An efficient, cost-effective, equitable, sustainable and resilient transportation system is essential to productivity and quality of life in urban regions. The global competition for people, jobs and wealth is playing out in the world’s cities. How Canada fares in this world-wide market depends directly on the quality and efficiency of its cities and their urban transportation systems which both define cities’ physical form and enable their day-to-day functioning.
The design and operation of complex modern urban transportation systems requires deep, state-of-the-art understanding of how these systems work and how they interplay with the socio-economic systems that drive urban life: demographics, housing, the regional economy and the resulting demand for the movement of people, goods and services.
The University of Toronto has an internationally recognized critical mass of researchers with extensive experience in the analysis, planning and design of urban transportation systems. Our expertise covers roads, transit, freight and active transport modes (walk and bike) across a range of perspectives – travel behaviour, system performance, economics, equity and environmental impacts. We have extensive experience with comprehensive, system-wide, evidence-based policy analysis and decision support, leading to successful transportation facilities implementation and operations.
Successful urban transportation system planning and operations requires a systems perspective, in which each system component is understood in terms of its contribution to the whole. Achieving our transportation objectives for efficient resource allocation and system performance means considering the network- and region-wide implications of alternative investments.
UTTRI faculty specialize in systems analysis and policy evaluation, and are leaders in building and applying cutting-edge computer simulation models to the analysis and design of complex transportation systems.