The City of Burlington has created its first Integrated Mobility Plan (IMP) to guide how people and goods move in and through our community for the next 30 years. The Integrated Mobility Plan Final Report was presented and approved by Burlington City Council on Nov. 14 and approved unanimously.

Several delegations spoke at the Community Planning, Regulation & Mobility (CPRM) Committee in support of the IMP on Tuesday, Oct. 31.

The Integrated Mobility Plan

The IMP is a balance of innovative policies, active programs and capital projects that will guide how Burlington builds and operates a sustainable transportation system city-wide. Together, these initiatives will make getting around Burlington safe, accessible, sustainable, balanced and liveable.

The plan has three key areas for action:

1. Implement transportation network improvements through capital planning and budget,
2. Guide future studies, plans and capital projects to meet the goals of the IMP and
3. Enhance and develop innovative programs to support the implementation of the plan.

Key elements of the integrated network approach include:

• Only widening streets if it improves walking, cycling, transit or safety.
• Giving the right-of-way to pedestrians, cyclists, transit users or for safety.
• Focusing multi-modal corridors, like sidewalks, bike lanes and cut throughs, in growth areas.
• Developing transit infrastructure to improve bus service and reduce transit delays.
• Developing high-quality cycling lanes and pathways for cyclists of all ages and abilities.
• Improving walkability in employment, future growth and rural areas.
• Create new connections for pedestrians and cyclists across the QEW and rail lines.

The IMP provides the vision for the City’s future transportation network and outlines the policy, programs and capital projects needed to meet long-term mobility goals for the next three decades. Council will set and manage how the plan is implemented through the City’s annual capital and operating budgets, and as part of the Multi-year Community Investment Plan (MCIP).

The IMP will be reviewed and refreshed on a 5-year cycle, incorporating updated population and employment forecasts, refining the strategic transportation demand model, and reporting on actual mode share usage and refining targets, where necessary. The IMP provides valuable guidance and input into the 5-year Transit Business Plan and will complement the transit planning.

The Integrated Mobility Plan Final Report will be presented to the Community Planning, Regulation & Mobility (CPRM) Committee on Tuesday, Oct. 31.

If you would like to delegate at CPRM, fill out the delegation registration form or email clerks@burlington.ca. Register by noon on Monday, Oct. 30.

The plan is a balance of innovative policies, active programs and capital projects that will guide how Burlington builds and operates a sustainable transportation system city-wide. It will make getting around Burlington safe, accessible, sustainable, balanced and livable.

The plan has three key areas:

1. Improve our transportation network through capital planning and budget,

2. Guide future studies, plans and capital projects to meet the goals of the IMP and

3. Enhance and develop innovative programs to support the putting the plan into actions.

Key elements of the integrated network are:

· Only widening streets if it makes walking, cycling, transit or safety better.

· Giving the right-of-way to pedestrians, cyclists, transit users or for safety.

· Focusing areas like sidewalks, bike lanes and cut throughs, in growth areas.

· Developing transit to improve bus service and reduce transit delays.

· Developing better cycling lanes and pathways for cyclists of all ages and abilities.

· Improving walkability in employment, future growth and rural areas.

· Create new connections for pedestrians and cyclists over the QEW and rail lines.

Burlington’s rural area is host to a mix of uses, from agricultural and industrial to residential communities, and ecological areas. The escarpment running
through the area provides for a unique, hilly landscape. Not only do people in the area want to get around and explore their area, people from Burlington and
the Greater Toronto Area all want to be able to access and enjoy the landscape and opportunities that the area provides. Access to and through the area is not
always easy as existing roads are designed primarily to support car traffic. The Burlington Rural Active Transportation Plan is intended to provide a
framework for how the City can support people accessing and moving through the rural area by walking and cycling. The COVID-19 pandemic saw more people
than ever looking for opportunities to explore the areas around them, and a bike boom where people are cycling more and more. Improving access for people
using active transportation will help to reduce dependence on cars, providing a more equitable transportation system.

During the planning process, the public was engaged on if and how they use active transportation in the rural area, and what kinds of improvements they want to see. The plan builds on this feedback by supporting people taking their dog for a walk, to people getting exercise, and people wanting to be able to more easily get to the Bruce Trail and Greenbelt routes. Feedback from people all across Burlington showed support for the plan recommendations and interest in the City taking initiative to support active transportation users.

The plan considers the different types of users who use active transportation in the rural area, including people of all ages and abilities as well as recreational users, to develop recommendations to suite both kinds of users. This will enable new opportunities for people who may not currently feel safe or comfortable to access the rural area. It will also support and improve conditions for the people who are already using the area.

The recommendations from this plan will be used along with the Cycling Plan to inform the City’s Integrated Mobility Plan which will provide a strategic, coordinated approach for planning and designing the City’s transportation systems.

The Future State of Transportation White Paper is intended to provide the City of Burlington staff, Council, and public with information on new and emerging forms of mobility. While the Integrated Mobility Plan (IMP) speaks to the growing role that transit will play in the city, transit is not the subject for this paper. The key topics in this paper are:

• E-Bicycles and Other Electric Micromobility Devices

• Shared Micromobility (Bike and Scooter Share)

• Car Share

• Ride Share and Ride Hailing

The paper includes a summary of each topic and relevant considerations and challenges, with a focus on how other cities have implemented or developed policies and other identified best practices. Finally, each topic includes recommendations and directions for the role that the City of Burlington can take related to each topic. The paper also considers other emerging subjects for the City to continue to monitor.

Read the White Paper

Read the Integrated Mobility Plan update report presented to the Community Planning, Regulation and Mobility Committee.

Visit the calendar to watch the workshop. All documents are in this document library on this page.

We are at the final stages of creating the City of Burlington’s first Integrated Mobility Plan (IMP). The plan will guide how people and goods move in and through our community for years to come. Through technical analysis and feedback from our engagement process, our team has created a Preferred Solution that will shape Burlington’s future transportation network.

The proposed Preferred Network Solution is a combination of priority networks - networks of streets that prioritize each mode of travel: walking, cycling, transit, cars and trucks. The priorities of each street are dependent on that street’s location within our city, the connections it offers, and the surrounding land uses that each street passes through. Some streets may also be part of more than one priority network.

Visit and explore the recommendations presented in the StoryMap.

Share your feedback now using an interactive mapping survey to tell us what you think about the Proposed Network Solution.

• Two rounds of engagement were completed in the Summer of 2021
• Feedback received from the I’m Walking Here campaign was used to identify key pedestrian connections that are to be contemplated in the development of the Pedestrian Mode Plan
• Feedback received on the StoryMap and Lived Experience Papers has been used by the project team to inform the development of the Integrated Mobility Network Concept

Next Steps

• The project team has developed an Integrated Mobility Network Concept and are in the process of conducting internal and external stakeholder reviews.
• The Story Map and accompanying Network Concept will be released to the public on October 21, 2021
• We will be engaging with the public on the Problem and Opportunity Statements and Network Concept via a survey
• Staff will consolidate internal stakeholder, external stakeholder and public feedback on the Network Concept and present a Recommended Network Concept to City Council at the Special Meeting of CPRM to be held on December 13, 2021.
• Staff will be seeking endorsement of the Recommended Network Concept and direction to proceed with the balance of the IMP Workplan

The City of Burlington is creating its first Integrated Mobility Plan (IMP) to guide how people and goods move in and through our community for years to come. Anyone who lives in Burlington, or travels to or through Burlington, is invited to read any or all five ‘Lived Experience Papers’. The five papers are available here for review and the survey for comments is open until Sept. 7, 2021.

In previous stages of the project, staff has used resident feedback to confirm the IMP vision, values and goal statements. Those concepts generally define the desired transportation system for the Burlington of the future. The next steps of the project include identifying what aspects of our current transportation systems are not in line with where we want to end up in the future. The project page features an interactive story map outlining the project so far, including how residents in Burlington navigate the city and the transportation issues that affect their lives, every day.

Each of the five papers is part of a series of background case studies that explore transportation issues that will affect Burlingtonians in the future as the city grows and develops. Each paper’s fictional character and transportation story is inspired by feedback the City has heard from real Burlington residents over the years. Their stories cover key transportation issues affecting Burlington residents with similar experiences and identifies the challenges and opportunities of each issue.

The reader is invited to answer a series of questions and share their input on the key issues that need to be considered in developing the IMP, and how we can lay the foundation for a safe, accessible, sustainable, balanced and livable future of transportation in Burlington.

The City has recently updated the Cycling Master Plan. It will be presented at the virtual Community Planning, Regulation and Mobility Committee Meeting on Tuesday, March 9, 2021 at 6:30 p.m.

This updated plan is inspired by cycling route planning and design across Canada and focuses on making it easier to cycle around Burlington for everyday trips. To do this, the City needs to build proper cycling structure where people like you live, work and play.

We asked what you thought about cycling, now and in the future in Burlington. You gave us some great feedback and we used that information to refine the recommended cycling network.

The updated Cycling Plan is an important part of the Integrated Mobility Plan (IMP) and will be prioritized, as part of its direction, recommendations and implementation plan.

For more information on how we are shaping the future of cycling in the City of Burlington, visit www.burlington.ca/cyclingplan