In 2018, the Town of Innisfil completed its transportation master plan, which is currently under review to ensure it still reflects the needs of residents.
The goal of the update is to create a long-term transportation vision and strategy to address future mobility needs in Innisfil.
As a result of the update, the town has been connecting with residents for feedback, taking into account the expected growth in the area.
Meredith Goodwin, capital project manager for the town, says there have been 724 responses from residents so far in the town's Get Involved survey, providing feedback on the plan.
The survey included questions related to travel needs for work or school, transit and shared mobility, active transportation, technology and electric vehicles, and transportation issues and solutions.
"Survey data and resident input through open houses were combined with traffic data and modelling based on planned population growth. All of these factors play into the recommendations within the master plan," said Goodwin.
As the review continues, a draft is expected in a few weeks for the public to look over for a chance to provide comments to the town.
The draft transportation master plan will be available for review in May, Goodwin confirmed and will be posted on the town's Get Involved page here.
"We encourage interested residents to subscribe to this page so that we can notify them when the draft plan has been posted. Residents will have an opportunity to review the draft plan and provide comments," she said.
Innisfil resident John Stillich has long been involved in providing input to the town on the Transportation Master Plan. His biggest concern is the lack of focus on a realistic long-term public transportation plan.
“My message is that you’ve got to get away from Uber because it’s only picking up 0.3 per cent of all the trips in Innisfl,” he said. “Every other town and small city in southern Ontario have a public transit system, but Innisfil doesn’t really. It’s time they joined the party in terms of helping people who need transit."
In talking with council and submitting his research for review, Stillich believes a transit system is a good solution, and that another survey should be conducted focusing on ridership potential.
“One thing I’ve said is that they need to do another survey of Innisfil residents that’s specifically focused on ascertaining what the ridership potential is for a particular network of transit routes," he said. "They need to be clear in showing people the routes and timing of it all to see what the percentages are of riders."
He referenced the town's feasibility study in 2015 that resulted in a single-route transit option every 60 minutes, which had low ridership.
"The town then chose to try and do something innovative by going with Uber," Stillich said.
With the town’s growth over the next 30 years expected to double (from 43,300 in 2021 to 85,000 in 2051), Stillich says the preparation needs to begin sooner than later to address the potential issues with transit.
“The Town of Innisfil’s budget includes a forecast of 100,000 trips using Uber in 2022 and includes a subsidy budget of $413,000 — $4.13 per trip taken," he said. "A straight-line projection, assuming a population of 85,000 by 2051 or shortly thereafter, suggests a tax-supported expenditure of approximately $620,000 for Uber services. Whether there will be enough Uber drivers to safely and efficiently serve Innisfil’s growing population is uncertain.
"The congestive effects of Uber service may also become an issue," Stillich added, with every trip to a client’s destination means a trip to the client and another to the destination.
After attending the open house, Stillich wonders why more resources aren’t being put into gathering information and public feedback on the feasibility of public transportation in Innisfil.
He worries that the transportation update falls short, by only focusing on roads and active transportation, which includes walkers and cyclists.
"There was very little said about public transit, and they’ve got to come around to it," he said. "There was no indication that some manner of scheduled fixed-route transit model can be envisioned for Innisfil, and every indication that the priority will be almost exclusively on supporting an increased use of private automobiles and trucks for daily trips, save for some attention to infrastructure for bicycles and active transportation.”
Town officials say they’re currently in the process of investigating options other than Uber as Innisfil’s primary form of public transportation as a way to balance the expected growth.
“Though the existing Innisfil Transit model (partnership with Uber for an on-demand ride-sharing service) is proving to be the most cost-effective way to provide coverage across all of Innisfil in the current context, according to the County of Simcoe’s municipal comprehensive review exercise, the town’s population is forecast to reach a population of nearly 90,000 by 2051 (this is over double from Innisfil’s 2021 Census population of nearly 44,000),” said Paul Pentikainen, senior policy planner for the town.
"As a result of this forecast growth, the town’s ongoing transportation master plan process and upcoming transit master plan (later this year), will consider scaling up Innisfil Transit to incorporate higher capacity vehicles or other service models in the coming years and decades.”
The town is in discussions about the best form of public transportation to fit its needs going forward, which could include a local bus service.
“A particular focus will be to assess the potential impact on ridership because of the development densities envisioned for the Orbit at the proposed future Innisfil GO station and how incorporating new service delivery models could potentially better service this ridership demand,” Pentikainen added. “This will also include discussions with the county on potentially extending the LINX bus service into Innisfil, as well as discussions with Metrolinx on enhancements to the existing GO bus service.”
