Project Launch: Guidelines for Defining and Measuring Congestion

A project to develop a guideline about defining and measuring traffic congestion has been launched by the Transportation Association of Canada (TAC).

A key rationale for investing in transportation infrastructure is to avoid, reduce and manage traffic congestion.

Uniform methods and data sources to measure congestion do not currently exist, and the definition of congestion is not consistent across Canada.  A need to produce practical guidelines for defining and measuring congestion was identified to address these key issues.

Recommended by the Transportation Planning and Research Standing Committee, objectives of this project include:

• developing a guideline to measure and monitor traffic congestion, in order to promote methodological consistency among Canada’s urban areas
• providing guidance on how available data sources should be used, and
• informing the institutional, public and political discourse on transportation issues and solutions

The project steering committee will be finalizing its request for proposals and selecting the project consultant in the near future.

Project funding partners include Alberta Transportation, British Columbia Transportation and Infrastructure, the Ministry of Transportation of Ontario, le Ministère des Transports du Québec, Transport Canada, l’Agence métropolitaine de transport, Metrolinx, TransLink, Halifax Regional Municipality, Regional Municipality of Peel, and the cities of Edmonton, Montréal and Toronto.