Collaborative Transportation Planning in Moncton

The City of Moncton will use an interactive evaluation tool to assess the feasibility of implementing various scenarios to improve transportation systems in the downtown core and encourage people to switch to less polluting modes of transport. Goals include reducing automobile driver transport modality share by 10% and exceeding the city’s greenhouse gas emissions reduction target, which aims to be 20% below 2002 levels by 2020. The Southeast Regional Commission will support this project to ensure regional coordination. The scenarios being looked at are combinations of solutions, including shuttles, pedestrian corridors, electric transportation, parking cost adjustments to encourage car-share programs, and optimizing existing transportation networks to promote better regional mobility. Engineering and cost analysis of various solutions has been completed and the results will be fed into the evaluation tool to help city staff and the public visualize the different scenarios and their associated environmental, social and economic impacts. The scenarios will be assessed and compared according to the following metrics: transportation-related greenhouse gas emissions; annual vehicle kilometres travelled; commute-time estimates; modality choice percentages; transit ridership; active transit use; level of accessibility; and operating and capital costs. The study will also incorporate links to land-use change focused on densification. A final report will detail the preferred scenario made up of one or more implementable capital projects. This study is linked to several existing plans, including the Downtown Core Community Improvement Plan (2017); Shaping our Future: City of Moncton Sustainability Plan (2011); Destination 2040 Moncton Area Transportation Plan (2015); and From Surface to Services (2017), a regional plan that promotes available, affordable and accessible mobility options. These plans highlight several key factors that drove the decision to undertake this initiative, including the 233,269 tonnes of annual CO2e currently attributed to transportation (this accounts for 26% of the city’s greenhouse gas emissions); single-passenger vehicle use in Moncton being 9.4% above the national average; and 42% of the city’s urban core currently being underutilized as parking space. Innovative aspect(s): An artificial intelligence (AI) tool called CitiSketch was built to integrate with existing engineering analysis and provide a cost-effective way to highlight and visualize various mobility scenarios and consult with the public on them. This is an innovative way to assess the technical and financial feasibility of projects while incorporating public engagement. This initiative also incorporates future land-use and population projections into scenarios to ensure that transportation trade-offs and modality shifts can be assessed in tandem with land-use changes. Replicability: This study will provide a replicable model that other Canadian municipalities can use to explore transportation and densification issues while building engagement into the feasibility analysis of specific projects. (Project description from original funding application)