Metrolinx

Not to be confused with TransLink, who we visited in Vancouver, Metrolinx is the transportation planning authority for the Greater Toronto-Hamilton Area. We met with Julia, a transportation planner at Metrolinx for an overview of the organization and to hear about their work regarding goods movement.

MetroLinx was created in 2006 as a regional level government that reports directly to the Monitsry of Transportation of Ontario. Metrolinx's first order of business was to develop a regional transportation plan. This plan (The Big Move) was completed in 2008, and now Metrolinx focus has shifted to implementation of the plan.

There are Nine Big Moves are the priority actions of Metrolinx and impact the GTHA’s transportation system. While all important, Big Move #8 was of the most interest to us. Big Move #8 relates to goods movement, more specifically to the desire to develop "a comprehensive strategy for goods movement" with a focus on urban and regional freight. Mtrolinx is concerned with both mobility within the city and moving goods through Toronto.

In order to move forward with Big Move #8, a GTHA Urban Freight study was conducted. The study did not include data collection or modeling, but instead created a framwork that helps guide future data collection and moceling efforts. Additionally, a roundtable group of industry representatives, as well as a technical advisroy board were established.

University of Toronto

Our first business of the trip was meeting Prof. Matt Roorda for dinner. We had spent the day exploring the city and acquainting ourselves with its layout, urban form, and mobility options and were all a bit nervous to hunker down to work. Needless to say, we were pleasantly surprised to discover how friendly Prof. Roorda was (Prof. Goodchild already knew this). We were delighted even more when we met him on campus the next day, and we learned how very similar his research group is to our own.

The University has recently built a new transportation lab with attached board room. It was similar to our own new TransLab with computers available for research and a panel of flat screens suitable for video monitoring feeds. They have done a very nice job with their lab and it was a great place to meet.

We spent some time as Prof. Roorda introduced his research, and then listened as Prof. Goodchild presented a lecture on some of her recent work modeling freight flows in Washington. We concluded with each of the students in attendance (us plus 4 or 5 of the UofToronto students) giving an overview of their work. Nearly each of us had a corresponding student at the partner university doing similar work.

Thanks Prof. Roorda!

Toronto, Detroit, and the Great Lakes border crossings

After our trip to Vancouver, we took a few weeks to finish up our end-of-term requirements and then packed our bags for an exciting trip to Toronto, Ontario, Detroit, and the Great Lakes region border crossings.

Here was our agenda:
1) Travel to Detroit, cross the border, and drive to Toronto
2) Explore Toronto, ride transit, get a feel for the city
3) Meet with Matt Roorda and others from the University of Toronto
4) Meet with Julia Salvini at Metrolinx
5) Meet with Bill Anderson and others at the University of Windsor
6) Meet with and tour the CBSA crossing at the Ambassador Bridge
7) Explore the area surrounding the Ambassador Bridge
8) Cross the border
9) Meet with the Detroit Chamber of Commerce

We really enjoyed the contrast between Toronto & Vancouver, Metrolinx and TransLink, and the two border regions. Even though the Cascade Gateway is so important in the northwest, we were stunned to see how much larger the Great Lakes crossings are.

More to come on each of our stops . . . .

TransLink

In Vancouver, B.C., we had an extremely informative meeting with Keenan Kitasaka, TransLink’s manager in intelligent transportation systems, on transportation planning in the Greater Vancouver Region.

TransLink is the Greater Vancouver Region’s transportation authority. It plans transportation services and infrastructure as well as financing and managing of all public transit. It also plans the future of freight in the region. He started with a presentation explaining how TransLink is organized and how it relates to other agencies. He called our attention to the fact that the board of directors’ members are volunteers and the positive impact of having an unique authority coordinating municipalities’ transportation-related actions. This last point has allowed coordinating infrastructure investment and traffic management projects in the area.

We also were introduced to the transit planning and operations in the region. Transit is a fundamental component in TranLink’s vision for a sustainable future. Billions of dollars have been spent in new infrastructure and equipment as new heavy rail lines (the famous SkyTrain) have been installed, bus fleet have been updated and transit corridors improved. TransLink can also regulate land uses and has the authority to buy land (at market price) when a new transportation project requires it. This ensures the uses and densities exist to create transit-oriented developments. It was interesting to contrast the more top-down approach Vancouver and, in general, Canada has in transportation planning. On the contrary, the US follows a more bottom-up approach where citizens and local agencies have more power.
Finally, we were shown the different road infrastructure projects in the region to keep delay low for trucks. These projects are complemented with new investments in intelligent transportation systems to improve the management of infrastructure and traffic in the area.

We were incredible thankful to Keenan for his enriching and thoughtful presentation and left discussing the similarities and differences between the Greater Vancouver Region and the US.

IMTC & Whatcom COG

We started our Vancouver trip with a meeting at the Whatcom COG to talk to Hugh Conroy and Melissa Miller about their work there and for the IMTC. We couldn't have picked a better way to start. Many of us have met Hugh and Melissa before when we've attended IMTC meetings or as they've helped us with various research projects. They are both incredibly knowledgeable, friendly, and hard-working - excellent qualities for study tour guides.

During our visit they gave us an overview of their region, how the Cascade Gateways (Washington-BC border crossings) work, and what some of the current challenges and strategies are. We also learned how the role of the Whatcom COG has evolved over time starting as an agency whose primary job was to bless federal transportation projects in the region into one that does that as well as run the commute trip reduction program, act as the lead agency in the cross border agency coalition, and work to manage the broader regional transportation system. Some of their efforts help the Cascade Gateway region, which includes Whatcom County, function as a binational economic region.

They explained to us some of the many ways the border complicates even mundane issues. The legal authority of localities and regions is different in the two countries, adding the border adds a significant number of stakeholders to every decision, and even when projects are coordinated funding on both sides can be difficult. For example, the CBP (US Customs and Border Protection) facilities are in the US but the roadways leading to those facilities are in Canada, so any effort to improve capacity to the CBP infrastructure relies on similar efforts to improve the approaching roadways (and the same is true for US roadways leading to CBSA facilities). Who should pay to make the roadway improvements? The country who controls the roadways or the country whose facilities are served by the roadways?

Hugh and Melissa provided an excellent knowledge base for us to launch from, as well as a friendly welcome.