Active transit infrastructure is needed to provide complete connectivity throughout the community. This is essential for a ‘complete community’, but it also ensures that all residents – regardless of socio-economic status – have access to affordable and effective transportation.

Why this is important. Active transportation is the most affordable and healthiest form of transportation, and is also the most cost-effective for municipalities to maintain.

What ZoneSJ gets right. ZoneSJ acknowledges this by including bicycle parking requirements for large-scale (minimum 10,000 square metre) commercial developments, and for residential developments of twenty-five or more units.

ZoneSJ also provides improved standards for parking lot construction, including curbing and islands to control vehicle traffic in larger developments. These changes improve safety for active transit users and particularly pedestrians (which is very important to low-income residents).

Issues and opportunities. However, by limiting these requirements to large-scale developments, there is a risk that we will be left with patchwork active transit infrastructure that lacks the continuous corridors required to encourage use by residents.

ZoneSJ also provides a definition of ‘walkway’ that prescribes building materials but fails to set requirements for priority siting, linkages to public space infrastructure and public transit, etc.

Cheat sheet for your feedback. If you want to provide feedback on this issue, feel free to use or edit the statements below:

Simple version
Saint John has demanded better public and active transit for years.  Let’s do what Fredericton has done and set standards for fully connected active transportation corridors, with green space, that let people walk, bike, board, etc. across the entire city. We need a stronger transit system. We need standards that promote public transit, and ZoneSJ must set those standards!

More detailed version

1. Consult with Saint John Transit to develop a Transit section in ZoneSJ, detailing minimum curb construction standards which support transit equipment (for example, the kneeling bus system), transit island standards, and bus shelter siting standards.
2. Ensure priority siting of pedestrian walkways (vs. personal vehicle throughways), connecting any adjacent public spaces (for example, Harbour Passage) or existing public transit infrastructure (for example, the transit island at McAllister Mall), and creating fully connected active transit corridors.
3. Include bicycle parking requirements in medium-scale residential developments. This could also be presented as an “in lieu of a portion of vehicular parking” option.
4. Include bicycle parking requirements even in the parking exemption area. Active transportation promotion is a key element of PlanSJ, and the elimination of bicycle parking requirements is not likely to be a significant incentive for intensification development.
5. Expand the bicycle parking mandate to include mid- and large-scale commercial developments (zones CC, CR and CG).
6. Add standards to the CC, CR and CG zones to address safety and connectivity to transit services for walkways designated for active transit and pedestrian use.
7. Consider a transit fund contribution option, in lieu of % of parking spaces required for small-scale developments.
8. Incorporate active transportation elements into future street design, upgrades and maintenance (for example, bike lanes, crossings, etc.).
9. Consult with the Saint John Ability Advisory Committee and the Premiers Council on the Status of Disabled Persons to develop standards for universal accessibility (disability accommodation) devices to improve public safety (ex. chirping signals at high-volume pedestrian crossings).

The deadline for your feedback to the City on ZoneSJ is Friday November 29th. Submit your input to (via webform, or in writing to planning@saintjohn.ca). And copy your councillors.