Moving You Forward

About the Project

We're exploring ways to manage traffic congestion and make sustainable transportation trips more attractive and accessible.

As part of building a sustainable and resilient transportation system in Guelph, the City is developing Moving You Forward, a Transportation Demand Management (TDM) Action Plan. The goal of the Action Plan is to reduce traffic congestion at peak times and support greater use of affordable and sustainable travel options for people who live, visit, commute, and travel through Guelph.

Review the information report on Transportation Demand Management Action Plan and Developer Toolkit that went to Council on July 17, 2026.

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We carried out engagement on this project over five stages from May 2025 and concluding in April 2026. Have a look at the engagement summary below to see what we heard and how we plan to use these findings.

TDM Moving You Forward - Engagement Summary.pdf

(192.7 KB)

What does ‘Transportation Demand Management’ mean?

Transportation Demand Management (TDM) is an approach used for managing transportation systems that aims to reduce traffic, particularly in commuter peak hours, by influencing how, when, and where people travel. An effective TDM program can reduce congestion and shift more trips to sustainable options like walking, cycling, and taking transit.

Why is the City working on this project?

Guelph is growing, and our transportation system must adapt to the changing needs of our city. From 2021 to 2051, Guelph’s population is expected to grow by 40 per cent. This project is an important part of supporting this growth and meeting the goals of the City’s Transportation Master Plan to provide a sustainable and resilient transportation system in Guelph for the next 30 years. To manage traffic congestion in the city, we want to encourage more trips by non-auto modes. The Action Plan will help more residents and employees to access affordable transportation options such as walking, cycling, public transit or ridesharing to travel around Guelph.

In addition to managing traffic congestion Initiative 8: Parking reduction, the Action Plan also supports Initiative # 8 of the Housing Accelerator Fund; Parking reduction. By helping reduce the number of cars on Guelph roads, we can keep traffic moving and support community sustainability.

Who's Listening

Jennifer Juste, Manager Transportation Planning, City of Guelph

jennifer.juste@guelph.ca

Phases

Phases overview

Phase 1: Background Review and Information Gathering

Background Review and Information Gathering

Phase 2: Public Engagement

Public Engagement

Phase 3: Data Collection

Data Collection

Phase 4: Develop Action Plan

Develop Action Plan

Data Collection

September 15, 2025 4:00 AM - October 16, 2025 4:00 AM

Consultant Ipsos is undertaking a transportation survey to collect more information about how residents travel in Guelph. The survey is being delivered to 25,000 randomly selected households through a combination of letter mail-outs and mobile phone calls. The data collected will help to shape the Action Plan.

Please scan the QR code or enter the URL provided in your letter to access the survey. This will take you to a landing page with additional information. To begin, click the arrow on the page and enter your access code when prompted.

If you have any questions or need further assistance, please contact the City’s Transportation Planning division at 519-822-1260 ext. 4287 or email transportation@guelph.ca.

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12 questions

User 2886602 months ago Missing from the survey was the opportunity to add comments. Here are mine.i use my car to travel to most activities including appts, socializing & shopping. However, when I only need a few items I incorporate that into my daily hour long walk.As a rule, taking the bus would take longer than driving my car. Driving within Guelph is much less enjoyable than in the past thanks to lower speed limits - 40 in residential areas & the 24/7 limit of 30 in school areas which is ridiculous at night, increased traffic volume, & long waits at traffic lights.I have worked remotely since Covid. Prior to that I walked to work (for 30 years) - at a clip it takes 12 minutes. If we had to return to the office I would walk, not drive.Using the bus or walking for grocery shopping isn’t practical - too much to carry. Time wise the bus isn’t feasible for appt’s or socializing either. Although I have lived in the same area of Guelph since 1985, I have only a few friends within walking distance whom I see very occasionally. Most Guelph friends are too distant (Paisley & Edinburgh, Village by the Arboretum, Terraview Crescent.) I live near Waverley Drive school. Even to walk at Riverside Park I will drive to the park to start my walk. It’s a 20 min. walk from my house to the park with constant traffic on Waverley, not restful when seeking silence. Since Covid the park is now so busy that I drive to the Kissing Bridge trail at Ariss or to the dam at Guelph Lake for a quiet walk. Guelph needs more park area - Yorklands as an urban park would be a welcome enhancement now & into the future.For safety reasons I only bicycle on rural trails & never on roads used by cars. It is not financially viable to provide enough barriers/dedicated lanes to make city cycling safe.thanks for reading this.

User 49106510 months ago I love to walk daily and would like Guelph to consider a model where homes are close to services instead of building subdivisions where there are no services at all and you have to drive a car to get anywhere. The trend is 15-minute cities - urban areas where most daily necessities, like groceries, work, schools, and healthcare, are accessible within a 15-minute walk or bike ride, promoting sustainability, health, and community well-being by reducing car dependency and focusing on human-centric design. Cities such as Paris, Melbourne, and Barcelona have implemented this concept, as well as cities such as Vancouver and Victoria in BC, and it would serve as a useful model for urban planning in Guelph to improve city living.That would be a better solution to all of your questions about congestion and transportation issues in Guelph. Build accessible services and encourage people to walk and stop building subdivisions with no services!

User 44100010 months ago

Shane Arseneault10 months ago Giving people more options is fantastic, but so many people rely on their cars for medical reasons, distance/coverage issues, or safety/mental health concerns. These people should not be forgotten about in the pursuit of a more robust transportation network.Many cities make the mistakes of eliminating roads, or making it significantly harder to get around via private car. Citizens have the right to drive the car they pay for without restriction.For the record, I am not opposed to downtown being completely restricted to busses and deliveries, and being repaved to be mostly just walking/cycling room, but changes like this are exactly the sorts of things that can have unforeseen impacts. Consider how will this impact delivery and pick-up food orders for the restaurants, especially in the winter.Winter is one of my primary concerns for alternative transportation options. Nothing in the world is as convenient as a car in your driveway warming up while you get ready. No trudging through snow, and no waiting in the cold for a bus. Please keep in mind that winter exists and can be frigid cold with heavy snow for months at a time.

User 71182210 months ago The reason walking, cycling, and transit isn’t used more at its core is due to the zoning laws and investment in city infrastructure on car dependence over accessible cities. Are we looking at changing zoning laws to design cities and neighborhoods with pedestrians, bicycles, and mixed housing first, with cars last? I’m fed up with being terrified to have my little children walk up the street. Even crossing Edinburgh, a narrow road is a nightmare and is uncomfortable to walk beside. I really hope that how we build our homes and neighbourhoods enters the conversation.

User 37171810 months ago As an aide to transportation improvements I would like to suggest you look at street parking methods used in the City of Hamilton. Parking is allowed only on one side of the street on any given day. On days that are an odd number on the calendar cars park on one side. On alternate days that are represented by an even number on the calendar, they park on the other side of the street. This allows for improved passage of vehicles on narrow streets. It facilitates Street cleaning, storm sewer catch basin cleaning, sanding/salting and snow plowing in the winter time, signage is less expensive because one single sign says it all everywhere in the city. It also creates more parking spaces because it reduces the need for some restricted parking spaces. It improves visibility on each street because you can see clear down each block at a glance.

Skyy T10 months ago Hello, I Would like to participate in the city of Guelph's transportation survey. I have a unique access code. However this is cumbersome and frustrating, most people would just quit and not go further. There is no link to the survey on the city page "Moving You Forward Transportation Survey which launched September 15, it looks like it has been extended. Please forward this to the transportation Planning manager Jennifer Juste. Her phone number was listed incorrectly, including her extension. The fellow complained that he received quite a few calls and figured the number should have been 822 and not 882 . I do no not want to phone the 3rd party. The city should speak to this party to make this process easier, simpler and seamless if you are serious about feedbacks.To make this comment I had to figure a way and finally had to open an account. This whole process was time consuming. Thank you.

Mark Sayworth10 months ago

User 41779310 months ago This survey done with actual numbers of vehicles on our city roads and actual numbers of bicycles used for commuting. I would guess that you are trying to reduce car traffic but by putting in (at great experience) all these bicycle lane is only putting cyclists at danger! Nobody wants that, so move these lanes off the roads. More bike paths would be far safer and by being a safer place to ride This may in turn encourage many more people to actually use their bicycles to get to work or just travel across the city. That way you actually might reduce the car traffic and save lives.

Morgan Dandie10 months ago There were 11 separate motions made during the multi-year budget process for the 2024 - 2027 budget. At that time, none of them were passed, primarily because Council recognised that stretching the original 10 year timeline to 17 years was not in the interest of the city. When the mayor issued his directive to cut the city portion of the budget for the 2025 confirmation, it seemed that many of the 11 motions were enacted, except for the things some people complained about enough that the mayor decided to put a few back in. Transit can't take any more cuts and the mayor has called for an austerity budget yet again in the 2026 confirmation - how can Staff and transit users work together to ensure there are no more delays in bringing our transit system up to a level that actually works for the people who use it, whether through necessity, or like me, through choice?

Denise Redmond10 months ago

User 28730210 months ago

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Events

Past events

Public Engagement Pop-up #1
Event date: May 31st, 2025 from 3:00 PM to 6:00 PM.
Royal City Park
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Public Engagement Pop-up #2
Event date: June 14th, 2025 from 3:00 PM to 9:00 PM.
Riverside Park
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Moving You Forward

About the Project