Between 2013 and 2017, TCAT worked with local partners in four communities across Ontario on grassroots, participatory planning projects that enabled neighbourhoods to re-envision their streets as safer, more active-transportation friendly spaces (see our Summary Report). These efforts were part of a broader project, Active Neighbourhoods Canada that tested these approaches in Quebec and Alberta as well. Although this phase of the project is over, TCAT’s work lives on as community groups and neighbourhoods continue to advocate for change.
In Haliburton, TCAT worked with Communities in Action to create a Complete Streets vision for a 2.5km stretch of Country Rd 21/Highland Street, a road that accommodates traffic moving through town, but also has a historic main street and a new commercial development popular with locals. The municipality of Haliburton County has now initiated a Traffic Study along County Rd 21 that incorporates TCAT’s research. At a recent Open House, the municipality proposed a Complete Streets approach that acknowledges that “the community desires a transportation corridor specifically designed to meet the needs of all road users.”