Halifax is the capital city of Nova Scotia. It is the largest city in Atlantic Canada, and the economic hub of the maritime provinces. Halifax Regional Council has adopted Complete Streets into its Integrated Mobility Plan, its regional municipal planning strategy, and its TDM functional plan. A number of recent street improvement projects undertaken by the city have been undertaken using Complete Street principles.
Halifax
The Dutch Village Road Complete Streets Functional Plan was unanimously approved at regional council on June 9, 2020
This project will improve safety and address active transportation & transit gaps along Dutch Village Road. It includes:
- a sidewalk on the west side of the street
- accessible bus stops
- narrower & enhanced street crossings
- raised protected bicycle lanes on both sides of the street
- direct connection to the Chain of Lakes Trail
- 30 on-street parallel parking spaces, replacing the 24 parking spaces that are currently perpendicular to the roadway and are encroaching on the right of way.
- streetscaping elements, such as benches and trees
The Integrated Mobility Plan (IMP) was unanimously approved by Halifax Regional Council on December 5, 2017.
A key direction of the IMP is to design Complete Streets and to recognize that some streets can be destinations as well as transportation links. Complete Streets is one of the IMP’s four foundational strategies and a chapter is dedicated to it (Chapter 2.3 Complete Streets) which includes examples of Complete Streets (pg 62), Complete Streets Guiding principles (pg 63), Developing a Complete Streets approach (pg 64), and Implementation Strategies (pg 67).
On Oct 2, 2018 a staff report entitled “Complete Streets Approach and Traffic Supplement Update” for the Halifax Transportation Standing Committee provided an update on the impact of the Complete Streets Policy within the first 10 months of the IMP’s approval.
The Regional Municipal Planning Strategy (2014) states that one of its objectives is to: “Design complete streets for all ages, abilities, and modes of travel” (p.59).
At the Complete Streets Forum in 2014, Ali Shaver, Planning Facilitator, Capital District Health Authority, gave a presentation describing the collaborative process undertaken to achieve this level of support.
On March 5, 2011 Regional Council approved the Halifax Transportation Demand Management (TDM) Functional Plan that recommended that Halifax adopt a complete streets policy and a Complete Streets Design Guide.