A Long-Range Transportation Plan for One of Canada’s Fastest-Growing Cities

Brampton, Ontario, is a key urban centre in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area and is growing fast. The city's travel patterns are shaped by a historic car-oriented street network, rapidly intensifying corridors, and a diverse population spread across established neighbourhoods and emerging communities.

In 2022, the City of Brampton retained HDR to develop a plan to reframe how people and goods move, aligned with the City's objective to expand transportation options beyond road widening.

The resulting Brampton Mobility Plan (BMP) is a comprehensive, long-range transportation master plan that outlines the development of infrastructure, services, and operational practices to meet the city's needs through to 2051.

From Ideas to Implementation

We focused on turning the City’s objectives and principles — based on Vision 2040 and the Complete Streets Guide (CSG), which HDR also helped develop — into an analyzable framework and a buildable program. 

Our transportation specialists began with a citywide technical baseline that included information on mobility networks, travel demand, safety, land use, and demographics. We then developed a planning approach that incorporated equity, implementation, and connectivity as key components of the evaluation and prioritization process.

The plan prioritized:

• Equity and accessibility: We identified neighbourhoods that face the greatest combination of socioeconomic and transportation barriers to prioritize investments where they are needed most. An equity framework, including process and evaluation guidance, was also developed to encourage fair and inclusive decision-making beyond the BMP for future transportation projects.
• Practical implementation: Projects proposed in the CSG were assessed for feasibility, cost-effectiveness, and their role in the overall transportation network, helping to create a clear and coordinated implementation plan.
• Connected transportation network: Projects were prioritized based on their ability to close network gaps, improve connections to transit, and create safe, comfortable walking and cycling routes. The plan supports a shift toward more travel choices, recognizing that expanding roads alone will not solve congestion as the city grows.

Real Feedback, Realistic Outcomes

We helped the City design an engagement program to meet people where they are. By hosting public events at busy community destinations such as Bramalea City Centre and Shoppers World, we reached a broader, more diverse cross-section of residents and collected feedback that reflected the experiences and needs of the wider community.

The resulting Brampton Mobility Plan provides a clear roadmap for investing in transportation projects that deliver the greatest benefits for access, safety, and connectivity. By prioritizing first- and last-mile connections, assessing project readiness, and identifying key policy changes, the plan creates a practical, actionable framework to improve mobility across the city.

The project demonstrates how an equity-driven approach can guide transportation planning and highlight strategies for introducing active transportation options in car-oriented areas to strengthen connections between walking, cycling, and transit networks. 

The success of the project was due to strong collaboration with the City of Brampton, with support from Dillon Consulting Ltd.