Item - 2019.IE10.3

The Infrastructure and Environment Committee recommends that:

1. City Council authorize the General Manager, Transportation Services to negotiate and execute a non-competitive agreement with Code for Canada to hire a product team via Code for Canada to complete the development of MOVE, in the amount of $832,107.00 net of Harmonized Sales Tax ($846,752.08 net of Harmonized Sales Tax recoveries) including provisional items, contingency and all applicable charges, on terms and conditions satisfactory to the General Manager, Transportation Services and in a form satisfactory to the City Solicitor.

The Infrastructure and Environment Committee:

1.  Requested the General Manager, Transportation Services to report twice a year to the Infrastructure and Environment Committee on traffic collision and volume data, in a manner that is easy to understand.

The purpose of this report is to request authority to enter into a non-competitive contract with Code for Canada to hire a product team via Code for Canada to complete the development of MOVE, a new data platform to be used for the storage, visualization, and analysis of traffic volume and collision data, and bring it into production.  In 2018, Transportation Services retained a team of three digital product professionals via the Code for Canada fellowship program to fundamentally rethink and redesign its processes and systems around traffic volume and collision data. The program produced an early prototype of MOVE and a detailed product roadmap built on a foundation of in-depth user research.

MOVE is being built to replace CRASH and FLOW, legacy software systems first deployed in the early 1990s:

-CRASH is used to store and analyze all recorded collisions involving a motorized vehicle that take place within the City of Toronto from 1985 to present.

-FLOW is used to store and analyze traffic counts conducted or commissioned by City staff from 1984 to present.
 

These systems are still relied upon today but have outlived their useful shelf lives and urgently need replacing. CRASH and FLOW are highly susceptible to data quality issues, are error prone, and use technologies and operate on systems that are no longer supported by the Information & Technology (I&T) Division. They also lack the features needed to support the planning and delivery functions of a modern and multimodal road safety program such as Vision Zero 2.0.

Collisions and traffic volumes are primary data sources used for engineering evaluations in support of traffic safety projects. These datasets are also critical to numerous transportation planning and operations functions across the City. This contract would cover the delivery of product development services from a team of three associates over a period of up to 18 months. This work would also facilitate the publication of complete and timely traffic count and collision data to the City’s Open Data Portal.

This is being executed as a non-competitive contract as Code for Canada is uniquely qualified to offer both product development services at a below market rate, help build internal digital capacity within the Transportation Services Division, and preserve institutional and project knowledge gained through past procurements with the organization.

City Council approval is required in accordance with Municipal Code Chapter 195, Purchasing, where the current request exceeds the Chief Purchasing Officer's authority of the cumulative five year commitment limit for each vendor under Article 7, Section 195-7.3(D) of the Purchasing By-law or exceeds the threshold of $500,000 net of Harmonized Sales Tax allowed under staff authority as per the Toronto Municipal Code, Chapter 71, Financial Control, Section 71-11a.