Tailored Solutions That Take You Where You Need to Go
In Canada, almost 80 percent of the population live in an urbanized area which is expanding. This shows that cities and transit agencies all over Canada are faced with the challenges of improving transit services in order to meet current and future demands.
Effective transit plans require a balanced approach to meeting mobility needs, ensuring that all modes of travel can be safely accommodated in a way that promotes sustainability, economic prosperity, and a high quality of life. Through insightful planning and collaboration, we work with our clients and all stakeholders to make the right choices for their needs, identifying efficient and cost-effective solutions that optimize performance and minimize impacts on surrounding communities.
Our Transit Planning Service Types
- Planning Studies
- Transit Network Analysis and Redesign
- Rapid Transit Planning
- Service Standards and Performance Monitoring
- Route Planning & Corridor Alignment Studies
- Business Case Support
- Ridership Analysis and Forecasting
- Intelligent Transportation Systems and Innovation
- Feasibility and Conceptual Design Studies
- Operations Concepts Studies
- Maintenance & Storage Facility Functional Planning
- Travel Demand Management Studies
Transit Planning in Action:
Ottawa Light Rail Stage 2 Transit Planning for the City of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON.
Several segments of the planned Light Rail Transit (LRT) network were located within the current OC Transpo Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) network, while other segments employed new transit corridors. Planned construction within the existing BRT system necessitated the relocation of transit services to surface roads with travel in mixed use traffic conditions. To understand the key issues, Morrison Hershfield was retained by the City of Ottawa to examine the transit priority measures necessary to ensure an efficient and reliable bus service during construction.
Scope: evaluation of a wide variety of transit priority measures (Bus Only Lanes, designation of sections of Richmond Road for transit use only, queue jumps, signal enhancements, locations of bus stops, etc.), considering travel times, reliability, and cost (impact on OC Transpo operating budget and serviceability).
RESULTS: recommendations were provided to the City of Ottawa in order to reduce travel time delay and operating costs to transit during the construction of Stage 2 LRT. Some of these recommendations included: transit priority measures and temporary bus lanes for 2 kilometres on Scott Street, a temporary 2 kilometre rebuild of the Southwest Transitway, and a new transit-only roadway connection to Carleton University. All solutions recommended in the Traffic and Transit Management Plan were incorporated into the PSOS for the project.