Kanchan Maharaj, Senior Engineer in the City of Toronto’s Cycling & Pedestrian Projects unit in the Transportation Services Division, presented “Equity in active transportation planning, design, and delivery” on January 28, 2022 for the UT-ITE seminar series.
In her presentation, Maharaj discussed how equity is prioritized in the planning, design and implementation of active transportation infrastructure in the City of Toronto. She gave a brief history of challenges past and present, and shared how Toronto plans, designs and delivers new infrastructure as well as how existing infrastructure is maintained and improved.
Maharaj delved into a number of topics, sharing images to provide at-a-glance summaries of data and information:
- History of the City of Toronto’s Cycling Network Plan Report
- The first report was published in 2016; it was updated in 2021
- Near Term Cycling Program Prioritization
- Cycling Impact Analysis (2019) & Neighbourhood Improvement Areas (NIAs)
- Improvements to Neighbourhood Cycling & Equity Index Map
- Public Consultation & Design
- Case Study: Flemingdon Thorncliffe Neighbourhood Connections (2018, 2021)
- Implementation
Maharaj provided a clear overall picture of the work of the Cycling & Pedestrian Projects unit to increase equity in active transportation in Toronto, and also talked about some details – such as the decision to customize things like bollards to fit bike lanes safely into existing streets – and much more. She responded to questions from attendees in a lively Q & A following her presentation.
Watch the presentation video recording
Resources
- Cycling in Toronto, City of Toronto
- Cycling & Pedestrian Projects, City of Toronto
- Cycling Network Plan, City of Toronto
- Cycling Network Map, City of Toronto
- Neighbourhood Improvement Area Profiles, City of Toronto
Abstract
The City of Toronto’s Cycling Network Plan (CNP) serves as a roadmap and work plan outlining the City’s planned investments in cycling infrastructure in the near-term and intentions for the long-term.
The CNP is grounded in many city policies and strategies including the Official Plan, the Road to Health, Vision Zero Road Safety Plan, TransformTO Climate Action Strategy, Complete Streets, and key recommendations in the Toronto Office of Recovery and Rebuild’s Impacts and Opportunities report including equity. The CNP is an evolution of the Ten Year Cycling Network Plan, approved in principle in June 2016 and a culmination of significant research, analysis, and extensive public consultation using updated data sources and a revised approach that better reflects the nature of capital coordination, development planning, and challenging feasibility assessments with a strengthened focus on safety and equity; and an enhanced prioritization framework.
This presentation will include an overview of the data and analysis behind the most recent CNP with a focus on the equity components followed by an overview of how this information is carried forward into the consultation, design and implementation stages of active transportation projects in the City of Toronto.
About the speaker
Kanchan Maharaj, P.Eng., is the Senior Engineer in the City of Toronto’s Cycling & Pedestrian Projects unit in the Transportation Services Division. She is responsible for managing the unit’s design staff and their delivery contracts including line marking, bollard/concrete, bicycle signal and other related cycling infrastructure contracts, initiatives and projects.
She has over 25 years of Canadian and international engineering, construction, policy and planning experience in the public and private sector and has volunteered and worked with many equity-focused organizations in the GTA throughout her career.
She has been with the City’s Cycling unit for over seven years.
Presented by University of Toronto ITE Student Chapter, UT-ITE.