The planning document that will guide how all facets of Sudbury's transportation system will be developed will be ready soon for the public to view.
Meeting on Monday, members of the operations committee were told the latest version of the Transportation Master Plan (TMP) will be online in a day or two.
Roads director David Shelsted said the public and city councillors will have a chance to go over it in detail before it's voted on Dec. 13.
“So people can see the revised document well in advance of the council meeting,” Shelsted said.
The city's most recent TMP was updated in 2005. The current study will include “policies to guide the development of a comprehensive and sustainable network that will accommodate all modes of transportation, including cycling and walking, in a healthy community,” the city said on its website.
It will include recommendations on how to address existing problems in the transportation network, as well as planning for future needs.
Once approved, the TMP will be incorporated into Greater Sudbury's Official Plan, “to establish goals, objectives and policies that will manage and direct physical change throughout the community for the next two decades.”
Brett Sears, a consultant with the MMM Group that's preparing the document, said at a meeting in March 2015 that the study began in 2011 and has gone through two public input sessions, one each in 2012 and 2013.
At one time, transportation policies were largely based on the needs of cars, Sears said.
“Somewhere along the line, the car became the main focus,” he said.
But the pendulum has swung, Sears said, and now other modes of getting around are being recognized as priorities, too.
That means when a road is built, the needs of all users should be incorporated, rather than, for example, going back and adding bike lanes to a road that's already been built.
So the master plan will include what's known as a complete streets policy, which considers the needs of walkers, cyclists and transit users, as well as motorists.
The TMP will be posted to the city's website, greatersudbury.ca
