Urban development should be intensified by infilling existing built areas, cleaning up and re-developing brownfields, and promoting compact, mixed-use communities, with appropriate green space access, to enable people to meet most of their needs and interests locally.
New developments should be concentrated in transit-oriented nodes, with supportive parking policies and other measures to encourage transit use, bicycling, and walking as transportation alternatives.
Investments should be made to modernize transit systems that implement the latest user-friendly technologies and information systems, and integrating transit systems into seamless webs in large urban centres, such as the Greater Toronto Area.
The public should be educated on the harmful effects of smog and climate change, the benefits of switching to transit and alternative transportation modes, and the contribution that inefficient vehicles and overuse of such vehicles make to these problems.
In addition, the Central Ontario Zone Smart Growth Strategy Sub-Panel should advocate the implementation by the province and the federal government of the following measures:
Coal-fired electric power stations should be converted to cleaner sources of electricity.
A Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standard should be implemented to increase the fuel-efficiency of new vehicles.
Municipalities should be given the authority to raise funds to support smart growth and should actively encourage the federal government to enhance transit incentives, such as a tax-exempt benefit for employer-provided transit passes and an urban gasoline tax to fund urban transit systems.
A sustainable transportation network for highways and a long-term goods movement strategy should be developed.
An Ontario Rail Renewal Task Force should be established to ensure the preservation of Ontario's railway corridors.