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Summer 2004

Table of Contents

1. Introduction
   • Purpose
2. Implication of Growth Patterns on Air Quality
   • Vehicle Emissions and Urban Air Quality 
3. Threats to Air Quality:  Nature Plus Technology
   • Influence of Local Factors on Poor Air Quality
   • Air Quality in Southern Ontario's Six City Regions
4. Compact Urban Form and Air Quality:  What Municipalities Can Do
   • Increasing Community Awareness, Education and Participation
   • Corporate Actions to Reduce Emissions
   • Changing Existing Patterns of Growth
5. Pathways to Compact Urban Form
   • Planning for Compact Urban Form
   • Encouraging Transit Use
6. Meeting the Promise of Policies
   • Tracking Progress
7. The Way Forward
   

View/Print document in PDF format:  Part 1, Part 2, Part 3,

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1. Introduction

Air quality is a concern across the province, with southern Ontario having some of the worst air quality in Canada.  Smog, traffic congestion and sprawl are the consequences of the way cities have developed and, in particular, the decisions made about the form of cities. 

Six city regions – the Greater Toronto Area (Toronto, Halton, Peel, York and Durham), Hamilton, Ottawa, Waterloo, London and Windsor – now lead Ontario’s economic growth. They collectively represent a critical mass of urban activity and a regional pressure on air quality.  The livability and competitiveness of southern Ontario’s cities are at risk.

The Ontario government is working to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in order to fight smog and other forms of air pollution.  Initiatives include: the Drive Clean program, the phasing out of coal-burning power plants and tighter emission limits for diesel trucks and buses.

Addressing the challenge of poor air quality requires combined efforts from all levels of government, including municipalities.  In fact, municipalities are uniquely positioned to act on improving air quality.  Cities around the world have used their capacity for public and industry educational campaigns, purchasing practices, infrastructure investment, bylaws and other targeted initiatives to make a positive impact on local air quality.

Purpose

The Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing recognizes that the challenges facing Ontario’s big cities are common concerns around the world. This handbook aims to inform and inspire elected officials, policy makers and other individuals and organizations to take action on improving air quality.

It explains the implications of urban growth patterns on air quality and, in particular, the pressures these patterns put on air quality in southern Ontario.  The handbook also describes a broad range of creative and practical tools and approaches used by municipalities in Ontario and other jurisdictions, nationally and internationally, to reduce the negative impact of development on air quality and make their communities more livable.

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2. Implications of Growth Patterns on Air Quality

The earth’s atmosphere is like a natural greenhouse that maintains its temperature by trapping heat radiated from the earth’s surface.  The most common greenhouse gases are carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide.  Greenhouse gases make the earth warm enough to be habitable by ensuring life sustaining heat from the sun is retained in the atmosphere.  Elevated levels of greenhouse gases, however, may cause an average increase in global temperatures, and drive a wide range of regional changes in climate that could put pressure on our ecosystem.

 

 

 

 

SOURCE: Environment Canada, Greenhouse Gas Division,
Pollution Branch,  Fact Sheet Series.

Vehicle emissions, an increasing source of greenhouse gases, also contribute air pollutants that directly affect human health.  In the presence of sunlight and high temperatures, so-called “tailpipe emissions” combine with other airborne particulates to form smog, the most visible form of air pollution.

 

 

 

 

SOURCE: Canadian Urban Institute, Statistics Canada,
1951 Census and Ontario Municipal Directory 2001.

The way communities are designed and planned is a contributing factor to poor air quality.  Much of the growth in southern Ontario over the last fifty years has been at low densities, expanding outward, and sustaining our dependence on vehicles.  This is particularly true in newer communities outside transit-friendly urban core areas and in communities with densities, designs and land-use mixes that are less transit-supportive. 

Vehicle Emissions and Urban Air Quality

When the large majority of residents commute to their jobs by car, there is an obvious negative affect on air quality.  In urban areas, jobs are often dispersed among many locations and spread out across large, single-use employment areas such as industrial parks and isolated office blocks.  Scattered, low-density employment areas make transit less cost effective, and offer workers little choice other than driving to their jobs.  Over the last twenty years, commuting trips have gotten longer, and the average number of people per vehicle has dropped significantly.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Source:  Canadian Urban Institute.
Data from Transportation Tomorrow Survey, 1996

As cities continue to spread outward, residents are spending more time in their vehicles, and not only to commute to work.  Distances between key activities such as shopping, schools, places of worship, recreation and work almost guarantee the need to make these essential trips by car.   In combination, this land-use pattern is creating unsustainable travel habits, placing a strain on the capacity of local highways, creating peak hour congestion, slow moving or idling traffic (further increasing tailpipe emissions) and contributing to worsening air quality.

In Ontario, vehicles alone contribute as much as 30 per cent of all greenhouse gas emissions.  Some of these vehicle emissions are from the movement of goods across urban regions by truck.  More than 75 per cent of Ontario’s exports are transported by truck, putting our reliance on diesel-powered vehicles at an all-time high. Diesel emissions contain hundreds of chemical compounds, particulate matter and more than 40 chemicals listed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as toxic air contaminants in addition to greenhouse gases.

Personal vehicles, however, are a key contributor of greenhouse gases and the single largest source of air pollution in urban areas.  Controlling emissions is a challenge because of the popularity of sport utility vehicles and light duty trucks, which consume more fuel and have been built to less stringent emission standards than cars.  As a result of federal regulations imposing tougher emission standards on auto manufacturers, new vehicles will be significantly more efficient than earlier models. These improvements, however, have only slowed the rate of increase in total vehicle emissions because the reliance on personal vehicles continues to grow.  Although cars are getting cleaner, people are driving more, which offsets progress in pollution control.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SOURCE: Canadian Automobile Association, 1999.
An Updated Look at VOC and NOx Emission Trends in Canada.

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3. Threats to Air Quality: Nature Plus Technology

In southern Ontario, as much as 50 per cent of local air pollution is blown in from the Ohio Valley and other heavily industrialized areas in the United States. These same airflows also carry pollution generated in Ontario through to the U.S. eastern seaboard.  While significant, this common airshed only accounts for half of the greenhouse gases contributing to southern Ontario’s poor air quality.  There is a large opportunity for Ontario to make a positive contribution to addressing the problems of poor air quality.

Air quality conditions in Ontario have improved over the past 30 years as a result of steps taken to clean up heavy industry.  However, the Windsor-Quebec transportation corridor is among the most heavily travelled in North America. The heavy volume of traffic generates high levels of greenhouse gas emissions, and contributes to poor air quality.  Communities in this corridor experience high levels of smog more often and for longer periods than any other area of Canada.

 

 

 

 

 

Source: Data from Environment Canada, National Environmental Indicator Series.

Influence of Local Factors on Poor Air Quality

While southern Ontario cities are affected by a common airshed spreading trans-boundary air pollution and the location of regional transportation corridors, local factors also play a role in the amount and type of pollution in a particular area. 

For example, the nature of the local economy affects the air quality.  A concentration of heavy industry can increase local emission levels.  Sources that disperse pollution over great distances (such as tall smoke stacks) can send local pollutants downwind.  Companies reliant on just-in-time delivery or production and workers who need to commute to suburban, dispersed employment locations (such as along busy highways like the 401) can increase emissions from truck and personal vehicle use and contribute to poor air quality.

Beyond transportation patterns, urbanized areas put a unique pressure on local changes in weather through what is know as the “heat island effect.”  This is a phenomenon where large concentrations of asphalt and urban development interact with airflow, raising the temperature of the airflow through cities between  six and eight degrees higher than the surrounding countryside.  By causing higher temperatures, heat islands increase the probability of smog as well as increase energy use, mostly due to a greater demand for air conditioning.  As the geographic area covered by urbanization expands, the heat island effect is intensified.  Preventing adjacent urban areas from forming a continuous band of urbanization to reduce the heat island effect is an additional incentive to manage growth and keep cities compact.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SOURCE: Adapted from Berkeley National Laboratory.

Local landforms can also impact air quality.  The height of local terrain, the shape of a basin or the relationship of a valley relative to the prevailing winds can act as a barrier, or modify the speed and direction of weather patterns and are key variables that determine how much locally generated pollution stays in place for how long.

Air Quality in Southern Ontario’s Six City Regions

Ontario has one of the most modern and best-equipped air monitoring networks in North America.  The Ministry of the Environment monitors air quality with 36 Air Quality Index (AQI) monitoring stations located across Ontario.  From this monitoring, it is possible to determine not only the levels for different pollutants, but also the source.  This information allows researchers to assess differences in air quality between cities and to track changes over time.  Each monitoring station measures the concentration of some or all of six common air pollutants: sulphur dioxide, ozone, nitrogen dioxide, total reduced sulphur compounds, carbon monoxide and most recently fine particulate matter (PM2.5).  These pollutants are measured at the end of every hour, and the AQI reading increases or decreases as the air quality changes.  The lower the AQI reading, the cleaner the air.  It is based on these AQI readings that the Ministry of the Environment issues and terminates Smog Advisories.

 

 

 

 

 

SOURCE:  Ontario Ministry of Environment, Environmental Monitoring and Reporting Branch.

Data from Windsor shows that both local and regional sources are key contributors to poor air quality in the area, reflecting the city’s location within the airshed (pollutants blown in from the U.S.) and the concentration of heavy industry in the area. 

London is also affected by the transboundary pollution from the U.S., with local sources of pollution being primarily a mix of residential, commercial and industrial sources.

Waterloo’s air quality is exacerbated by its physical setting, which tends to contain pollution over the area. Local source pollution is low, but vehicle emissions from the heavily travelled 401 corridor are a contributor to poor air quality in the area.

Air quality in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) reflects a combination of a number of local factors: prevailing winds that move local source pollution beyond the GTA and bring in pollution from the U.S. and other southern Ontario city regions; an industrial base; the presence of power generation plants; large amounts of personal vehicle traffic and congestion, heavy concentrations of distribution-related activity (truck and rail freight); and high levels of air traffic.  Despite the variety of pollution sources, the GTA has comparably less frequent poor air quality than Windsor, London or Waterloo. However, more people are affected by poor air quality in the GTA than any other area in the province because of the high population.

Hamilton has a concentration of heavy industry, contributing local sources of greenhouse gases.  The area also has a unique microclimate given the proximity of the Niagara Escarpment and Lake Ontario that tends to contain pollutants.

Ottawa is not heavily industrialized so the local sources of pollution are low. Transportation-related sources represent a high proportion of local pollution, although Ottawa has better air quality overall relative to the other southern Ontario cities examined here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SOURCE:  Ontario Ministry of Environment.

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4. Compact Urban Form and Air Quality:  What Municipalities can Do

Many municipalities in southern Ontario have recognized the problems of poor air quality, and have developed strategies or action plans to address these challenges.  Implementing these plans and strategies has, in some areas, initiated extensive regional partnerships linking combinations of government, school boards, transit, energy providers, business/ industry, environmental groups, resident groups and others.

Toronto and Hamilton have the longest history with municipal initiatives to address poor air quality, beginning in the early to mid 1990s.  Many municipalities in southern Ontario have created some form of advisory committee or implementation structure to develop recommendations for action.  Implementing recommendations has resulted in local air quality research, pilot projects, corporate policy directives, and public education campaigns.  As in the case of the Toronto Atmospheric Fund or Clean Air Hamilton, some municipalities have also created targeted funding initiatives. 

Increasing Community Awareness, Education and Participation

In Ontario, community awareness-raising efforts on air quality are being developed at the local, regional, provincial and federal levels.  Government initiatives, such as the Province of Ontario’s Anti–Smog Action Plan are important to raise the profile of air quality issues.

For most municipalities with air quality plans, public education is described as a core strategy or foundation necessary to endorse and execute an action plan.  Raising public awareness for some municipalities is seen as a corporate responsibility, and they provide educational material on how to decrease emissions and reduce energy use on an individual or household scale, especially during times of poor air quality or smog.  Some municipalities, such as Mississauga, Waterloo, York and Halton, have introduced public anti-idling awareness campaigns to reduce emissions, often targeting corporate fleets, businesses, commuters and school boards. 

Corporate Actions to Reduce Emissions

Beyond public education, municipalities can lead by example and illustrate their commitment to reducing air pollution through corporate actions to reduce emissions.  For example, some municipalities have a Smog Alert Response Plan to target emissions in municipal operations during periods of poor local air quality.  These plans may set out which activities or equipment use must be reduced, rescheduled or suspended during a smog alert.  Some municipalities have developed internal policy directives to place restrictions on pesticide use on municipal property or instituted corporate anti-idling protocols for municipal vehicles to reduce emissions.

Many municipalities in southern Ontario are also working on “greening” municipal vehicle fleets.  Some municipalities have converted portions of their fleets to propane, natural gas or bio-diesel fuel to reduce emissions.  Others are exploring life-cycle costing for municipal equipment to reflect the long term savings in energy use achieved with various alternatives that may be more expensive up front at the time of purchase.  Municipalities such as Hamilton, Brampton and Markham are piloting the longer-term potential of hybrid vehicles in reducing vehicle emissions.

As employers, municipalities have also used staff training, incentives (such as York Region’s discounted transit pass for employees) and outreach to encourage trip reductions among their own employees and encourage car-pooling, cycling, walking and transit use. 

Municipalities are also using incentives to encourage energy use reductions.  The City of Toronto, for example, offers subsidies to homeowners who retrofit existing building stock with energy efficiency measures.  Toronto also encourages energy efficiency retrofits in existing commercial, institutional and multi-residential buildings by promoting annual energy savings through the Better Buildings Partnership.

Efforts in the Greater Vancouver area illustrate that significant short-term gains are possible by mobilizing public opinion.  Greater Vancouver Regional District’s (GVRD) Air Quality Management Plan works with the community to shape land use and transportation to encourage clean air lifestyles.  With the objective of creating a more livable region and sustain the quality of life that the Greater Vancouver Region values so highly, the GVRD Air Quality Management Plan provides a comprehensive regional strategy to meet the “Let’s Clear the Air” challenge.  This has led to action on trip-reduction (provincial funding for rapid transit, van-pooling), emissions clean-up (support for the introduction of “drive clean” programs prior to any other jurisdiction in Canada), and point source reductions (new controls on power generation).  The region has also adopted an integrated approach to regional land-use, transportation and air quality planning which gives higher priority to walking, cycling, transit and goods movement than private vehicles.  The plan has helped to meet the region’s goals by recognizing the need for a number of municipalities to participate in developing a regional authority to manage air quality issues.

Changing Existing Patterns of Growth

Ontario’s cities have undergone a transformation, growing not only in terms of population and the number of jobs created, but also in their physical size and complexity. In many cases, these cities have expanded well beyond their original compact urban cores into the surrounding countryside with land developed in the past 20 years often equal to or exceeding that of the original urban core.  The focus of current development tends to be specialized (for example, all housing, or all employment) on large tracts of land.  This pattern of growth requires more energy to support,  and consumes more land than more compact development. It is also more expensive to serve on a per capita basis, both from the point of view of building new infrastructure and providing adequate levels of service for public transit and other important amenities.

Southern Ontario’s six city regions have a long-standing history of policy making that supports compact urban form.  The province has also encouraged this for many years through policy directions, such as the Provincial Policy Statement (focusing growth into existing settlement areas) and the Transit-Supportive Land-Use Planning Guidelines. Making  decisions that will support compact development can work to protect air and water quality across Ontario and steer growth pressures away from significant agricultural land and natural areas.  Efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in one city must be considered within the context of the market forces (influencing things such as the location of jobs and labour, transportation of goods, and preferences of homeowners) that shape the overall structure of an urban region if there is to be a significant affect on local air quality.  The challenge for planners and municipal policymakers is therefore to ensure these policy goals are implemented in the day-to-day decisions affecting planning and development.

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5. Pathways to Compact Urban Form

Municipal policymakers and urban planners can influence some of the factors contributing to poor air quality, particularly by implementing land-use planning policies that reduce our dependence on vehicle travel.  Effective strategies that will result in a reduced reliance on vehicles and thus, reduce emissions, are clearly one of the primary links between creating or maintaining a compact urban form and the resulting impact on air quality.

International and North American research has shown that development that produces the least negative impact on air quality is focused, high density, includes a mix of uses, and encourages alternative modes of transportation such as walking, cycling, transit and carpooling.  Ontario municipalities need to continue to understand the cause and effect of urban form in their own regions and to ensure planning policies are effective in improving local air quality.

Compact urban form is about more than just higher densities.  Policymakers and planners must also address land-use mix, transit availability and commitment to the implementation of growth management planning policies in developing strategies that will result in a reduced reliance on vehicles.   

Land-use planning remains one of the most powerful levers to shape the quality of urban development.  Municipal support and incentives can encourage innovative suburban residential development, or stimulate development in existing underused areas.  Regulatory planning tools can further encourage compact urban form. 

This handbook highlights some singular successes across southern Ontario and offers international and North American examples of the possibilities for achieving compact urban form and therefore improving air quality. 

Planning for Compact Urban Form

The way in which future development is planned can be a key instrument in reducing poor air quality.  Statutory powers over land-use planning can shape urban development and encourage compact form.

McKenzie Towne in Calgary, Alberta and the Village of Angus Glen in Markham, Ontario, are examples of “New Urbanism”, an alternative approach to suburban development based on unique design guidelines and a comprehensive streetscape plan that is aimed at a diverse mix of people of different incomes and stages of life.  These developments feature a mix of building types, including apartments above stores, high rises and single-family homes, and are structured around a village center, a street network that encourages people to walk, and open space.  Overall, these communities are designed so that residents require less driving for daily needs.  Municipalities have also used planning and zoning tools in existing built-up areas to achieve a mixture of land uses, building types and pedestrian friendly design in redevelopment efforts, such as in the condominium and loft development along Toronto’s King Street.

Single-use, dispersed neighbourhoods, located far from downtowns, produce nearly 3 times more annual emissions per household than mixed-use, compact neighbourhoods near the downtown.

Within the same location, developing more compact neighborhoods with mixed-use and pedestrian oriented designs decreases greenhouse gas emissioins by 24-50%.

SOURCE:  Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation, 2000 Publication “Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Urban Travel: Tool for Evaluating Neighbourhood Sustainability”.

Locating major facilities in traditional downtowns can spark revitalization and also encourage compact urban form both through their development and the associated spin-off development.  For example, the relocation of the University of Waterloo’s School of Architecture from the Waterloo campus to a main street site in Cambridge represents an interesting land-use and investment initiative in the Region of Waterloo.  It highlights the potential for land-use planning to influence urban form.  Even in advance of the final commitment, this has stimulated development interest in new housing and mixed-use development opportunities in Cambridge’s historic Galt downtown. 

Other southern Ontario municipalities have also used public-private partnerships in creating public spaces (e.g., institutions, markets, parks) to encourage subsequent commercial or residential development.  In London, for example, investment in a new central library, a downtown entertainment and sports complex and a Covent Garden Market have all been part of a effort to ensure a vibrant community in the downtown core.

Regulatory planning tools can further encourage compact urban form.  In the GTA, the province’s Oak Ridges Moraine Conservation Act, 2001 and associated Conservation Plan provides municipalities with the tools necessary to protect natural and water features, preserve agriculture and limit development to approved settlement areas.  Under the plan, the purpose of settlement areas is to focus and contain urban growth by promoting efficient use of land with transit-supportive densities through intensification and redevelopment.

The province’s proposed Brownfields legislation encourages the remediation and redevelopment of former industrial and commercial lands by clarifying environmental liability and providing municipalities with more flexibility in planning and financing.  It promotes the productive reuse of land in serviced areas, encourages compact urban development and improves local soil, water and air quality.  Many municipalities have realized the economic, social and environmental benefits of seeing brownfields as redevelopment opportunities (see the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing’s  Brownfields Showcase, 2000).

Regulatory tools have also been used successfully in Portland, Oregon.  Portland has developed a comprehensive approach to managing air quality by encouraging compact urban form that includes an urban growth boundary, focusing on land-use and transportation.  The city’s 2040 Regional Framework Plan makes connections between traffic congestion, vanishing open space, speculative pressure on rural farm lands, rising housing costs, diminishing environmental quality, demands on infrastructure such as schools, water and sewer treatment plants and vulnerability to natural hazards.  Portland’s success is in large part due to citizen advocacy for compact urban form. 

Encouraging Transit Use

Southern Ontario cities are attempting to increase transit use as a primary strategy to reduce vehicle emissions and combat gridlock.  Achieving this goal is a tremendous challenge given existing financial resources and the reliance of Ontarians on their vehicles, especially outside urban core areas.  As a result, efforts to date to decrease the use of vehicles in favour of other modes of transportation (e.g. transit, cycling and walking) in southern Ontario cities have been modest.   Even within the City of Toronto, home to the most fully developed transit system in the country, there is still room for improvement as the city attempts to accommodate a projected increase of one million residents.  Addressing these challenges will require an approach that crosses sectors and inter-municipal approaches such as increasing the density of development, directing investment toward brownfield sites, protecting significant natural areas, providing a wider range of housing options, and better integration of different modes of transportation including road, rail and transit. 

SOURCE:  Canadian Urban Institute. Data supplied by the City of Windsor Traffic Engineering Department; the City of London Planning Department; Transportation Tomorrow Survey 2000; City of Ottawa Transportation, Utilities and Public Works Department.

 

 

SOURCE: The IMS Project is a consortium of service providers, public agencies, private interests, and other parties. The project is led by Moving the Economy, with technical co-ordination provided by IBI Group.

 

There have also been successful local and regional efforts in cities across southern Ontario to improve the function of existing transit systems.  For example, York Region riders are benefiting from a recent consolidation of numerous small transit operations into a single provider.  Several transit operators serving municipalities in the GTA, including the regional commuter system, GO Transit, are exploring the potential of “smart cards” to create a seamless integrated fare payment mechanism. 

The Black Creek Transportation Management Association (BCTMA) has been recently established in the Toronto area to address transit needs in a low-density area through innovative partnerships.  The first of its kind in Ontario, and one of the first in Canada, the BCTMA is a non-profit partnership of employers, local governments and other stakeholders dedicated to reducing auto dependence in a low density, hard-to-serve employment sector that spans several jurisdictions. To overcome the practical difficulties of relying on ride-sharing in the event of an emergency or unpredictable need to work overtime, the BCTMA offers a “guaranteed ride home” by taxi or other means. The BCTMA also offers transit and cycling route information specific to the Black Creek employment area.  Over the long-term, strategies such as this can establish new travel habits that minimize car dependence. 

 

SOURCE: Black Creek Regional Transportation Management  Association.

 

 

Planners in Helsinki, Finland, opted for a pragmatic approach to encourage low-density residential transit ridership by focusing on improving efficiencies in their existing transit system.  The Helsinki Transportation Plan (approved in 1998) focused on improving door-to-door transport times for specific types of trips, creating a capacity to deliver real-time information to riders, and making connections easier and more pleasant.  Transit operators are rewarded for making better connections and thus improving the public’s perception and support of the transit system.  These initiatives were supported by heavy investment in “park and ride” services to improve access to the transit network by strategically locating parking facilities.

Other initiatives represent a substantial physical investment in new transit infrastructure.  For example, Ottawa has recently partnered with the private sector to make greater use of an existing rail corridor to create an eight km LRT service as a first step toward a city-wide rail system.  This light rail system (O-Train) compliments a well-developed rapid transit bus network oriented to shopping centers and other employment nodes. Ottawa’s “park n’ ride” program encourages commuters to drive to locations that provide frequent bus service to employment nodes.  

Current projections suggest that the time required to travel 30 km in the GTA by car or truck will increase by 50 per cent by 2021.

SOURCE: Transportation Tomorrow Survey.

Some smaller cities in southern Ontario can expect that densities might one day support a light rail scheme.  In Waterloo, work has begun to identify and protect lands necessary to establish a transit corridor linking nodes.  London is similarly in the process of protecting future transportation corridors. 

Larger municipalities are also planning for higher future densities and expected pressures on their existing transportation infrastructure.   For example, York Region is aggressively promoting a campaign to engage the private sector in partnerships to build light rail in key employment corridors such as Highway 7. 

Durham Region is working with municipal planners and local transit operators on a long-term Travel Demand Management program aimed at reducing peak-hour auto use. A key tool here is using transit to link mixed use Activity Centers (areas that are pedestrian and cyclist friendly) with Transit Corridor Districts (areas that serve as transit and ride-sharing commuting routes).  

In Halton Region, where development is concentrated in a number of dispersed locations, the approach acknowledges the need to develop transit access at different scales.  Halton is building on a spine of provincial commuter train and bus routes, by protecting bus corridors between nodes and promoting better access within nodes.

Boulder, Colorado, has developed a Transportation Master Plan (1989) that recognizes the importance of integrating all travel modes – pedestrian, cycling, transit as well as vehicles.  The plan promotes a shift from single occupant vehicle use to more sustainable modes of transportation, while providing a greater breadth of mobility options.  Since 1989, “Go Boulder” has worked with citizens, institutions and regional partners to support many innovative programs including an extensive system of off-street bicycle and pedestrian paths and underpasses, educational information and outreach on transportation alternatives (including flextime and telecommuting) and an impressive community transit network of high frequency buses.  Known as Hop, Skip, Jump, Leap, Bound, Dash and Stampede, this regional bus system allows for sustainable transportation options that are tailored to meet the specific needs and requests of the community.  The Hop and Skip buses shuttle through central Boulder, while the other routes link suburban communities surrounding Boulder, and connect residential communities and business areas on the outer edges of Boulder to the downtown core.  Since 1990, Go Boulder’s bus programs have shifted close to 9 per cent of vehicle miles of travel from single occupancy vehicles to other modes.  These programs are made possible in part through financial partnerships with federal and state governments. 

Freiburg-im-Breisgau, Germany, is an example of a medium-sized city that is shifting away from a car-dominated transportation network entirely.  Since 1969 Freiburg has worked to create a predominantly car-free old city, with an approach that incorporates an intricate and extensive system of bicycle lanes integrated into a regional network, and light rail/tram lines from suburban or remote areas.  Despite a recorded increase in the issuing of motor vehicle licenses, Freiburg’s efforts to encourage transit use have had measurable results: between 1982 and 1999, local public transport ridership increased from 11 to 18 per cent, bicycle use increased from 15 to 26 per cent and motor vehicle traffic decreased from 38 to 32 per cent.  Freiburg’s transportation motto is “More mobility with fewer cars.”

In Toronto, especially in the central core, cycling is recognized as a legitimate and viable means of commuting.  A multi-stakeholder bicycle committee, in place for many years, continues to lobby successfully for dedicated bicycle lanes and improved connections.  Bicycle couriers are used to good effect in the core of the city as well. 

Even though Ottawa is known for its cold winters, a high proportion of commuter trips are made by bike.  Beneficial investments in bicycle infrastructure include well-lit, secure locations for bicycle storage, and a “Rack and Roll” program to link bicycle and transit travel.  Windsor is also trying to encourage bicycle travel.  The city’s integrated Bicycle Use Master Plan (BUMP) aims to improve cycle routes, facilitate neighborhood access to bus routes and provide bicycle storage at transit locations.

 

The Actie and Safe Routes to School (A&SRTS) is a national program encouraging the use of active modes of transportation to and from school.  The program includes no idling zones for vehicles around schools, and busing drop-off zones with a safe walking distance of schools.  In addition to promoting increased physical activity among children and youth, the A&SRTS program aims to lessen traffic congention and improve air quality around schools.  In Ontario, 100 schools have implemented the program with the help of the non-profit organization Greenest City and its partners.

SOURCE: Go for Green.

6. Meeting the Promise of Policies

Urban form is the cumulative outcome of numerous decisions made on individual development proposals and local infrastructure by municipalities and the private sector.  Policies that encourage compact urban form are therefore not enough.  Mechanisms and incentives for implementation and evaluation must also be in place.

Most cities acknowledge the need to monitor progress in reducing the negative impacts on air quality and encouraging more compact development, but their efforts are primarily devoted to accumulating data rather than tying research findings back to the strategic intent of their planning policies.

 

 

SOURCE:  Michael S. Manett Planning.

Many southern Ontario cities have both the policy framework and the technical expertise for sophisticated strategic planning and analysis.  The constant pressure to expand the urban envelope, and the availability of development opportunities outside the designated growth areas has made it difficult for communities to meet many of their planning goals. 

Tracking Progress

The challenge in monitoring policy objectives is in knowing what is most appropriate to monitor, and how to use that data strategically once it is acquired.

Given the link between air quality and urban form, an effective way to bring together the various elements that affect travel behaviour, land-use and activity patterns is to undertake regional planning focused on air quality improvements. For example, Hamilton’s Vision 2020 (carried out almost a decade ago) has spawned an annual publication of sustainability indicators.  Other southern Ontario cities are now developing similar indicator programs.

The focus of current monitoring activity in southern Ontario remains, however, heavily oriented to recording housing-related statistics and tracking planning approvals.   For example, all of the GTA municipalities co-operate with the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing and the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation to create the Residential Land Inventory, which tracks development applications through to the issuance of building permits.  Where individual municipalities have developed monitoring techniques to assess urban growth, their efforts are poorly coordinated across urban regions.  Municipal departments tend to generate data independently, potentially missing opportunities to avoid overlap or spot emerging trends. 

Under the Municipal Performance Measurement Program, all Ontario municipalities now track, among other things, transit passenger trips, the amount of new development and the consumption of agricultural land.  Many cities in southern Ontario, however, have the capacity to monitor a much broader range of indictors.  The City of London, for example, is tracking intensification as well as residential land consumption.  The Region of Waterloo is measuring environmental and development capacity.  Peel Region is using GIS to visually track new development and related revenues.  York Region is using mapping of the physical and natural resources of the GTA to illustrate the expansion of urbanization on a historical basis.

Some jurisdictions, especially in the U.S., have taken advantage of satellite data to map urban growth.   Made possible in part through funding from NASA’s Earth Observing System, researchers from several cities are using satellite imagery to observe urban areas over time.  Their findings allow municipalities to monitor growth patterns, evaluate how different urban planning programs affect population growth and land use, and predict future growth. For example, satellite data acquired between 1973 and 1996 helped map the growth of the Washington D.C metropolitan area.   Results showed that Washington and its surrounding area have expanded at a rate of 22 square kilometres per year, with the bulk of the growth occurring in the late 1980s. 

A similar study of the Atlanta metropolitan area since 1973 monitored growth patterns and the level of heat radiated from earth.  Researchers documented the loss of vegetation for residential development over the years.  They also were able to show that Atlanta’s urbanized area functions as a “heat island” that causes localized weather patterns such as thunderstorms.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SOURCE:  Marshall Space Flight Center, National Aeronautics
and Space Administration (NASA)

Others have used modeling techniques to monitor and evaluate the connection between air quality and urban growth.  For example, the Atmospheric Research division of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) in Melbourne, Australia, has used computer modeling to investigate the effects of alternative urban forms on energy consumption and atmospheric pollution. 

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7. The Way Forward

The quality of the air we breathe is important to the public.  Cities in Ontario, across Canada and in other locations around the world are developing innovative ways to encourage and achieve compact urban form as one of the means to address air quality.   The six city regions covered in this handbook have some of the worst air quality and traffic congestion in Canada, but also have the potential to meet this challenge with a long standing history of policy-making that supports compact urban form.  While most cities invest heavily in policy development, their focus on site-specific development applications may be done at the expense of broader policy initiatives.

Southern Ontario has experienced tremendous growth in the last fifty years, with much of the recent development being low density, single-use areas on greenfield locations at the edge of our urban areas.  Given a lack of effective alternatives, the public’s reliance on vehicles for mobility shows no signs of diminishing, making Ontario private vehicles now the single largest source of air pollution in urban areas.  The six city regions included in this handbook are all grappling with the challenges of poor air quality.

Municipal policymakers and urban planners can influence some of the factors contributing to poor air quality, in particular those that are linked to the form and function of cities.  What is needed is a strategic and visionary approach to planning for compact urban form.  Cities in other locations around the world are developing innovative ways to encourage and achieve compact urban form as one of the means to address air quality.  This handbook is a step in expanding the urban decision-makers’ toolkit.

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Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing, Municipal Services Offices:

Central
777 Bay Street, 2nd Floor, Toronto  M5G 2E5
General Inquiry: (416) 585-6226
Toll Free: 1-800-668-0230  
Fax: (416) 585-6882

Southwest
659 Exeter Road, 2nd Floor, London  N6E 1L3
General Inquiry: (519) 873-4020
Toll Free: 1-800-265-4736
Fax: (519) 873-4018

East
8 Estate Lane, Rockwood House, Kingston  K7M 9A8
General Inquiry: (613) 548-4304
Toll Free: 1-800-267-9438
Fax: (613) 548-6822

Northeast
159 Cedar Street, Suite 401, Sudbury  P3E 6A5
General Inquiry: (705) 564-0120
Toll Free: 1-800-461-1193 (from 705 area code only)
Fax: (705) 564-6863

Northwest
435 James Street South, Suite 223, Thunder Bay  P7E 6S7
General Inquiry: (807) 475-1651
Toll Free: 1-800-465-5027
Fax: (807) 475-1196

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This publication is based on research commissioned from the Canadian Urban Institute with funding provided by the Ministry of the Environment’s Climate Change Fund.

 

ISBN 0-7794-6410-9
© Queen’s Printer for Ontario, 2004