The Bicycle Facilities Technical Committee is a staff committee with representatives from Transportation Planning, Parks, Operations, Engineering and Planning. The purpose is to coordinate between City departments on issues related to bicycle infrastructure. Administration recommends that this group be expanded to include Asset Planning and include the development of the sidewalk recommendations in ATMP as well. This would further suggest a change of the name to the Active Transportation Technical Committee (ATTC). The committee would continue to be tasked to meet regularly to ensure that the various sidewalk and cycling facilities recommended in the ATMP are reviewed and planned for in the capital budget, coordinated and included where appropriate in larger road, sewer and or parks projects, identify projects for grants as they are available, quantify the capital funding allocated for cycling facilities, provide clarity on the operational budget impacts as the network is expanded, report on progress in building on the network as well as usage on cycling facilities, all of which is to be communicated to City Council annually.
Going forward Administration (through the Active Transportation Technical Committee) intends to explore the use of existing systems to manage the ATMP recommendations and program. By automating the information in the ATMP it is expected that the City will be able to more readily identify opportunities which relate to other road, sewer and or parks projects, track and report on percentage of completion, identify the various types of cycling facilities, report and track usage and report on the various capital projects which include cycling facilities and what portion of the project cost is attributable to cycling investments.
Funding the Implementation of ATMP
City Council has been continually investing in active transportation as well as leveraging grant funding for these initiatives where available. When considering the investments being made in these assets it is important to note that the Citywide Bikeways Development project (OPS-014-07) with $2.7M recommended in the 2020 8-year capital budget is not solely reflective of the total capital investment for these assets. Many of the City's major road and or sewer reconstruction projects include the cost associated with building these facilities, as do several of the projects identified in the City's Road Rehabilitation project as well as parks projects which include trails. Investments in sidewalks is also similarly challenged when quantifying new sidewalk investments. Although current budgeting practices make it difficult to quantify the specific amount invested in the active transportation network, examples such as those noted below provide an indication of where some of these additional investments are bundled into larger projects:
Examples of these types of additional investments include, but is not limited to:
- The Dougall Ave/CN Rail Pedestrian Underpass and Multi-use Trail Project (part of Central Box EA Road and Infrastructure Improvements ENG-005-17) is an $8.9 million project that will incorporate approximately 350 metres of a pedestrian multi-use trail. This also includes a 3 metres x 5-metres -wide underpass tunnel under the CN railway and 170 metres of new concrete sidewalks. There will be trail signage incorporated as part of this project. The majority of work will be completed this year with some finishing work to be completed in the spring of 2020.