It’s unclear what the future of the city’s Transportation Master Plan timeline is, its accompanying strategies or accounting of the half-million dollars in funding provided in the 2023 budget.

The initiative includes a Roadway System Master Plan (RSMP) which received $250,000 in funding and the accompanying Traffic Safety Plan (TSP) and Active Transportation Plan (ATP) both being earmarked $125,000.

The trio of initiatives were seen to work collaboratively together, according to the city’s 2023-2024 Capital Budget Q & A and is currently collectively known as the Transportation Master Plan.

In part, the RSMP is to identify classes of roads that will be required to deal with increased traffic as population grows. The TSP will identify safety issues and provide ways to mitigate them, and the ATP is the planning document identifying the where, what and when regarding multi-model transportation such as bike lanes and trails, according to the city.

But it’s unclear where the half-million dollars in public funds were spent aside from a page on the city’s Shape Your City website and a survey conducted in early 2024 by Associated Engineering.

The webpage states the Transportation Master Plan will be complete in “late 2024.”

Administration is anticipated to provide its first status update on the plans to council on Feb. 3.

The update, “doesn’t provide a great deal of information on the actual plans,” Stan Nowakowski, municipal works director, told members of the Development and Infrastructure Committee on Jan. 16.

“All through 2024, we’ve been working on a new Transportation Master Plan,” he told committee members earlier this month. “We’ve expanded that to include an active transportation strategy to update the cycle master plan developed in 2010.”

Nowakowski stated a transportation safety strategy has been added to the initiative.

Once the plans are complete, they will provide a comprehensive, prioritized list of capital projects, according to a summary of the update provided to committee members.

“This prioritization will guide the city’s strategic approach to transportation infrastructure enhancements, ensuring that resources are allocated effectively to address the most critical needs,” states the briefing note which council is expected to receive on Feb. 3.

The only priority of the Transportation Master Plan publicly presented since the announcement of the initiative in 2022 has been the $1.2 million Canyon Creek/Heron Crossing multi-use trail. That trail would extend the trail along South Boundary Road to the two isolated communities.

City staff have indicated the municipality will be applying for a federal active transportation grant for that project prior to that program closing on Feb. 26.

The survey on the Transportation Master Plan in 2024, however, saw zero participants from either Canyon Creek or Heron Crossing compared with Northlands which saw 100 Hatters participate. That participation number also saw South Ridge and Southeast Hill neighbourhoods round out the top three in the survey which garnered 750 responses on the trio of plans.

Canyon Creek and Heron Crossing residents among the 22 homes in the neighbourhoods have been provided direct access to council and city staff in advocating for the trail. That’s according to statements made at both the Public Services and Development and Infrastructure committees over the past year. City staff have identified those neighbourhoods as “leapfrog” communities, built outside of smart growth principles identified by the municipality which don’t conform with best practices of urban development.

In response to safety concerns raised by Canyon Creek and Heron Crossing resident, city staff say that in the past decade or so there has been one reported incident believed to be along the lines of a dented guardrail.

Speaking on an icy sidewalk metres away from where an 82-year-old pedestrian was hit by a car in August, Trevor Knickerson, said he’d like to see Southview Drive a priority for the Transportation Master Plan.

The area has a high concentration of densely populated seniors’ residencies and assisted living facilities along with shopping, banks, pharmacies, groceries, dentists as well as a Tim Hortons accessed by individuals utilizing mobility scooters.

“There are some clear sections but a lot of (the sidewalks) are icy, making it hard to travel on,” said Knickerson while parked on his mobility scooter on one such spot. “It’s hard for people to walk down to the stores or anything like that.”

He added he uses the available infrastructure daily to get outside if for no other reason.

But the area is challenging.

“I get stuck,” he said in regard to the current maintenance of the available infrastructure. “I’ve been stuck four or five times already. There’s been some nice people helping push me out but there could be a time I won’t have anyone there.”

It’s also unclear whether the multiple reports and recommendations concerning safety issues on Parkview Drive will be a priority in the latest plan.

In particular, the stretch of the road running between Maple Avenue and 12th Street, the scene of two fatalities, a 42-year-old pedestrian and 18-year-old driver.

Two plans released in 2010 highlighted the safety issues and proposed both an on- and off-street option to deal with those concerns. The issues were reiterated in a 2017 speed review conducted on the road with the site also producing the highest number of photo radar tickets for speeding violations in the city.

The mayor and city councillors were asked to comment on whether they still support the development of the Transportation Master Plan, how the $500,000 budgeted was spent and the level of public engagement in developing the strategy.

None of council provided comment.

The briefing note provided to Development and Infrastructure committee members highlights its in-person public engagement so far as consisting of two of its Municipal Mingle events and an external stakeholder workshop held in October 2023.

The final Transportation Master Plan which aims to create a strategy framework to 2050 will be presented to council before the end of March, according to its implementation plan.

A draft of the plan is anticipated to be released prior to March 31.  Participation by the public and stakeholder groups, schools, the local chamber of commerce, Alberta Motor Association and special interest groups is required prior to implementation of the plan.