Item - 2024.IE16.4

City Council considered the following Items together:

IE16.4 headed "Congestion Management Plan 2023 - 2026 - Fall Update”; and

IE16.2 headed "Enhancing Capital Infrastructure Program Coordination".

The Infrastructure and Environment Committee recommends that:

1. City Council request the General Manager, Transportation Services, to work with the Chief Planner and Executive Director, City Planning and the Executive Director, Development Review, to review and assess opportunities in the development review process to encourage development proposals to include adequate setbacks or other design elements to minimize the need for lane occupation during building construction to the greatest extent possible, and to report back to City Council on an assessment of any potential actions to implement this.

2. City Council request the General Manager, Transportation Services, in collaboration with the Director, Strategic Capital Coordination Office, to engage and work with the Toronto Public Utilities Coordinating Committee to:

a.  encourage their members to review and assess construction methods that minimize road occupation on the right-of-way without negatively impacting pavement quality; and

b. clarify the definition and notification requirements for projects deemed 'Emergency Utility Work' taking into consideration cost recovery for associated traffic management costs that support these emergency closures.

3. City Council amend City of Toronto Municipal Code Chapter 441, Fees and Changes , Appendix C - Schedule 2 (Transportation Services) to establish a new Road Disruption Activity Reporting System (RoDARS) fee for temporary street occupation permit applicants as set out in Attachment 1 to the revised report (September 24, 2024) from the General Manager, Transportation Services, and request the City Solicitor to submit the bill to amend Chapter 441 as soon as possible after the General Manager, Transportation Services has confirmed that implementation of the new Road Disruption Activity Reporting System system has been completed and that all other necessary steps associated with creating and adding a new Road Disruption Activity Reporting System fee have been completed.

4. City Council request the General Manager, Transportation Services, to complete the financial assessment for the construction congestion management levy for lane occupancy, including the appropriate amount(s), and report back on the implementation details as part of the 2025 budget process.

5. City Council direct the City Solicitor to review the Highway Traffic Act, including Section 145 (1), and any other relevant legislation to determine what amendments would be required to be made by the Province and / or other relevant bodies to permit the "don't block the box" offence to be made an offence which may be enforced through an automated camera system and / or an Administrative Penalty System and, upon the City Solicitor providing the results of their review to the City Manager, the City Manager, in consultation with the appropriate staff, send a letter to the Province and / or relevant bodies requesting the necessary legislative amendments.

6. City Council direct the City Manager to send a letter to the Ministry of the Attorney General requesting an exemption for the City until April 1, 2025 from all new statutory and administrative requirements under the new Community Safety and Policing Act, 2019 that relate to special constable employer status and training requirements for special constables, specifically requesting that:

a. the City be permitted to maintain or be granted special constable employer status to appoint special constables until the City enters into a new Memorandum of Understanding for City Traffic Agent Special Constables with the Toronto Police Service Board; and

b. the new training requirements for special constables be deferred until April 1, 2025.

7. City Council authorize the General Manager, Transportation Services, to negotiate, enter into and execute any new or amended agreements required to extend the Traffic Agents / special constable program, with terms and conditions satisfactory to the General Manager, Transportation Services, and in a form satisfactory to the City Solicitor, including any new or amended agreement(s) with the Toronto Police Service Board for the appointment, training, and management of City Traffic Agents appointed as special constables by the Toronto Police Service Board.

8. City Council request the Toronto Police Service Board continue the Traffic Direction program providing Toronto Police and Special Constables traffic management support for the Traffic Agent program.

9. City Council authorize the General Manager, Transportation Services to enter into agreements with third party entities to participate in Transportation Innovation Challenges, including the Transportation Innovation Challenge described in recommendation 10, upon terms and conditions satisfactory to the General Manager, Transportation Services and City Solicitor, including terms addressing concerns around privacy, cybersecurity, information management and other operational considerations.

10. City Council authorize the General Manager, Transportation Services to deploy camera devices on a temporary basis for the purpose of automated capturing of images of traffic violations, including personal information, for which cameras would be deployed at fixed locations within the City right-of-way and / or on Toronto Transit Commission buses for the purposes of completing a Transportation Innovation Challenge exploring the potential for new automated enforcement technologies to improve road safety, transit prioritization and congestion across the City, the collection of personal information will be subject to the Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act, the completion of a Privacy Impact Assessment, and the information management principles outlined in Attachment 2 to the report (September 16, 2024) from the General Manager, Transportation Services.

11. City Council increase the penalty amount for the "Stop – Signed Highway – During Rush Hour Period" offence for Section 950-405 D.1 of the City of Toronto Municipal Code Chapter 950, Traffic and Parking from $190, which was approved by City Council at its meeting of April 17, 2024, to $300 and that City of Toronto Municipal Code Chapter 610, Penalties, Administration of, be amended accordingly.

12. City Council authorize the City Solicitor to introduce the necessary bills to give effect to City Council's decision and City Council authorize the City Solicitor to make any necessary clarifications, refinements, modifications, technical amendments, or by-law amendments as may be identified by the City Solicitor, in consultation with the General Manager, Transportation Services.

13. City Council request the General Manager of Transportation Services, in consultation with other departments as appropriate, to develop by the first quarter of 2025 a Compliance and Enforcement Policy to assist with deterring breaches of the Code relevant to traffic congestion and to public safety, including:

a. considerations, practices, and procedures pertaining to the issuance of tickets and summons; and

b. considerations, practices, and procedures pertaining to notices of violation.

The Infrastructure and Environment Committee:

1. Directed the General Manager, Transportation Services, to report directly to the October 9 and 10, 2024 City Council meeting with a report confirming that if the requisite community consultation on the Road Disruption Activity Reporting System fee, as noted in recommendation 3 above, has been completed.

The Infrastructure and Environment Committee considered this item together with item IE16.2.

Will Johnston, Deputy City Manager, Infrastructure Services, Jennifer Graham Harkness, Chief Engineer and Executive Director, Engineering and Construction Services, Judy Tse, Director, Strategic Policy and Programs, and Roger Browne, Director, Traffic Management, gave a presentation on Congestion Management Plan 2023 - 2026 - Fall Update.

The Congestion Management Plan 2023 - 2026 was presented at the October 2023 Infrastructure and Environment Committee and then subsequently to Council in November 2023. This report addresses a number of additional items that City Council has requested Transportation Services report back on since the adoption of the original report.  

Toronto continues to be the busiest city in all North America in terms of construction due to increased private development activity, major infrastructure renewal and the implementation of higher order transit. While the economic benefits of growth will deliver long term value to the residents and businesses in the city, the impacts of construction are having a direct impact on network capacity and neighborhood mobility. Since the end of the pandemic, construction activity has been exacerbated by changes in travel patterns due to hybrid work and a resurgence of people attending events on the weekends. In short, construction has increased, travel patterns and habits have changed, the city population continues to grow and, as a result, overall congestion is having a significant impact on people's daily lives and travel.  

Managing congestion in a city the size and scale of Toronto requires comprehensive and nimble approaches to planning and coordination, including bringing data and analytics to articulate the causes of congestion and implement strategic approaches-both tested and innovative-to manage impacted areas. This report identifies additional strategic measures and coordinating efforts to effectively address traffic flow, streamline construction activities and accommodate the demands of a growing urban population.

There are several systemic changes being introduced at the September 27 Infrastructure & Environment Committee meeting to help manage citywide congestion and construction coordination, including this report as well as the Enhancing Capital Infrastructure Program Coordination report. These two reports are further supported by actions that Engineering and Construction Services is taking to enhance capital delivery and contract management for large municipal infrastructure projects. A report on these initiatives will be advanced in the first quarter of 2025.

As part of this shared and collaborative effort, this report provides updates on five key impactful actions being led by Transportation Services that will more effectively manage congestion in the near term and set a strong foundation for the future:

- Plans for better coordination and control over construction activities on the right-of-way and strategy for cost-recovery of traffic congestion mitigation efforts

- Upcoming measures for automated enforcement to mitigate bylaw infractions, such as the blockage of signalized intersections and illegal blockage of bike lanes and illegal use of dedicated transit lanes.

- Next steps for the Traffic Agent Program and Continued support from the Toronto Police Traffic Direction Pilot

- New evaluation framework and methodology for reviewing and approving permits for Special Events

- Increasing fines in support of congestion and safety

Attachment 4 outlines the timelines and expected outcomes of each action towards better managing congestion.

In addition to the key measures listed above, this report also proposes a plan for a new Artificial Intelligence-based traffic simulation modelling strategy that will assist in assessing the impacts of proposed construction or special event related road closures, recommend traffic mitigation plans and provide the ability to measure the impacts of the road closures. It is anticipated that the predicted impacts could be used in the future to better inform charges for road occupation in the new cost-recovery framework.

While the recommendations in this report will not eliminate congestion, they provide a more robust toolkit of coordination practices, technology enhancements and "boots on the ground" solutions to actively manage the ongoing pressures of growth and development that continues to shape our city.