In a world with limited resources, funding, staff, consultants, and contractors how do we prioritize which projects we will undertake to develop our envisioned transportation network?

Which objectives should we prioritize as we develop our future transportation network? Safety, accessibility, sustainability, equity, fiscal prudence, affordability, or something else?

Which groups of people should we actively prioritize and consider as we develop our future transportation network (e.g. seniors, children, people with disabilities, indigenous peoples, visible minorities, women, businesses, residents, visitors, the general public)?

Which modes of transportation should we actively prioritize and promote as we develop our future transportation network (e.g. walking, cycling, rolling, kick sledding, transit, driving, emergency response, goods movement)? Should we prioritize and promote walking, cycling, rolling, kick sledding, transit, driving or perhaps take a more holistic approach to consider everyone regardless of how they choose to move around?

Source: Marco te Broemmerstoet

Overview

The 3 Pillars of Transportation PlanningTransportation planning consists of assessing the existing and future potential transportation needs, identifying the capacity and constraints, developing a reasonable and feasible coordinated action plan that aligns with the community's vision, values, goals, desires, and priorities. The action plan includes strategies, actions, and projects that we should undertake in the future to develop our envisioned transportation network.

The City of Whitehorse has a range of tools to develop its envisioned transportation network and enact meaningful change. The types of tools available and some examples are shown below:

• Transportation Policy 
  • Speed limits, rules for parking near crosswalks.
• Safety/Maintenance/Operations
  • Traffic signal timing/programming, leading pedestrian intervals, street sweeping, snow and ice clearing.
• Active Transporation 
  • Multi-use pathways, protected bike lanes, sidewalks.
• Transit
  • Transit stops, transit frequency, transit routing.
• Intersections and Crossings
  • Crosswalks, rapid flashing beacons, pedestrian activated traffic signals, smart channels, laning, right/left turns, traffic signals, roundabouts, traffic circles, all way stops.
• Streets and Roads
  • Laning, capacity improvements.
• Parking 
  • Signage, meters, enforcement.
• Partnerships and Advocacy
  •  Alaska Highway through Whitehorse, Yukon Motor Vehicles Act, school travel planning

Source: Tom Flood

Address Existing and Future Potential Issues and Opportunities

Transportation plays a large role not only in how we move around, but intersects and overlaps other existing and future potential societal and community issues and opportunities such as climate change, the housing crisis, affordability, public health, or active living. Minimum parking requirements often pose a barrier to development and are known to impact the cost of housing and affordability. We can no longer assume that everyone has a vehicle or can afford a vehicle to move around the City. The cost of everything is rising including owning a vehicle, daily needs, building housing, and developing infrastructure. In Whitehorse and the Yukon broadly, our climate is changing before our eyes, requiring us to take new approaches to how we develop resilient infrastructure, manage risk, and design and maintain our streets. As one of the fastest growing cities in Canada, we are experiencing the growing pains that come with rapid growth such as traffic. And the Yukon has the second highest rate of traffic related serious life altering injuries and fatalities. The status quo can no longer remain the status quo.

Below is a list of some of the issues and opportunities that we have today and might need to anticipate in the future as it relates to transportation:

• Housing
• Affordability
• Community Growth
• Climate Change and Sustainability, Environmental Protection, Resiliency
• Asset Management, Infrastructure Deficit
• Traffic, Operations and Maintenance
• Active Transportation
• Truth and Reconciliation
• Traffic Safety and Vision Zero
• Accessibility, Equity
• Local Economy, Vibrant City, and Vibrant Downtown 
• Transit
• Emergency Response
• Tourism
• New Mobility
• Electrification
• Transportation Demand Management
• School Travel
• Livability and Active Living
• Culture and Identity

Our community faces certainly faces many challenges, however its important to recognize that with each challenge comes an opportunity for us to enact meaningful change in our transportation network.

Source: Tom Flood

Vision, Values, Goals, Desires, and Priorities

You can infer a lot about a community by how they design their streets. The design and allocation of space within streets can indicate what a community cares about, what a community values and prioritizes, and which road users a community wants to accomodate and prioritize.

Inherently, our transportation network, streets, and roads are public space that can be used for the public benefit of moving people safely and conveniently to access the places we shop, live, work, and play. As much as concrete and asphalt feel very permanent, our streets are not static and can be changed to meet changing needs and desires and reflect the vision, values, goals, and priorities for our community. The way we develop our transportation network and the way we choose to move around is often rooted in things like culture, geography, climate, societal preferences, trends, and values. And as a community changes over time, so do its values and vision. It's important to ensure that the transportation network, streets, and roads reflects the community's collective vision and desire. 

Our community vision for transportation and mobility is shaped by the recently approved Whitehorse Official Community Plan (OCP). The OCP includes vision and policy statements that set the direction for how we develop and link our community. The graphic below includes the Transportation and Mobility policy statements from the OCP. 

Whitehorse OCP - Transportation and Mobility Vision, Values and Goals

 Capacity and Constraints

Demand vs. Capacity

Fundamentally, there are upper limits and constraints to everything, and our transportation network is no exception. The City has limited sources of revenue generation such as development cost charges, property tax, user fees, and intermittent funding. The Yukon continues to experience one of the lowest unemployment rates in the country. And the City strives to balance low taxation while providing the quantity and quality services that residents enjoy today.

Conversely, there is never a shortage of things we can do to improve our transportation network. Our demands typically exceed the City's capacity and budget to implement change. Our collective wish list is long, always growing, and always evolving.

This means that we sometimes have to make difficult decisions of what we will do, who we will prioritize, when we do it, and how much are we willing to pay for improvements to our transportation network (scope, time, budget). More importantly, we also have to make decisions of what we will not do or post pone to a future date as funding and capacity permit.

Constraints are a barrier, but they present an opportunity to make us come together to assess our limited resources, develop a collective vision for how we move around, and prioritize the changes and environment we wish to see as we develop our envisioned transportation network.

Rome was not built in a day, and neither will our envisioned transportation network. We need to be honest with our capacity, recognize our constraints, and remain strategic and focused so that we prioritize the changes that bring about the most value in our transportation network with the resources we have.

References

99% Invisible (May 16, 2023). Paved Paradise. https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/paved-paradise/

Office of the Chief Medical Officer of Health (2020). Motor Vehicles in Yukon: A Public Health Perspective. https://yukon.ca/sites/yukon.ca/files/hss/hss-imgs/yukon_cmoh_motor_vehicle_report_2019_web.pdf 

By 2040, we want 10% of all trips by walking, 6% of trips by cycling, 15% of trips by transit, 7% of trips by carpooling, and 60% of trips by driving.

Do you think these targets are too ambitious or not ambitious enough?

Overview

Mode share is a key performance indicator (KPI) that indicates the proportion of trips made by a specific mode of transportation (walking, cycling, transit, driving) relative to the total number of trips made in a community. The below figures summarize Whitehorse's existing and proposed future mode share.

Setting goals and targets is just as much of an art as it is science. If we set our goals and targets too high, the risk of failing to meet those targets increases if the targets are set arbitrarily high and not grounded in the reality of what can be accomplished within the current context. Targets that are set too low are subject to scrutiny and criticism for not being ambitious enough in moving towards goals. However, if goals and targets that are set low are achieved, this can often bring about positive reinforcement and momentum towards pursuing those goals even further. A common framework for setting goals is the S.M.A.R.T. framework. The smart framework for setting goals and targets is summarized in the figure below.

Source: Canadian Management Centre

When we set goals and targets, we need to balance realism and idealism, capacity and constraints now and into the future to bring about the change we wish to see in our transportation network.

What do you think about new mobility and the future of transportation? 

How should Whitehorse prepare for new forms of mobility? What do you think Whitehorse can do to accommodate existing and future transportation technology?

How do you think new mobility will help us meet our accessibility, equity, safety, and sustainability goals for our transportation network? Do you think it help or hinder us from achieving our goals and targets?

Electric Vehicle Charging Station

Overview

Imagine a world in which the entire vehicle fleet was electric. How about a world where you could request an automated vehicle for hire. What if we started using jetpacks and flying around the place?

The future of transportation is coming. In some ways, the future is already here and emerging. We have electric vehicles on our roads, our vehicles are becoming more connected and smarter. People are using e-mobility devices on our roadways, sidewalks, and pathways such as e-scooters and e-bikes. It is not necessarily a matter of if, but a matter of when and how we will welcome the future of transportation in Whitehorse.

Lime E-bike Sharing in North Vancouver, BC

 

Imagine creating streets that function more as places and destinations. Imagine streets that foster a sense of place, that people enjoy being, and are vibrant and lively. Imagine streets with street performers, music, restaurants with outdoor seating and patios. Pedestrians are first here. Fewer cars, lower speeds.

What do you think about designing shared streets? Do you think this is something that could be implemented and customized for Whitehorse? Where? Why or why not?

Shared Street on Stephen Avenue, Calgary, Alberta

CityGreen Urban Landscape Solutions (2020). The Rising Popularit of "The Woonerf Design": A Living Street Concept For Shared City Spaces. https://citygreen.com/the-rising-popularity-of-the-woonerf-design-a-living-street-concept-for-shared-city-spaces/

National Association of City Transportation Officials (2013). Urban Street Design Guide - Commercial Alley. https://nacto.org/publication/urban-street-design-guide/streets/commercial-alley/

National Association of City Transportation Officials (2013). Urban Street Design Guide - Commercial Shared Street. https://nacto.org/publication/urban-street-design-guide/streets/commercial-shared-street/

National Association of City Transportation Officials (2013). Urban Street Design Guide - Residential Shared Street. https://nacto.org/publication/urban-street-design-guide/streets/residential-shared-street/

How can we make our transportation network more welcoming, accessible, and inclusive for all road users?

How can we promote equity, diversity, and inclusion in our transportation network? 

How can we ensure that our transportation network accommodates the needs of vulnerable road users (children, older road users, people with disabilities, etc.)?

What projects, policies, or programs should we do to promote equity in our transportation network?  

Overview

References and Resources

99% Invisible (April 27, 2021). Curb cuts. https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/curb-cuts/

99% Invisible (July 23, 2019). Invisible Women. Invisible Women - 99% Invisible (99percentinvisible.org)

City of Austin - Austin Vision Zero (May 10, 2021). Safe for All - Vision Zero's role in advancing racial equity in Austin. https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/4a57b61a0dc9444a9d117dc69f3a898e

City of Oakland (August 22, 2019). OakDOT Kicks Off Three-Year, $100 Million, Equity-Focused Paving Plan. https://www.oaklandca.gov/news/2019/oakdot-kicks-off-three-year-100-million-equity-focused-paving-plan

Kittleson & Associates. The Importance of the Equity Lens in Transportation Planning and Design. https://www.kittelson.com/ideas/the-importance-of-the-equity-lens-in-transportation-planning-and-design

Social Sciences and Humaniities Research Council of Canada.(January 2022). Understanding and Responding to the Transit Needs of Women in Canada. finalreport.pdf (squarespace.com) 

How can we work towards zero traffic-related injuries and fatalities on our streets?

What engineering, education, or enforcement tools can we use to improve traffic safety?

Do you think it is possible to work towards zero injuries and fatalities on our streets?

Traditional Approach vs Vision Zero (Vision Zero Network, 2021)

Overview

Traffic related injuries and fatalities pose significant risks to public health in Canada and around the world. According to a report issued by the Office of the Chief Medical Officer of Health, the Yukon has the second-highest rate of traffic-related injuries and fatalities in Canada.

Injuries and fatalities from traffic collisions can be debilitating and have life-altering consequences. These are tragic incidents for those involved, families, and communities.

Jurisdictions around the world have been grappling with how to minimize and eliminate all traffic-related serious injuries and fatalities on streets and roads using a combination of engineering, education, and enforcement tools. A framework for minimizing or eliminating traffic related incidents is called Vision Zero.

"At the heart of [Vision Zero] is the belief that no one should be killed or seriously injured from using the road network. [A Vision Zero framework acknowledges that]:

• People make mistakes which can lead to crashes; however, no one should die or be seriously injured on the road as a result of these mistakes. 
• The human body has a limited physical ability to tolerate crash forces – any impact greater than 30km/h increases the risk of dying significantly. 
• Road safety is a shared responsibility amongst everyone, including those that design, build, operate and use the road system. 
• All parts of the road system must be strengthened in combination to multiply the protective effects and if one part fails, the others will still protect people. 

At the centre of the system is people – people that are fragile and will at times make mistakes that can lead to crashes. With that understanding, the road system needs to put layers of protection in the form of safe roads, vehicles, speeds, people around the fallible and vulnerable human in order to prevent deaths and serious injuries."

(Towards Zero Foundation, 2021)

References and Resources

City of Austin (May 10, 2021). Vision Zero. https://www.austintexas.gov/department/vision-zero

Institute of Transporation Engineers. Safe System. https://www.ite.org/technical-resources/topics/safe-systems/

iRAP (October 25, 2021). How safe roads feature in the Global Plan for Decade of Action. https://irap.org/2021/10/how-safe-roads-feature-in-global-plan-for-decade-of-action/

Office of the Chief Medical Officer of Health (2020). Motor Vehicles in Yukon: A Public Health Perspective. https://yukon.ca/sites/yukon.ca/files/hss/hss-imgs/yukon_cmoh_motor_vehicle_report_2019_web.pdf

SWOV (2018). Susainable Safety 3rd Edition. https://www.swov.nl/publicatie/sustainable-safety-3rd-edition-advanced-vision-2018-2030

Towards Zero Foundation (2021). The Safe System. http://www.towardszerofoundation.org/thesafesystem/

Vision Zero Network. What is Vision Zero? https://visionzeronetwork.org/about/what-is-vision-zero/