I am a resident and work in…

I am a resident and work in Markham within York Region and traffic has been a major issue and is becoming worse. With the projected populations in 2030 for York Region, I can only foresee an event more gridlock. We are seeing more transit and infrastructure investment from the Province, but it is extremely important to educate people about choosing other modes over driving in single occupant vehicle. I am in the transportation planning and understand the importance of transportation demand management and how that will help commuters to learn about other possible options. Having advanced transit technology, more frequent improved infrastructure to encourage sustainable travel options is critical but again, the education is also very important. There shall be more funding towards educating commuters to choose more sustainable travel options, maybe custom design programs to offer information, incentives for companies to offer to employees about transit, walking, biking or even ride sharing options to work from their home. Tools to help employees to find cycling routes, connecting to the nearest transit hub through ride sharing, biking, walking or uber. First mile and last mile problems like driving in single occupant vehicle short distance accessing GO station or local schools also creates major gridlock in the community.

My friend company joined a local organization who help employees to find other sustainable ways to work like helping them to find carpool match ( I told they use a site to find ride match within their company), learn about transit as an option and providing tools, workshops and incentives to encourage employees who drive to work to try transit the first time. They also provide some workshops to help employees to learn about cycling. Even if you have the best infrastructure in place but without the right education and support to residents or companies, it will not useful. I often ride my bike in Markham and recently learned about the trail on Leslie Street near highway 7 & 16 Avenue , a bike path for cyclist and pedestrians. It is such a great option but I would have never know about it as I really see not much of promotion, till my friend his company has people came in to do a cycling workshop and they talked about the trails.
It's all about education people of what options are available. Companies also need supports to provide employees with those information. Companies need to pay for parking too so it is a bog cost to them but if their employees try other more sustainable way to work, parking and the maintenance costs will be reduced. At least some parking will be eliminated as more people take transit, bike to work as a n option. But as an example of my friend's company in Markham, they paid a small fee to the non-gov agency to receive assistance to help their employees to try other sustainable way to come to work and also learn about ride sharing, cycling, etc. I think companies are willing to invest if the government have supports in those programs. I heard from my friend that those programs fundings have been cut this year by Metrolinx and no longer able to offer the exact same level of supports to the companies.