Development of Modal Share Targets for Ottawa’s Transportation Master Plan

The City of Ottawa updated its Transportation Master Plan (TMP) in 2003. The new TMP plans for the management and reduction the long-term demand for single-occupant vehicle trips through a combination of investment in rapid transit infrastructure and the promotion of TDM and other complementary measures. These plans respond to a series of modal share targets that were developed as part of the TMP. In contrast to the traditional method of developing the target shares at screenlines, a new process was introduced. This process took into account the entire trip from origin to destination, as well as the trip purpose. The resultant targets thus allowed TMP actions and policies to be related directly to the intended travel ‘market,’ as opposed to an arbitrary point on the transportation network. This paper describes the new process for developing modal share targets. The paper includes a review of the different steps and how the results were applied to the Ottawa TMP, and a comparison with the previous process. It concludes with a review of the benefits to the development of transportation policies and plans, and possible next steps to elaborate further the process.