With support from the Toronto Community Foundation, TCAT is pleased to announce two new research reports today examining the state of active transportation in Toronto.

The first report titled Benchmarking Active Transportation in Canadian Cities compared the performance of active transportation in Toronto against other cities in Canada, the United States and Europe using key indicators as benchmarks. Among the study’s findings:

TCAT is pleased to announce video from TCAT's Complete Street Forum last spring is now available on TCAT's YouTube Channel.

The City is continuing to install zebra markings at pedestrian crossings. Zebra striped pedestrian crossing make pedestrian crossings more visible, with the goal of making our streets safer.

In 2006, City Council adopted the Zebra Crossing Policy, which makes the markings "the standard crosswalk marking treatment for all signalized intersections and pedestrian crossovers in conjunction with all road reconstruction and resurfacing projects, and with all new traffic control signal and pedestrian crossover installations."

On Monday, October 4, the Toronto Environmental Alliance (TEA) released the results from their environmental survey of Toronto’s candidates for City Council. In their press release, TEA stated that the results “suggest the next City Council will be green.”

Highlights of the results include:

TCAT releases the results of its 2010 Municipal Candidate Election Surveys today. TCAT surveyed all Toronto candidates to provide voters the candidates' views on active transportation issues and the concrete steps that can be taken to improve cycling and walking in Toronto. Surveys were sent in August 2010 to all of the mayoral, councillor and school trustee candidates – 475 candidates in total, with 137 respondents to date.

The Provincial Policy Statement (PPS) directs the planning and development of communities across Ontario. Currently the PPS is weak in its mention of walking and cycling, which affects how these modes are treated.

In a recent TCAT News, we reported that the City of Waterloo’s Council had approved a Transportation Master Plan that included a complete streets policy. In fact, City of Waterloo Waterloo’s City Council only received the Transportation Master Plan for information, not for a vote. It is anticipated that a final report and recommendations will be going to council in spring 2011.

The National Complete Streets Coalition’s recent newsletter highlighted a number of recent reports:

International Scan Recommends Complete Streets Policies

TCAT Director Nancy Smith Lea will be speaking on a panel titled "Bringing Complete Streets to Ontario" at the Share the Road Cycling Coalition's Ontario Bike Summit, September 20-21.