Plan to encourage walking, cycling, carpooling, public transit in Sudbury

The City of Greater Sudbury wants to hear how you travel.

It is encouraging people to fill out an online survey between May 16 and June 9 to influence the creation of a new transportation demand management plan.

"Throughout North America, municipalities are continuing to experience increasing congestion, increasing commute times and levels of stress resulting in significant economic losses," said Marisa Talarico, the city's active transportation coordinator.

"To effectively increase the efficiency of our network, solutions other than roadway expansion are required."

The survey asks people how they get to work, how long their commute is, and whether they would consider walking or cycling to their destination.

It proposes incentives and asks participants to rank proposals on what would make them change their travelling behaviours.

Public transit in outlyingareas isn't 'working'

A consultant is being hired at a cost of $55,000 to develop the plan. The city is paying approximately $27,500 of the bill, and the rest is coming from the federal government's public transit infrastructure fund.

Once developed, the document may result in new incentives to encourage people to choose walking, cycling, carpooling or public transit over driving.

It is also expected to include long-term policies, programs, services and products to influence how people get around.

Some city councillors have questioned the need for the survey.

"I would love to take a bus or another mode of transportation," Coun. Evelyn Dutrisac of Azilda and Chelmsford said.

"But the situation is that the buses in those [outlying] areas ... aren't working the same thing as downtown."

A completed transportation demand management plan is expected to to be presented at city hall in 2018.