The Transportation Association of Canada (TAC) is a not-for-profit, national technical association that provides guidelines on a host of transportation infrastructure and services.
Many smaller municipalities are seeking to start or improve local transit service in their communities, but lack the detailed in-house knowledge to do so. As a result, TAC commissioned us to create the “Small Communities Transit Guidelines”.
How we helped
We drew upon our extensive experience working with small communities to review existing and potential transit systems. We broke down the process of implementing a new transit system into small discrete stages. For each stage, we described the options and explained the merits of each one. We also provide guidance on issues that will be unique to each community, such as route planning.
Where appropriate, we identified stages and steps that also applied to existing systems, including how to review the effectiveness and efficiency of a system.
Steer also provided worksheets to aid the financial calculations for a small transit network.
Successes and outcomes
The resulting guidelines cover the full planning process for smaller urban communities looking to establish, enhance, or sustain transit services in their communities.
The guidelines can be applied to small urban centers, rural communities, and urban communities on the fringe of large urban centers.
The guidelines were formally published in September 2015.