

1:54:05with our 99 mainline core route that runs on a reduced schedule. This allows for

1:54:10greater flexibility on holidays to get people to the destination that they wish

1:54:15in less time than our previously hourly stat holiday service provided.

1:54:20Now the great thing about the network is that as it continues to grow and we add more core routes

1:54:26into the network, they will become incorporated into the holiday services, and the service

1:54:32levels along with the on-demand service, providing a larger mix of travel methods

1:54:37during these days. And finally, our interregional plan will explore the viability of

1:54:45introducing interregional routes, such as the options shown on the slide. And as transportation

1:54:52alluded to, on April 10th, 2023, GO Transit introduced the new Route 17 bus route that

1:54:59travels between Waterloo, Kitchener, Guelph, Aberfoil, and Hamilton. This service currently

1:55:05operates Monday to Friday, departing every hour. However, in discussions with GO, they have said

1:55:10that they're looking to increase the service hours and days of coverage as the ridership

1:55:15continues to grow. Now this may change the interregional conversation that we had originally

1:55:21set out in our 10-year plan with Kitchener and Waterloo specifically. Partnerships and grants,

1:55:28we will be exploring with other transit agencies, both municipal and provincial,

1:55:32which will confirm the funding required, along with a conduct community engagement, discussing

1:55:39proposed locations, and implementation prior to presenting to Council for approval.

1:55:47We will begin hosting conversations with GO Transit, along with other adjacent municipalities in

1:55:53early 2024. Thank you everyone for your time. We commit ourselves to getting you on your way.

1:56:00Now I'll hand it back to Robin to lead the discussion on how we'll continue to do this

1:56:04in 2024 and beyond. Thank you Laura. Great conversation. Here's a quick look into the

1:56:17future ahead of 2024 and onwards. The Operations Campus. The Operations Campus project is an ICIP

1:56:24funded initiative involving various internal corporate partners and will be heavily concentrated

1:56:29on the net zero carbon emissions commitments towards the electrification of transit vehicles.

1:56:35This project is expected to be closed to completion by 2027. Upcoming ICIP funded projects.

1:56:43Transit is committed to continue pursuing available ICIP funded opportunities towards

1:56:49additional electric vehicles for growth and replacement, infrastructure upgrades,

1:56:54and customer facing initiatives that qualify as future projects. The Claremont B Terminal

1:57:00Development. Transit continues working with our internal and external partners towards the

1:57:05final development of the Claremont B Terminal in 2031. This project will provide for a future

1:57:11ready action plan in Jax as transit expands routes south of Clare Road and provides for

1:57:17opportunities towards continued ridership growth. In closing, this completes our transit journey

1:57:26discussions today. Thank you all for allowing GOLF Transit the opportunity to provide updates

1:57:33on the direction that we are heading over the next few years and we'd now be happy to answer

1:57:39any questions that you may have and I'll do my best to direct the questions to the appropriate

1:57:43person to answer them. Councillor Orr. Through you chair down on Mr. Jarris. First of all,

1:57:54thank you so much for Route 19. We have people who come and they say well we need more etc.

1:58:00But four years ago people were crossing the Hanlon Overpass on foot to get to work in the

1:58:04Hanlon Business Park. So thank you for that. I'm thrilled to hear the ridership is up as well

1:58:09because there was a lot of consideration right of what it cost to put in a conventional route

1:58:13there. So thank you so much and thank you for the new connection to Stone Road which won't go

1:58:19through downtown. It won't go through Stone Road Mall. It won't go through the University.

1:58:23This is going to be a really great connection so I appreciate that. I had a question for you about

1:58:29extending the hours on Sundays and so it's a question I get from business owners. They own

1:58:37gas stations or they own a fast food place and they have students who rely on transit to work in

1:58:43these locations and then low and behold on Sunday night they can't get home on transit so they're

1:58:48taking an Uber or whatever. So have we considered extending the hours for the Sunday bus service

1:58:56even more so or what would be the trigger to do that? We heard last night from Conestoga students

1:59:02how many of them rely on transit. The folks I'm talking about are often international students.

1:59:07So are we looking at that piece of those extra late hours?

1:59:12Through the chair of councillor Orca I can see my management team giving me the eye so I'm going to

1:59:16let Laura Calino-Bragus answer that question because I know her department does a lot of great work

1:59:20in monitoring and making sure that our future ready injects consider times and routines.

1:59:28Thank you, Councillor Orca. So within the plan I had alluded to discussing the service standards

1:59:35within it. The service standards identified in the plan have thresholds that meet industry

1:59:40standards that kind of drive adjusting either frequencies, service hours and that is related

1:59:46to either the loads demand on the route or the passengers per revenue hour. So when we look at

1:59:53the threshold of the industry it says if you have on your first trip and your last trip seven average

2:00:00that it would move forward as a present to council for the approval of adding one extra hour of service to align with that threshold.

2:00:15Anything under five wouldn't drive that being added.

2:00:19The threshold has looked at would that activate too many that the budget would be unreasonable. So there needs to be some understanding of what would drive the target within that measure as well.

2:00:33That would be essentially what we would be identifying is looking at the first and the last hour and seeing that demand and kind of assessing it from there.

2:00:42But we've heard through public engagement, you know, through the years that Sunday service is something that people are looking for.

2:00:49And I think our first step in the right direction is adding that on demand service in the extended periods from 7am to 1015pm.

2:00:57And then hopefully we'll be able to get to a place where based on those numbers in the analysis where we can come back with a case for times outside of 545 to 7am and from 1015 to the end of service at 1245.

2:01:11Thank you. So through you chair down or if I can just pick up on the last piece as well.

2:01:16If people can't get to work in a factory before the shift starts, then they never register as a rider on the bus, right?

2:01:24They'll just say I can't get there in time and they will find another way to get there probably by personal vehicle. So how do we capture that? How do we capture the potential use of transit earlier in the day?

2:01:41Sorry.

2:01:42Through Councillor Downer to Councillor O'Rourke. For us, we would focus mostly community engagement and outreach to kind of assess who are the folks that aren't being captured within our statistics because our stats can only get us so far.

2:01:55And that's where our community engagement comes in and is a, you know, a pillar of kind of how we engage with our community and understand those needs better.

2:02:05Thanks. And last one, Councillor Downer, do we ever use, we know community outreach and consultation is kind of limited in scope because you got to catch people at the right time.

2:02:14Do we ever just use big data? Like can we get that data from Apple or Google or whoever and see like who's going to the factories in the morning by car from within Guelph?

2:02:26I mean, where does data come into this?

2:02:32I believe within that we within the future ready action plan we have a transportation model that we can refer to and there's there's other measures that we can use in order to identify it.

2:02:45I would have to speak I think with my transportation colleagues to better identify what metric we could apply in order to do that in terms of a larger scope and not as you know focused in terms of our community engagement and our methodologies there.

2:02:59Can I can I just add through the chair to councillor O'Rourke that, you know, listen to your listening to your customers as a good first start.

2:03:07We often get out and listen to our customers and we've been hearing about what they want and we take their concerns seriously. And the good things about our service standards is it works twofold.

2:03:16It tells us when we need to make adjustments and changes. It also tells us when I don't want to say made a wrong change, but maybe you have to do a reverse direction and maybe consider not going so fast from a on demand service to a conventional service.

2:03:29So that's the good thing about having service standards in place that helps direct us in the right direction based on what we think is the right idea, but it helps us prove that we're going in the right direction.

2:03:44Councillor Caron.

2:03:45Yeah, a couple of quick questions. Excellent presentation.

2:03:51I really feel like we are future focused when I hear some of the things that are planned for the future. I have two questions about those plans.

2:04:00The first is the, the new terminal. Now, I know that we announced it probably about five years ago, 2018, I think, and I know that it's federal funding.

2:04:11But I don't recall ever, usually with a tier one capital project, we get a business case and it's a council decision to move forward based on the business case.

2:04:21We look at, you know, we look at a whole bunch of different parameters, you know, retrofitting using the drill hall, using the existing station.

2:04:29And we draw a conclusion based on that business case and then move forward.

2:04:33This kind of didn't follow that process. So I just, I just want to assure myself and the public who may be listening that we've done all of those checkmarks.

2:04:43And if I've missed a business case, you know, that's quite possible. I just want to make sure that we've, we've followed our normal tier one capital project process.

2:04:53Even if it's federal funding, I'm assuming it's 100% federal funding. This was 7.1 million. Is that what I heard?

2:05:01Is, is anything coming from our capital budget on that new terminal?

2:05:06So through the chair, I'll start and then I may turn to others on the capital funding side. Because this is an ICIP funded project, it came to you in a slightly different way, which is that we had application deadlines to submit and we sort of, I think there was a report, we can dig out when that report came forward,

2:05:24outlining what the various ICIP projects were that we were applying for. And so then that, that application was submitted and then that information would have fed into our capital budget forecasting and we're still in the early stages on this project.

2:05:39And so in terms of the scoping of that tier one project that work is yet underway, but in terms of council's role in considering this project that was really driven through the ICIP funding process.

2:05:52And I'm not sure if anyone else can help me with the funding breakdown, but if not, we can get that to you. What portion of this is being funded through ICIP and what portion of this is coming through our budget as well as we'll have to get back to you because I'm, I can't remember if there's any development charges as part of this as well.

2:06:12So we can get back to you with that information.

2:06:15Okay, and if you don't have the funding information breakdown, that would be helpful. But again, back to our process, I recall, and again, I'll have to go back to 2018, that this was being proposed as an upgrade.

2:06:29I really, wrongly or rightly thought this was an upgrade to our existing facilities. The new terminal and the description of it in the presentation was new information for me.

2:06:43I knew that we had issues with Metrolinx Go and Guelph Central and I knew that we had some accessibility issues and a new facility was being contemplated.

2:06:55The features seem well advanced. We're going for a second story. We've got 25 person waiting room. We've got this, we've got that. All the bells and whistles. Sounds great. I just don't recall it being the scope of the project coming to council.

2:07:10So through the chair, we can certainly get that information back to you and when that would have been included, it has always been a separate standalone facility that was proposed as part of the ICIP funding. We are continuing to work with Metrolinx on what services are provided through the, the, the, what was the former train station building that is now owned by Metrolinx.

2:07:28This is an enhancement on top of that at the opposite end of the, at the opposite end of the platform. We, you may also remember, although I know it was a very busy day when we were out doing our walking tour of the downtown core, we actually stopped at this location to point out where this facility was going to be going.

2:07:45But we can certainly get back to you and provide you that information in terms of our past reports and where this would have been mentioned for this facility.

2:07:54Okay. Well, not everybody was on the walking tour and the, the, and I'm glad you mentioned Colleen about the Guelph Central Station, the original, the, the building, the Metrolinx. Is this an either or?

2:08:09Like that facility is so underutilized and we paid for that and it was part of a exchange. And to see it locked to have this designated heritage building that we retrofitted for future use. Is it an either or? Or are we going to, we potentially are going to get both facilities here in active use?

2:08:30So through the chair, it's not an either or. We're certainly, and I can pass it to Ms. Holmes who may have more comments about the Metrolinx connection. It's definitely not an either or.

2:08:43We know that there is still work that may be needed in terms of that the existing facility and access to it in terms of our conversations with Metrolinx, but this is still a needed amenity for Guelph Transit at the opposite end of the platform, both in terms of providing the services to our riders, but also just expanding

2:09:01what what is available beyond even if the current Central Station building was being utilized to its maximum abilities, it wouldn't meet the needs of our growing transit system. And so this facility is going to help address those needs, but I'll pass it to Ms. Holmes to see if she has other comments.

2:09:18And I think we mentioned last time, just in regards to the existing facility, we do have regular meetings with Metrolinx where we're asking about the status of that existing building because it has been locked up for a while.

2:09:30Metrolinx has cited staffing security concerns and their reasoning for locking the building in the first place. But anyway, we continue to have those discussions with them because we know that we've had some complaints from our residents in regards to the to access to that building.

2:09:47Okay, yeah, I recognize the challenge. So I'll leave that. My second, I love the idea of the of the boards, the schedule boards. Ever since we got rid of paper schedules, we've had this gap in letting people know schedule and live live updates.

2:10:08I like the idea of the I would assume or LED boards. My question has to do with we saw a photo on the presentation. Great. Thanks. I like visuals. But is that a lighted board?

2:10:21And we're going to be doing a light trespass bylaw. And I just wondered whether they will be if they're installed on shelters, a lot of shelters are right in front of people's homes. And I know although I don't have a shelter in from my home, I do have a bus stop in front of my home, which is both a curse and a blessing.

2:10:41And every 20 minutes I hear stop number. It's a very loud announcement. And I don't have air conditioning. So my windows are open. The audible announcements are actually quite a challenge. Will we have can homeowners expect lighted boards in residential areas?

2:11:04And can we turn them off at night? In other words, can we can they are we control them so that they're turned off when at transit? It's not operating.

2:11:13I can take that when we've just actually issued the RFP right now. So we'll have companies bidding and proposing different options to us. So it's still very preliminary. So we're just starting phase 1 now. So we've just gone out to RFP. So it's posted now for companies to review and then propose different options for us.

2:11:29Okay.

2:11:30So it's still very preliminary.

2:11:31Looking for direction. I don't know. You don't need council, council motion on it, but we're going into a light trespass bylaw. So lighted signs on boulevards in front of homes and businesses. And is that concerned for me?

2:11:45Last but not least, talking about the future. And this is, I don't know who hasn't answered this question, but years ago, five years, six years ago, we were led to believe that autonomous vehicles and autonomous transit was the future.

2:12:01And is that even a discussion anymore? I mean, I know autonomous personal vehicles have just not materialized the way that the future prognosticators expected they would. And I'm assuming that autonomous transit has also gone the way of a great idea that never came to be.

2:12:19Through the chair to counselor down here.

2:12:25I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

2:12:26I'm sorry.

2:12:27Yeah, we'll look at any possibility that will help the city of a golf.

2:12:32Pursue better ways of transit. We would look at anything, but right now I don't think that even exists to be honest with you. There's always talks about the autonomous vehicles and.

2:12:41And vehicles like an electric and hydrogen and whatever.

2:12:47We'll pursue whatever we think would be best for the city of golf, but at this point in time, I think that's too far out for anybody to have a comment on right now.

2:12:55Yeah, that's what I thought. But anyway, thank you again. Great presentation really looking forward to the future of transit and golf.

2:13:02Councillor Caton.

2:13:06Hi, thank you. And I agree with everybody. That's a great presentation and I'm, it's really impressive how far we've come in such a short time.

2:13:15I only have a quick question about accessibility. So some of the feedback that I've got is that folks who use the mobility buses.

2:13:26They, there's a disconnect between the dispatch hours and the service hours. So if you don't pre plan, you can't just like decide to go out and watch a movie on Saturday night.

2:13:37Once the dispatch is, is done, is there a plan to potentially have like app based dispatch or extend the service hours for dispatch so that people have more freedom of movement.

2:13:51Through the chair to counselor.

2:13:56Kate. We right now, in terms of our mobility, we book seven days in advance. Most of the time we have a pretty high demand that day of bookings aren't entirely a possibility for the user.

2:14:11So in the case that we don't have a dispatcher available, that would be outside of our regular the hours of dispatch fall almost completely and overlap with our regular service hours.

2:14:24Because the mandate is our conventional service matches our mobility service that's provided in terms of AODA compliance and accessibility needs.

2:14:34Now, in terms of our dispatching hours, I think our final dispatch hour ends at 11pm. And that's something that we can identify and continue to see if we can add more hours in order to meet that.

2:14:48I think though that would come with the introduction of a day of booking that would provide kind of like the paired introduction of that where when we are able for a customer to be able to call us the day of and do those booked trips.

2:15:03And that would be a necessity to have that within any hour of the service window we can provide that. But right now with that seven day in advance booking. That's why we have a little more difference in the service hours there.

2:15:20Okay, then you may want to update the website because the website says the dispatch hours stop at 930 on Monday to Friday, 430 on Saturday and 430 on Sunday.

2:15:30So if we're booking up so quickly, then should we not be adding more mobility buses?

2:15:39Just for clarification after our official dispatchers go home, the line is forwarded to our AVL office so our root supervisors are able to answer the phones and book appointments for customers who do call in at that time.

2:15:51But as for expansions, it's one of the items that Laura's team is working on and reviewing this year that will be coming forward as part of his multi-year budget for reviewing expansions for mobility.

2:16:00As of right now we have a plan for expansion for one additional vehicle in person every three years, but Laura's team is going to be reviewing that as part of multi-year budget that will be coming forward.

2:16:10Great. I'm excited to see that. Thanks.

2:16:13And I just threw the chair to the counselor. If I can just add that we have seen an increase in mobility calls since the since COVID is behind us now.

2:16:23And their calls are growing. We have adjusted some of our vehicles that are later out later at night. We understand that if there's a need, we'll react to it.

2:16:33I have a supervisor that's dedicated to monitor the calls and the trips late at night. And if we do have a call for somebody who is at late at night, for whatever reason, we do also have a contract with a taxi company that in emergencies we use them.

2:16:48We do the best we can to address all the times for the calls. We're AOD compliant. We try to match the hours for the rest of wealth transit service. But that's an area that we need to look into because it's growing and it's growing fast right now and we understand that.

2:17:01Great. And since you mentioned COVID now have an extra question. I'm sorry.

2:17:06Do we offer a safe option for folks who have immune suppression? Because I know quite a few people who are wheelchair users who also have immune issues. So the mass drivers, only mass passengers, that sort of thing.

2:17:24Through the chair to the counselor, our mobility operators do have the ability for they do have a shields that you carry masks. So if a customer should come on board and require a mask or require our driver to wear a mask, they're very accommodating.

2:17:38There's a different more personal relationship with their mobility transit operators and there is with a conventional operator, obviously, because they get to know their customers better.

2:17:48They know each other on first name basis and it becomes very personal. So I'm not sure if I'm answering your question the correct way, but we do have masks and shields for our operators.

2:17:57We special clean the vehicles as much as we can and the operators at times that they have a break will specially clean their vehicles and we do have masks for our customers. If that answers the question.

2:18:07That's great. Thank you so much.

2:18:14Councillor Goller and then Councillor, Councillor Booth.

2:18:21Thank you. Thank you for the presentation.

2:18:25I'm hoping to get a bit of a of an understanding as to our target of ridership for for 17% in in 2051.

2:18:35When I look around, I see that places like Vancouver, they have a 30% public transit ridership. Of course, that's a huge city with a lot of density.

2:18:46And I see that for smaller cities, Cambridge, Massachusetts, they also have like a 29% for something ridership, but they're right across the river from from a huge metropolitan center.

2:18:56So I'm wondering for for cities, our size is 17% sort of pushing the limit of what is what is achievable or I'm just wondering if it's possible for us to to realistically think that we could go to like a 25% ridership or is that just completely unrealistic.

2:19:18Through the chair to Councillor Goller all start and then my planning person might want to chime in. So we're very lucky and appreciative of our ridership has come back to full. We're now at approximately 85 to almost 90% at times.

2:19:32In terms of our ridership that has returned. I think it's a combination of reasons that has returned. We've given our customers choices. We've given them on demand transit. We've given them mobility.

2:19:43We've given them conventional transit. We've extended our route 99 to smaller for our greater frequencies and we're listening to our customers and we're expanding to where we believe the people need to serve us.

2:19:54So that's helpful, but we can't stop there. We have to work with the transportation partners do the best we can to keep us moving. We have to listen to our customers.

2:20:02If you look at our comparators were high in terms of overall ridership. If you look at a comparatives of our size. Thankfully, because we have the university here and we have the you passed that really helps us in that respect.

2:20:14And we're going to hopefully see that kind of stroke of college and more growth in terms of university and college students. We need to be available and we need to be ready to get those customers and embrace them taking transit.

2:20:28The kids ride free program and some of the other programs that we're doing. This is all an issue is that I truly believe as the years progress, we will reap the rewards as long as we continue following our future ready action plan.

2:20:40The proper injects in place have good service standards in place. I think we're going to thrive in terms of transit ridership for the city of Guam. Not sure if I covered everything. So I'll just let you want to say anything. Are you okay?

2:20:54Through the chair to counselor caller so on top of that the the actual 17% matches also with the DC study target that was identified and it was verified and can be supported through modeling and big data on travel distances as well.

2:21:13The work on Gordon Street is going to be amazing for higher ridership. We are seeing within the network itself, the more increase in frequencies and the shorter travel times, you're going to see that natural ridership grow and a natural kind of mode shift.

2:21:31I think as we have our cycling master plan and our pedestrian master plan and all those coming together along with our future.

2:21:40Guelph Transit Business Strategy. I think that'll kind of all link in together really nicely and kind of anticipate that growth of how we can make those connections better because it really kind of comes with.

2:21:52You have to provide service that can be competitive to a car in order for people to make that. Sorry to make that mode shift. You know, period. So that's what we're all kind of aiming together as a group.

2:22:04together as a group.

2:22:05So to clarify, why are we not targeting 20 or 25 or 30%?

2:22:11Why is it 17?

2:22:13That's what I'm trying to get at.

2:22:16I'll let our transportation colleague Jenny juice answer that one.

2:22:20Hi, thanks.

2:22:23Councillor Rodriguez-Gogaler.

2:22:25So the TMP, when I talked about the Mo chair target and wanting to monitor

2:22:30that on an annual basis, we're also updating the TMP every five years.

2:22:34So we will have an opportunity to see if we're like really achieving

2:22:38growth in our motion targets and we want to reevaluate, maybe go higher,

2:22:42maybe higher for transit, maybe higher for active transportation.

2:22:45We can evaluate that again every five years.

2:22:50Okay.

2:22:51But, but if you can help me understand why did we set it at at 17?

2:22:58The 17% was based on the transportation model and the network improvements

2:23:04that were identifying through the preferred option that council endorsed

2:23:09and looking at big data.

2:23:11So the data supports that's an achievable but ambitious target.

2:23:15If we want to go beyond that in future, we'd have to look at how things have

2:23:19changed in the, in the, in the time that's passed to see if we can go further than that.

2:23:24Okay.

2:23:25Okay.

2:23:26Thank you for that.

2:23:27I really appreciate that, that clarification.

2:23:29I'm knowing that there will be an opportunity to revisit that target in the future.

2:23:33In terms of the, the early 2024 conversations with Neverland communities,

2:23:39I was really, really happy to, to see that.

2:23:42Could you help me understand why we would be looking at Cambridge first and then

2:23:46Kitchener, is there a rationale or for that?

2:23:51Which cities comes first?

2:23:53We still have to do community engagement at this point.

2:23:56Nothing is set in stone.

2:23:57We really want to identify there, especially with the adjacent municipalities.

2:24:02We have the focus of GRT.

2:24:04There's with that new go connection, Kitchener and Waterloo address.

2:24:08That's why Cambridge may be the connection there, but it might not be for us.

2:24:12We have, um, inter regional transit that's occurring right now.

2:24:16Wellington County has a service called ride well.

2:24:19Um, there's ghost, which is Guelph, uh, and sound transport.

2:24:24So there's, uh, other ones that actually exist currently that some conversations.

2:24:29It's a lot different and bigger and unidentified at the moment.

2:24:33Lots of opportunity.

2:24:34Okay. Great.

2:24:35I'm really happy to hear that there will be more public engagement to determine

2:24:38what those connections are. Thank you.

2:24:40And my last question is around the timing for the clear mold be terminal.

2:24:45Um, you know, I think that by 2031,

2:24:49that part of the city will already be underway to being built out.

2:24:53So I'm just trying to understand why we're not starting that work until that time.

2:25:01So I think it's all about the timing in terms of where you stand with the

2:25:05construction.

2:25:06Um, how fast the community grows.

2:25:12Uh, and the good part about our future ready action plan is we created it like a

2:25:16puzzle. You can push pieces out of you can move pieces faster.

2:25:20So our transit management team, as they do their assessments and they give us

2:25:24updates, um, they're going to take a look and see where we stand in terms of our

2:25:28busy corridors. And if there's a reason for us to move faster,

2:25:32it makes good sense to move faster in my view.

2:25:34If there's a reason that we can get out there and accommodate customers,

2:25:37if the homes are starting to be built, as long as we can do it safely,

2:25:40we'll have those conversations with our transportation people and we'll bring

2:25:43it to council. And if we can make those decisions,

2:25:46we'll make sure we talk to the right people and move the right direction at

2:25:49the speed that's good for the city of golf. Perfect. Okay.

2:25:52I really appreciate that.

2:25:53I think Colleen wants to jump in also through the chair to councillor Goller.

2:25:56Thank you. Just, I wanted to jump in.

2:25:58What I'm going to send to council is the link because I think some of the

2:26:01information that you're seeking tonight, um, both to councillor Caron's earlier

2:26:04question and on Claire Malby, uh, was contained in the November 2021 reports

2:26:08on the, the wealth transit future ready action plan.

2:26:12Um, both in terms of Claire Malby, the capital budget for that as well as

2:26:16for the wealth central station, uh, building. Um, and so.

2:26:20Just sort of looping back to the earlier question that I didn't answer.

2:26:23Um, but it was a good time to do it. Um, I'll send that link out to all of

2:26:26council and you'll be able to see the capital breakdown for those two as

2:26:29well as, uh, when council approved that ICIP, uh, funding piece.

2:26:33And as I say to councillor Goller, the Claire Malby pieces included in this as well.

2:26:37Perfect. Thank you. Thank you very much for that recent presentation.

2:26:41My apologies, councillor Bousseth. Thank you. And through a chair downer.

2:26:45Um, I have a question that's similar exact same as what I asked to the

2:26:51transportation team, but because this kind of popped up as a transit issue

2:26:55and it's, uh, uh, comments from the community about I get out at a stop

2:27:00and I can't cross Elmira willow or five due to speed traffic.

2:27:06I'm pushing a carriage. Uh, it's quite dangerous.

2:27:09And so if you can tell me from your perspective, um, how you respond to

2:27:14concerns like this and how you work with transportation, what is the process?

2:27:18Can you help me animate this so that I understand through the chair to

2:27:24councillor Bousseth tell? Um, so in terms of responding to the concerns,

2:27:30uh, within the community road safety strategy that the transportation folks

2:27:35alluded to within that, it, uh, uh,

2:27:38guides transit to create as few mid block crossings as possible,

2:27:43especially on arterial roadways. Um, so moving forward,

2:27:48anything that we're adding into our network, it's with consideration of where

2:27:52those locations are. A lot of the ones that we have currently have kind of

2:27:56been grandfathered in from years of, uh, uh, transit growth and not having

2:28:02these principles like the CRSS identifies. Um, so we've had some instances

2:28:07where our operators come to us with really great, you know, suggestions and they

2:28:11said, we are seeing a lot of demand and people really have requests to get off at

2:28:15this area. And when we look at it a little further, we look at the traffic

2:28:19impact in and out of the area and we kind of see, okay, well, it is a mid block

2:28:23crossing. Is there a threshold that we could possibly measure? Um,

2:28:27but really at the end of the day, if it was a mid block that we're putting in,

2:28:32there's a bit of difficulty because we want to provide within our service

2:28:36standards, we say that you can have access within 400 meters to a walking,

2:28:41walking distance to a bus stop. In order to make that happen, sometimes you have

2:28:46locations that are mid block where you, it's kind of like the chicken and the egg,

2:28:51which do you provide? Do you provide that walkability or the mid block

2:28:56crossing with safety measures that are possibly put in place? Now, in terms of

2:29:01my conversations with our transportation colleagues, they have, uh,

2:29:05discussed with me things that can happen in terms of, uh, the Ontario traffic

2:29:10manual has warrants in terms of what spurs a crosswalk,

2:29:15a metered cross, sorry, a signalized crosswalk for pedestrians separate from

2:29:20from, uh, lights, for example, being introduced. Um, so there's things within

2:29:27in terms of safety measures within, um, transportation that they have that kind of

2:29:33helps guide us. I'd say, um, moving forward, we've identified recently, uh,

2:29:39a specific location on Watson road that we are doing our best as a joined

2:29:44cross divisional, you know, um, methods to see what we can do in that area to

2:29:50provide better access, um, and safety measures. Um, but also staying true to

2:29:56those warrants because there are a lot of areas that may see that similarly and

2:30:01staying to those warrants allow us to provide consistency throughout the city

2:30:06as well. Um, but in terms of mid block crossings that exist now, if you have

2:30:11customers that are looking for, you know, help or you have especially,

2:30:16especially certain areas that keep coming up to you, we'd love to hear about that.

2:30:20Um, right now we have a project that's been going on for about three months to

2:30:26discuss accessibility in our city, what bus stops are currently accessible,

2:30:31which ones do not have accessibility being met, um, based on our budget and

2:30:36kind of guiding us in terms of where we want to see that improvement and

2:30:42identify within that where all of our mid block crossings are now so that we can

2:30:47kind of get ahead of planning of what we can do for those areas in the future

2:30:52rather than react to someone getting, you know, having those issues where we can

2:30:58proactively work ahead on those.

2:31:02Thank you and through the chair, just a supplemental follow up. Yes, I'm talking

2:31:05about mid blocks that exist currently and the one that is on all my road is on

2:31:11the Costco road, which is impossible to cross for a mom with a carriage and

2:31:16knowing that there is planned intensification at Elmira development at

2:31:21Elmira and Tovelle. And I guess what I'm looking for is that scaffolding.

2:31:25You know, there's a lens of transit, um, but there's also the lens of the

2:31:29pedestrians and the trail behind Mitchell Woods and so on. So it's not just about

2:31:33transit. It's about the dog walkers and everyone else who cannot cross that road

2:31:38to that residential area that's being built out. So that is a concern as well as

2:31:43some other areas. So what I'll do maybe is his follow up with those areas. Thank you.

2:31:54Thanks, Chair Denner. I'm conscious of the time, but I had a quick question about

2:31:58bus bays or sort of pull over areas and it was a question actually for the

2:32:03original group from transportation. So are we looking when we're doing road

2:32:09reconstruction, are we looking at a bus bay that allows the bus to pull over

2:32:13because currently I'm thinking of Gordon because that's where I'm most frequently

2:32:17or Claire. When the bus pulls over either for a boarding or

2:32:23a bus stop, you know, an exit from the bus, they're blocking the bike lane and

2:32:28half of the lane, right? So going forward, are we looking at a way for the bus to be

2:32:36able to pull over? I understand you need to acquire land and move culverts and all

2:32:40that stuff. But it seems to me that the current system where they just, you know,

2:32:45stop on the roadway or on Claire, like take their layover on the roadway is

2:32:50problematic in a couple of ways, both from a cycling and from a circulation

2:32:54perspective. Through the chair to Councillor Orrk, I'll give you the

2:32:59Guelph Transit answer and then our transportation partners may want to

2:33:03jump in with some more, with a different type of answer. But for Guelph Transit,

2:33:08when we expand and when we look at routeings, there's a difference between if

2:33:12it's an old section of town that you're adjusting route or a new section. If it's

2:33:16a new community like Claire Maltby, hopefully we can get in there early and

2:33:19we try to do the best we can in terms of identifying queue jump lanes, bus lanes,

2:33:24off the road the best we can. Sometimes it's better to have a far side stop and

2:33:29near side stop. So you put all that into your design in terms of having transit

2:33:34have their say on how they believe the roadway should be configured in terms of

2:33:37a bus service going through there. The other part is that sometimes we see bus

2:33:42routes growing in frequencies and customer base and we find like we have on

2:33:48Claire Road that it's very difficult to have a bus at the side of the road,

2:33:51whether it's for a layover or whether it's just to pick up customers, especially

2:33:54if there's bike lanes now. So while that's in the consideration, ultimately when

2:33:58we make a decision to transit, we want to follow AODA compliance, we want to make

2:34:01sure the lighting is good, we want to make sure the roadway is wide enough and

2:34:05we want to make sure that any conversation in terms of how we're going to adjust

2:34:08the roadways that we talk with our transportation partners and the developers

2:34:11and builders who are there. So hopefully when it's all said and done,

2:34:15you do the right thing for transit and for the community, but that doesn't

2:34:18always happen. But we try to do the best we can. Not sure if that answers, Laura

2:34:23looks like she wants to add a little more.

2:34:26Through the chair to Councillor Orr work, we are transitioning to cycle tracks

2:34:32that are behind the bus stops. So that will eliminate that element. Most places

2:34:38where transit and cycling, where the network overlaps, that would be the areas

2:34:42that would be focused on most. The complete street design guidelines will

2:34:48also direct us moving forward. We've been having some really great conversations

2:34:52internally, cross-divisionally of what a complete street looks like and taking

2:34:57that into consideration for future development and road design. And I think

2:35:01that there will be some really great measures that are put in place that

2:35:04account for accessibility, mobility, connectivity throughout the city and

2:35:09providing that free flow of traffic in the mix of everything else.

2:35:13Great. Thanks.

2:35:15Are there any more questions for transit?

2:35:22Okay, Zignan, thank you. Thank you. Excellent presentation and responses

2:35:27we've got tonight.

2:35:29Good work. Are there any more questions for the transportation team that we

2:35:35want to ask tonight?

2:35:38Councillor Orr work. Who do you want to talk?

2:35:42For Ms. Friedman.

2:35:45Okay. Thanks Chair Downer.

2:35:49Through you to Ms. Friedman. I don't know if it's my perception, right?

2:35:53You mentioned some people think there's lots of cars and they're going fast,

2:35:56but then the, I don't know what that rubber hose does, or what it's called.

2:36:01So I don't know if it's my perception, but it seems we have an awful lot of

2:36:05pedestrians being hit in intersections and crosswalks in the last couple of

2:36:09months. And really this is kind of a vision zero thing, right?

2:36:13Where one is too many, but there seem to be a lot. There seem to be a lot of

2:36:16people also fleeing the scene. So I'm just wondering what measures are being

2:36:21contemplated to try and reduce those numbers of collisions.

2:36:27They seem weekly almost.

2:36:30So one thing that we have in our toolbox is a leading pedestrian interval.

2:36:34And I talked a little bit about it earlier and we actually just completed an

2:36:37evaluation study with the true North safety group where they did something called a

2:36:41conflict analysis. So this is the trouble with anything safety related is, and this

2:36:45is why I talk about being proactive and not reactive is we don't want to wait until

2:36:49we see that death or that injury in those police motor vehicle collision reports.

2:36:54So another tool that we have sometimes is to be able to put in cameras that look at

2:36:59near misses. So they look at whether or not a pedestrian and a driver would be in

2:37:04a similar space. And they measure something called a post encroachment time,

2:37:08which tells you how close those two road users were to each other to sort of

2:37:12allude to the potential for a collision happening. So something that we could look

2:37:16at is putting in that leading pedestrian interval where you give the pedestrian a

2:37:20little bit more time into the intersection to make them more visible before the

2:37:25driver gets a green light. We are limited sometimes based off of signal timing.

2:37:30For instance, if there's an advanced left, we can't do it with that, but it is

2:37:33something that we can actively review because it's a fairly cost effective and

2:37:37very effective tool that we can implement to help pedestrian safety.

2:37:42Great. Thanks. Are there any more questions from the transportation team?

2:37:48Council class. I have a question that sort of leads from a question from

2:37:56Councillor Allt. And it's a future thinking question and it's not meant to be

2:38:02applied to the next five or even ten years. But I know that it was mentioned that

2:38:07population density doesn't support an LRT. But I'm just curious, what are the metrics

2:38:12that would support light rail in the future and just sort of curiosity, future thinking?

2:38:25Unfortunately, I don't have the threshold, the industry standards in mind.

2:38:30I'd have to go back and look into that. It was work that we had asked our consultant

2:38:35at the time on the TMP to evaluate. So they had their consultants do that.

2:38:40So I'll have to pull that up and follow up with you. Thank you.

2:38:44Okay. Yes. So if you could copy all of council on that follow up to Jenny. Thanks.

2:38:49Councillor Billings, did you have a question too? You're muted. Yes.

2:39:03Through you, Madam Chair, it's just a follow up question from Councillor

2:39:08Kate and it was on the speed bumps and staff had responded that they did and have

2:39:14heard of the complaints. So those with chronic pain. So my question is, and then

2:39:18staff responded with, well, there would, I don't know, either be analysis or a report

2:39:22in 2025. So my question is given the feedback from the community, is staff

2:39:28pausing on the speed bumps and using other tools for traffic calming?

2:39:33Or what's the status? Thanks for the question, Councillor Billings.

2:39:43We've been working with the AAC through this. So what we do is we explore every traffic calming item

2:39:51in the toolbox before we go to putting in a vertical measure and then when and if

2:39:58the only option available.

2:40:00is a vertical measure, we commit to not doing more than one per block face.

2:40:05So we try to balance out the needs of road safety and the concerns we're

2:40:10hearing from accessibility.

2:40:12So for right now, our position is they're still in the toolbox.

2:40:16We explore every option not to use them.

2:40:19And then we limit their use as good as possible.

2:40:24Okay.

2:40:24Thanks, Steve.

2:40:28Hey, are there any more questions from anyone?

2:40:32Okay.

2:40:33Thank you.

2:40:34Thank you.

2:40:35Hey, but you know, I was thinking tonight, you know, it's so nice to get, um, you

2:40:39get bits and pieces of things like last night, the stir, the transit fair strategy

2:40:44and at budget time, you get a piece of something that's coming forward because

2:40:47that's what it's coming forward.

2:40:49It's so nice just to sort of hear the whole overview sometimes to remind or it

2:40:54helps me remind myself of the work that's going on and what we can expect on

2:40:58the horizon because you get the big documents like the transit master plan

2:41:02and it's got so much information.

2:41:04So nights like tonight really kind of tie it and knit it all together for us.

2:41:09I think.

2:41:09And I thought that transit really went well actually with transportation, even

2:41:13though we have just recently talked about it.

2:41:15So thank you staff for putting on this orientation tonight.

2:41:18I really, I really did appreciate it.

2:41:20Even though I've been around the block a few times here, I always learned something new.

2:41:24So, uh, thank you.

2:41:25And, um, uh, I will have a motion to adjourn.

2:41:31Councillor Boussatelle seconded by.

2:41:35Councillor Orwork.

2:41:38Nobody wants to leave.

2:41:42Okay.

2:41:43Is anyone opposed?

2:41:45Being done.

2:41:45Thank you.

2:41:45We're adjourned.