The City of Mississauga's…

The City of Mississauga's Active Transportation Office, within the Transportation and Infrastructure Planning Division of the Transportation and Public Works Department, submits the following comments on the #CycleON: Action Plan 2.0 Proposal:

We generally agree with the feedback provided to you by the Share the Road Cycling Coalition. We have some additions to those comments.

An extension to “Identify new opportunities to allow passengers to take bikes onto buses and trains”, would be to support short and long-term secure bicycle parking at transit stations, and explore bike rentals/bike share at major transit hubs. Further, the Province and Metrolinx should work to ensure that new transit infrastructure such as the Hurontario LRT project include requirements that Project Co allow bicycles on the vehicles at all times of day.

We second the comment from Share the Road: “Include cycling infrastructure on provincial highway construction projects using the province-wide cycling network and municipal cycling/active transportation plans as a foundation”, and would go further to suggest that all MTO bridge/tunnel highway crossings within urban and suburban areas be built with safe and comfortable separated cycling facilities. This is important due to the lifespan of many of these structures being beyond the scope of many municipal cycling plans, and the more undesirable conditions they usually have for cyclists, whether or not they’re on a designated cycling route, due to high operating speeds and crossing the approaches for highway ramps.

The Draft 2041 RTP suggests embedding TDM into the development review process. In order to achieve this, we recommend that the Ministry of Municipal Housing and Metrolinx make revisions to the Planning Act that would require TDM measures as part of the development review process.  This should include the requirement for TDM supportive infrastructure such as bicycle parking and pedestrian connections as well soft measures such as education programs on travel options

Further to the action item on guidelines for e-bike use on cycling facilities, and over and above the comment provided by Share the Road for a regulatory review and guidance for municipalities - we would look to the Province for a full regulatory framework for e-bikes to be developed that would provide clear direction to all municipalities on this issue, so that a consistent approach can be achieved.

Thank you.

[Original Comment ID: 213515]