The Official Plan: Supporting a Connected & Mobile City
Explore how the new Official Plan's policy directions support the sub themes of a Connected & Mobile City. You can provide your feedback on this theme by using the online comment sheet or by visiting the project page to learn about more feedback options.
Active Transportation
What would encourage you to get out of your car and walk or cycle more often? How can Barrie make transit faster and more personalized?
What you said: Discussion revolved around active transportation, new connections (bridges), parking lots, flexible parking standards, and site design. More specific concepts were explored including creating more “complete streets”, focusing public transit investments along intensification corridors and nodes as well as inter-regional connections at the edge of the City, and express routes for efficient mobility. The public is strongly in favour of wanting the City to shift away from the automobile travel and move towards more active forms of transportation
Policy Direction: Barrie will accommodate all forms of transportation and provide the appropriate infrastructure to support these different modes to ensure residents have mobility options other than the private automobile. The City will plan for an improved active transportation network that is safe, efficient, and reliable. The Official Plan will focus on complete streets to accommodate all forms of mobility based upon the role of the street.
Public Transit and Vehicle Travel
How can the City overcome the mobility barriers posed by Highway 400?
What you said: Discussions focused around how Highway 400 bisects the community and makes connectivity a challenge for all modes of transportation. There are several crossing points throughout the city that allow residents to walk from one side of the highway to the other, but there is a lack of pedestrian infrastructure at these locations. Members of the public felt that the highway served as a barrier and potential safety hazard, as it is difficult to navigate using active forms of transportation. The public wanted active transportation infrastructure over/under the 400 to assist with mobility throughout the city. Recommendations included; wider sidewalks, pedestrian signage, and creative lighting to make walking under bridges safe and more comfortable as well as new crossing points that are solely dedicated to pedestrians (and cyclists walking their bicycles) which could connect Georgian College and the Royal Victoria Hospital to the surrounding movie theatre and commercial plazas. The city would feel more cohesive and choosing alternative forms of transportation would seem like a more realistic option.
Policy Direction: Barrie will work with the Province to coordinate, prioritize, and secure investment in active transportation infrastructure to improve connectivity and mobility at all Highway 400 crossings.
Goods Movement
How can the City improve the movement of goods into and throughout Barrie?
What you said: The City of Barrie is well connected to the province and beyond through local roads and provincial highways. Stakeholders indicated that interchanges like Mapleview and the 400 pose a freight and goods mobility challenges due to congestion. Staff discussed how the new OP can improve the mobility of freight and goods to help businesses compete in a just-in-time delivery economy.
Policy Direction: To bolster the economy, Barrie will support goods movement by identifying and protecting freight-supportive transportation corridors (railway corridors & key highway 400 interchanges such as McKay Road) to support goods movement and employment areas.
Public Consultation Quotes
“More transit infrastructure/ bike lanes/wider sidewalks and complete design, having things/opportunities closer, should be absolutely enriched in our OP. It would make my quality of life so much better."- Feedback from Priorities Survey
“We must immediately cease prioritizing anything for single passenger vehicles. We must cease making it more convenient to travel by car than by other modes like cycling, transit and walking.”- Feedback from OP Project Workshop
"This city is a real challenge if you're not wealthy, and that's only mildly correlated to housing prices. It's hard to participate in the life of this city without access to a car and a fair amount of discretionary income.”- Feedback from OP Project Workshop