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ecoMOBILITY Webinars

The 2011-12 ecoMOBILITY webinar series is now complete.

Previous ecoMOBILITY Webinars

To access recordings and copies of previous presentations, please click here.

2011-12 Webinar Series

Complete Streets
 October 4, 2011
 Rebecca O’Brien, Program Coordinator, Sustainable Alberta Association
“Complete streets” is a relatively new term that has entered into the parlance of transportation planning. A complete street policy begins with one overriding principle: Design streets for the most vulnerable. Complete street policies promote planning, engineering, and transportation policies that provide a safer road network for all users, be they drivers, cyclists, pedestrians, or transit users.

This webinar examined the main aspects of complete streets, including innovative policies, success stories, and benefits.

For more information: http://www.tc.gc.ca/eng/programs/environment-utsp-casestudy-cs72e-completestreets-812.htm

Improving Travel Options in Small and Rural Communities
 November 9, 2011, 1:30-2:30pm EST
 Geoff Noxon, Noxon Associates

This webinar is intended to help practitioners - engineers, planners, health professionals, economic development officials, and others - produce plans and implement appropriate travel options for residents of small and rural communities. This includes a range of actions that make personal transportation activities more sustainable, such as encouraging drivers to operate their cars more efficiently, or to leave their cars at home and walk, cycle, take transit or carpool instead. This webinar will look at how to use three guides available for free from Transport Canada:

  • Improving Travel Options in Small and Rural Communities;
  • Transportation Demand Management for Canadian Communities: A Guide to Understanding, Planning and Delivering TDM Programs; and,
  • Changing Transportation Behaviours: A Social Marketing Planning Guide.

For more information:
http://www.tc.gc.ca/eng/programs/environment-urban-guidelines-practitioners-improvingtravelsrcomms2009-menu-1656.htm
http://www.tc.gc.ca/eng/programs/environment-urban-menu-eng-2054.htm

Integrated Sustainable Transportation in Saint John, NB
 December 7, 2011, 1:30-2:30pm EST
 Craig Campbell, City of Saint John

In order to avoid building up to five new parking garages in the downtown core in the next few years, the City of Saint John has partnered with the Saint John Transit Commission and the Saint John Parking Commission to promote transit, ridesharing, cycling, and walking. The City's goals are to reduce the demand on their transportation infrastructure and increase the use of alternative modes of travel such as transit, carpooling, cycling, or walking.

The City of Saint John is taking a multi-pronged approach to transportation demand management. Initiatives such as implementing a NextBus GPS system, expanding the RideShare carpooling program, and prioritizing active transportation users during road construction have proven successful in encouraging the shift to sustainable transportation.

For more information:
http://www.tc.gc.ca/eng/programs/environment-ecomobility-projects-dailycommutes-eng-594.htm

Calgary Region Telework Initiative
 January 11, 2012, 1:30-2:30pm EST
 Robyn Bews, Project Manager, WORKshift, Calgary Economic Development

Teleworking is an advanced form of telecommuting that goes beyond simply allowing employees to work from home or an alternative location a couple of days a week. Instead, successful telework implementation enables employees to work seamlessly across an integrated network of places including home, satellite offices, telework centres, customer/ partner sites, or any other workplace outside the main office.

The WORKshift program offers telework information, guidance, and program support to employers in the Calgary region. Winner of the 2010 Economic Developers Association of Canada/RBC “Economic Development Achievement of the Year” award, WORKshift is also supporting policy measures to drive adoption in the public and private sectors.

For more information:
http://www.tc.gc.ca/eng/programs/environment-ecomobility-projects-calgary_telework-eng-593.htm

2010-11 Webinar Series

Implementing Social Marketing
October 13, 2010
This webinar presented "Changing Transportation Behaviours: A Social Marketing Planning Guide", a new guide designed to help TDM planners and other transportation practitioners implement effective social marketing campaigns.

Following the presentation on the new guide, Beth McKechnie, Workplace TDM Coordinator from Resource Conservation Manitoba, presented the results from the social marketing aspects of Winnipeg's WinSmart Showcase, one of the projects funded by Transport Canada's Urban Transportation Showcase Program (UTSP). This project included a social marketing pilot, which was remarkably successful in bringing about modal shifts despite Winnipeg's harsh winter weather and entrenched car culture.

Results from ecoMOBILITY Contribution Projects
December 8, 2010
The City of North Bay, Ontario, presented its Transit Outreach Program, an educational program within the community's six secondary schools designed to introduce students to the local transit system in a more comprehensive fashion than traditional marketing activities. More information on this project is available at http://www.tc.gc.ca/eng/programs/environment-ecomobility-projects-transit_outreach-eng-623.htm.

The City of Edmonton, Alberta, presented its LocalMotion Community Development Project, which used a community-development approach combined with social marketing to encourage a more eco-mobile approach to local transportation within one neighbourhood. More information on this project is available at http://www.tc.gc.ca/eng/programs/environment-ecomobility-projects-local_motion-eng-147.htm.

Special Events TDM
January 12, 2011
Sporting events, concerts, town celebrations…they all involve a lot of people trying to get to the same place at the same time. How can you sustainably plan transportation for these types of events? How can you convince attendees to walk, cycle, or take public transit to special events instead of using their cars?

In order to manage dramatically increased transportation demand during the 2010 Olympic Games, TransLink (Metro Vancouver's regional transportation authority) and its partners set the ambitious goal of reducing vehicle use by at least 30% during the Games. In this webinar, JoAnn Woodhall from TransLink spoke about the highly successful measures put in place to not only transport Olympic spectators, volunteers, and staff, but also to provide local commuters and businesses with travel options that would keep commuters, customers, and goods moving during the Games. She also discussed the monitoring and measurement of these initiatives, and how the quantitative data TransLink obtained is helping to prove the value of transportation demand management in Vancouver.

Speaking to Decision Makers about TDM
February 16, 2011
Asking decision-makers for support, funding, or direction can be difficult, but is a necessity to advance transportation demand management. In this webinar, Geoff Noxon presented an overview of common challenges - such as competing priorities or a lack of an accepted norm - that can be encountered when speaking to decision makers about TDM and offer ways to overcome them. He also provided some key messages that will attract the attention of decision makers and highlight some tools that will make selling TDM easier. Following this, Ryan Lanyon from Metrolinx shared his lessons learned from a decade of experience working in the non-profit sector, municipal governments, and a provincial agency.

Reaching Users with Social Media
March 9, 2011
Users today want instant and mobile information about their transportation system, and transportation agencies want reliable ways to communicate with their users and expand their reach. Social media has tremendous potential to help transportation agencies increase ridership by opening a dialogue between agencies and users and making it easier than ever for users to take advantage of public transit.

In this webinar, Martine Ouellet from the Société de transport de Montréal (STM) explained how STM is using social media to transform the way it communicates with its users – with great success. From Twitter and Facebook to blogs and smart phone apps, STM has embraced social media and is using it to reach new audiences, promote closer relationships with existing customers, and communicate real-time information more efficiently. Learn what STM has done in the world of social media and what they plan to do next to keep the dialogue going with their users.

Encouraging Eco-Friendly Commutes
March 21, 2011
Encouraging employees to use eco-friendly modes of commuting can be a challenging experience. In this webinar, find out how Carrefour Financier Solidaire (CFS) has been creatively rewarding its employees for adopting sustainable transportation habits since October 2007. CFS employees who use alternatives to driving alone when commuting accumulate Carbopoints, which are based on greenhouse gas emissions reductions and are redeemed each year for gift certificates for outdoor gear, fair trade products, or charitable donations. To make it easier to choose alternative transportation, employees are also offered a 50% discount on public transit passes, reserved garage parking for carpoolers, and free bike tune-ups. CFS has had great success with this sustainable transportation program, which can be considered a model for employers of all sizes.

Date modified:
2012-01-27