Achieving Sustainable Urban Transportation: The Decision Making Challenge

Reduced automobile dependence and improved competitiveness of transit for a wider variety of trip purposes are common goals of most attempts to improve the sustainability of urban transportation in medium and large Canadian cities. However, our collective ability to 'get things done' and make meaningful and cost effective improvements in public transit appears to be on the decline, largely due to conflicting objectives, a multiplicity of government agencies, questionable models of transportation agency governance, the lack of realistic financial models, and a very cumbersome process for the review of transportation decisions. This paper focuses on three important aspects urban transportation decision making, namely, governance models, the planning process, and more innovative financing.