CTRF 2025: Full Schedule

Welcome to CTRF’s 60th Annual Conference! Enjoy Ottawa

10:30am EDT

Enhancing transportation data: The development of a national origin and destination survey and its potential for policy and infrastructure planning

Wednesday May 28, 2025 10:30am - 10:50am EDT

Desmarais 1160

This paper examines Canada's new national Origin-Destination Survey, an initiative led by Housing, Infrastructure, and Communities Canada in collaboration with Statistics Canada. The survey is designed to address a long-standing gap in Canada's understanding of transportation and mobility patterns, providing critical data to inform policy and infrastructure planning.

The paper outlines the methodological framework and design considerations underpinning the survey, including sampling strategies, key metrics, and approaches to capturing data on transit behaviors, modal choices, vehicle-kilometers traveled, and travel patterns at household and individual levels. It discusses the inclusion of demographic data to understand the mobility challenges faced by equity-deserving populations, ensuring the survey addresses issues of accessibility and inclusivity.

Furthermore, it explores the anticipated utility of the survey findings in addressing national priorities, such as reducing greenhouse gas emissions, enhancing public transit access, and supporting evidence-based initiatives like Canada's Permanent Public Transit Fund.

Additionally, the paper highlights the timeline for data collection (scheduled for late 2025 or early 2026) and discusses the implications of the expected 2027 data release. The survey aims to drive transformative advancements in transportation planning by providing a comprehensive framework for leveraging large-scale data to inform sustainable, equitable mobility solutions and infrastructure policy across Canada.

Speakers

Eiad El-Fateh

Director of Data and Analytics, Housing, Infrastructure and Communities Canada

Eiad El Fateh is currently the Director of Data and Analytics within the Policy and Results Branch at Infrastructure Canada. Prior to Infrastructure Canada, Eiad held a variety of positions in economic policy across the federal government, most recently at Environment and Climate... Read More →

Yanick Clement-Godbout

Infrastructure Canada (INFC)

62. Goudboutt Paper CTRF2025 pdf

Wednesday May 28, 2025 10:30am - 10:50am EDT
Desmarais 1160 55 Laurier Ave E, Ottawa ON K1N 6N5

Datasets tools and methods for enabling fairness

10:50am EDT

Studying transit productivity through a didactic cartography tool

Wednesday May 28, 2025 10:50am - 11:10am EDT

Desmarais 1160

To increase the productivity of public transit networks, we need a comprehensive way to study it from various perspectives, particularly in conjunction with the built environment of cities. Traditionally, the approach toward public transport interventions is to study ridership data without unpacking the underlying urban form and context of the transit network. We present the concept of didactic cartography-an approach to teach complex systems through clear and engaging spatial data-in relation to public transit and their built environments. We propose a transdisciplinary and interactive platform - CAMMM Atlas web application - that aggregates data and disseminates information in an accessible manner. The Atlas points to areas of opportunity to increase the productivity of the transit system and improve spatial equity in the urban space. Through this tool, understanding the gaps in public transit systems will enable local transit authorities, decision makers, and other stakeholders to collaborate on spatial equity issues like multimodality, connectivity, safety, accessibility, proximity to services and amenities, etc. The multidisciplinary approach of the Atlas allows policy makers and transportation professionals to obtain concrete recommendations to improve the productivity of public transit.

Speakers

Carmela Cucuzzella

Université de Montéal

Omar Ortiz Meraz

Concordia University

63. Cucuzzella Nizar Ortiz Meraz Gauithier Paper CTRF2025 pdf

Wednesday May 28, 2025 10:50am - 11:10am EDT
Desmarais 1160 55 Laurier Ave E, Ottawa ON K1N 6N5

Datasets tools and methods for enabling fairness

11:10am EDT

Human-centered mobility flow classification: Examining the difference between travel patterns of men and women

Wednesday May 28, 2025 11:10am - 11:30am EDT

Desmarais 1160

There is growing need for human-centered geographical methods to understand how urban systems, like transportation, are differently experienced by different urban inhabitants and how those differences are imprinted in the territory. Under this premise, this paper presents a method for a human-centered classification of urban transport flows, focused on gender. The objective is to unveil if men and women produce distinct spatial patterns to inform gender-equity aware transport planning. Using an origin-destination survey for the metropolitan area of Montreal, it applies a Hierarchical Link Clustering algorithm to produce communities of flows with similar characteristics based on geography, distance and number of trips. Then a K-means classification is applied to the resulting communities to derive movement types. Results show a distinct geographical pattern between genders, where women move predominantly in round, local types of communities, whereas men tend to move in elongated, movement types of communities. These results can be used to introduce more targeted interventions to transport systems, and further, it can be applied to other dimensions of equity beyond gender.

Speakers

Martin Trépanier

Full Professor, Polytechnique Montréal and CIRRELT

Martin Trépanier is a civil engineer and professor at the department of mathematics and industrial engineering of École Polytechnique de Montréal, an engineering school affiliated to the Université de Montréal. He is the titular of the Chair in the transformation of transportation... Read More →

Daniel Romm

PhD Student, McGill University

Maria Laura Guerrero Balarezo

Polytechnique Montreal

108. Romm Guerrero McKenzie Paper CTRF2025 pdf

64. GuerreroBalarezoEtAl Paper CTRF2025.docx (2) (2) pdf

Wednesday May 28, 2025 11:10am - 11:30am EDT
Desmarais 1160 55 Laurier Ave E, Ottawa ON K1N 6N5

Datasets tools and methods for enabling fairness

11:30am EDT

Comparing urban public transit accessibility across Canadian regions and times

Wednesday May 28, 2025 11:30am - 11:50am EDT

Desmarais 1160

A productive public transit system is one that serves everyone's access to places that matter. Access to grocery stores is an essential destination that matters to all, and accessibility measures can be used to quantify this idea. However, how the public transit system provides access to destinations is a question of equity: what populations are better-off, from before- and within the COVID years, and how does accessibility compare across urban regions is an important task in benchmarking public transit service and identifying areas that fall short. In this study, we apply balancing factors (similar to those used in trip gravity modelling) to calculate public transit spatial accessibility in the 12 most populous CMAs in Canada and benchmark how accessibility has changed between 2019 and 2023. This work is done using an open and reproducible database, with methods based in R. Additionally, the methods applied are more interpretable than conventional accessibility measures, making them better suited for temporal and spatial interpretation. Our hope is that this approach will facilitate the mainstreaming of open and reproducible practices and accessibility analysis in transportation planning practice in Canada.

Speakers

Anastasia Soukhov

McMaster University

65. Soukhov Paez Higgins CTRF2025 Copy pdf

Wednesday May 28, 2025 11:30am - 11:50am EDT
Desmarais 1160 55 Laurier Ave E, Ottawa ON K1N 6N5

Datasets tools and methods for enabling fairness

11:50am EDT

Not My Fault - A look at Canadian Airline Policy and how it impacts the affordability of airfares

Wednesday May 28, 2025 11:50am - 12:10pm EDT

Desmarais 1160

It's well known that the cost of flying through Canadian airports remains relatively high. This paper will examine the influence of government policies on airfare affordability, delve into how airlines navigate these regulations and explore potential collaborative solutions for achieving more affordable air travel.

Speakers

Romaine Morrison

Program Manager, Transportation Association of Canada

66. Morrison NOT MY FAULT pdf

Wednesday May 28, 2025 11:50am - 12:10pm EDT
Desmarais 1160 55 Laurier Ave E, Ottawa ON K1N 6N5

Datasets tools and methods for enabling fairness

12:10pm EDT

The case of 20-minute carsharing trips: What drives the choice?

Wednesday May 28, 2025 12:10pm - 12:30pm EDT

Desmarais 1160

In a previous study, we identified eight distinct carsharing reservation types in Montreal, characterizing a wide range of usage patterns. Among them, the ""20-minute Trips'' cluster represents nearly 50% of all reservations but accounts for only 10% of the total distance traveled and 4% of the total duration. This cluster consists exclusively of one-way single-stop trips with an average duration of 20 minutes and average distance of 7 km.
In this study, we document the context in which users chose carsharing for these short free-floating trips. To assess alternatives, we calculate public transit travel times, evaluate bike-share availability at trip origins and destinations, estimate the cost of an equivalent taxi ride, and calculate walking times. We further incorporate historical weather data to refine our evaluation of bike-sharing and walking feasibility and our understanding of the spatial-temporal context. Finally, we conduct spatial analyses to identify problematic blind spots in public transit and areas with limited access to bike-sharing infrastructure.
Based on findings from previous research, we anticipate that these trips predominantly occur in areas with limited access to public transit and bike-sharing infrastructure. This work aims to provide insights into improving transportation equity and enhancing sustainable mobility options in urban areas.

Speakers