Glossary Terms

Accessibility Standards

• Customer Service Accessibility Standard: the first of five standards that came into effect on January 1, 2008. This standard outlines ways in which services should be provided by businesses and other organizations to people with disabilities.

• Information and Communication Accessibility Standard: will make the ways information and communication is sent and received between the public and the organization more accessible.

• Employment Accessibility Standard outlines how organizations are to set out policies, procedures, and requirements for the prevention, identification, and removal of barriers across all steps of the employment life cycle of people with disabilities.

• Transportation Accessibility Standard aims at preventing and removing barriers so that people with disabilities can more easily access the transportation services across the Province.

• Built Environment Accessibility Standard covers elements that are currently regulated by the Ontario Building Code and those elements that are not covered by the Code such as play areas, and amusement parks. This standard improves accessibility of elements such as walkways, trails, intersections, and traffic signals.

Arterial road: roads which carry traffic travelling longer distances, typically between home and work and between different communities and business centres. Arterial roads also have fewer access points than do local or collector roads.

Boulevard: The portion of the right-of-way that is designated for pedestrian use.

Continuous Left Turn Lane/ Two-Way Continuous Left Turn Lane (CLTL/TWCLTL): Typically used in the center of a four-lane roadway, CLTLs are a common access management treatment. The lane is used by turning traffic to avoid creating congestion delays.

HOV lanes: Traffic lanes reserved for motorized vehicles with two or more people. They are marked with a diamond symbol and are in effect all day.

Local road: Primarily provide access to individual properties, including residential, commercial and industrial. Traffic volumes and speeds on these roads are generally low.

Median: A physical barrier along the centre of a road designed to separate the opposing lanes of traffic. Medians can also be used to reduce lane width thus slowing traffic down, to prevent undesirable left turns, and to protect residential streets from cut through traffic.

Multi-modal: A type of planning that considers various transportation modes (walking, cycling, automobile, public transit, etc.) and connections among modes so each can fill its optimal role in the overall transport system.

Partnership funding program: An arrangement that provides additional benefits through partnering with another organization to fund the implementation of a project.

Public realm: Public spaces such as the streets, parks and sidewalks that make up a large part of people's urban experiences. The public realm is often where the community can come together to define the identity and meaning of their neighbourhood through collaborative activities such as street festivals, ceremonies, and even informal meetings in parks and plazas.

Regional Centre: Areas that are planned for the most important and intense concentrations of development within the Region. The Regional Centres will contain a wide range of uses and activities, and be the primary focal points for intensive development that concentrates residential, employment, live-work, mobility, investment, and cultural and government functions.

Regional Corridor: More than just the main arteries for moving people and goods, the Regional Corridors are planned to function as urban mainstreets that have compact, mixed-use, well-designed, pedestrian-friendly and transit-oriented built form.

Regional Road: Regional roads are arterial roads which carry vehicles travelling longer distances, typically between home and work and between different communities and business centres. They also have fewer access points than do local or collector roads. Regional roads, in general, form part of the main concession grid road system.

Right-of-way: Regionally- or locally-owned land or property used for public transportation purposes. A general term denoting land, property, or interest therein, usually in a linear orientation, acquired for or devoted to public transportation purposes.

Streetscape: All the elements that constitute the physical makeup of a street and that define its character, including building frontage, street paving, street furniture, landscaping, including trees and other plantings, awnings and marquees, signs, and lighting.

Urban Growth Centres: Are planned areas identified in the Places to Grow Act as centres for investment in institutional and region-wide public services that accommodate major transit infrastructure and high density employment and population.