Accessible Transportation Services in Hamilton

How can trip data from accessible transportation services be converted into useful information, to allow for the delivery of a service that offers more flexibility to persons with disabilities?

Project Overview

The City of Hamilton is always looking for ways to improve the overall customer experience when using public transit. The goal of this project is to explore different opportunities to provide public transit service to persons with disabilities. The city currently provides provides door-to-door service to clients who qualify for accessible transportation service (ATS). The service is provided by a contractor. Subscription trips are booked for recurring medical appointments or other activities, while clients booking “casual trips” can reserve a trip seven days in advance of their trip to ensure it can be provided. While clients reserve custom destinations, they may have shared travel with other customers enroute to destinations as drivers balance the demand for efficient service. Clients are able to travel within Hamilton but can also cross municipal boundaries such as trips to Burlington, and Niagara, or be connected with other services such as GO Transit. In such trips, ATS will either connect clients to services at the outskirts of the boundary to continue their trip, or drop them off at GO stations such as West Harbour, Hamilton GO, Centennial, and McMaster University. There is a significant amount of data available that details where these clients are travelling to and from, along with client demographics and mobility requirements. A data set provided by ATS is for the 2019 year which omits COVID-19 irregularities. This data consists of 844,007 trips.

In Scope

Convert data from an ATS to information that will provide insights including, but not limited to:

• Ambulatory/non-ambulatory trips

• Determine major trip destinations

• Heat maps

• Trips by Ward

• Inter-regional trips

• Volume by time & day

Background Research

Feel free to combine the data provided by the city with open data to further generate insights on the accessible transportation services in Hamilton. You may want to explore HSR open data from the City of Hamilton, and other supporting HSR and City of Hamilton strategy documents to see if there is correlation with ATS data and any additional insight generated . There are plenty of opportunities to move beyond the provided data set such as the Open Data portal, Transportation Master Plan, LRT, and Ten Year Local Transit Strategy

City Staff: Marco Mostacci, Senior Project Manager; Nancy Purser, Manager; Michelle Martin, Manager - Accessible Transportation Services

Faculty: Steven Way, Coordinator/Professor, Analytics for Business Decision Making 

Course: HEAD Competition, 85+ Students

Project Agreement

C.R.E.A.T.E Team (Creating Renewable, Effective, Accessible, Tenable Economies)

Currently much of the food waste from restaurants and grocery stores end up in landfills. This is an unsustainable way to handle food wastes and contributes to greenhouse gas emission (GHG) when the food breaks down. Re-using or diverting food waste could help reduce GHG emissions while also having the potential to improve food insecurity among vulnerable population in Hamilton.

Project Overview

Develop a business case that details the circular economy of food to be operationalized by restaurant and grocery industries, local farms, and other possible food sources to educate and articulate better methods of reducing and diverting food waste.

In Scope

 The students will develop and business case and recommendations report that includes examples of financial costs of food waste and associated greenhouse gas emissions, as the baseline and then research best practices and business case scenario that creates a more circular economy approach for handling food waste. In order to be successful that student will need to:

• Engage with subject matter experts from the applicable sectors (e.x. farms, grocery stores, restaurants, recycling companies etc.) to inform the business case;

• Conduct research including literature review and evidence of best practices and/or case studies in other jurisdictions; and

• Identify past and present food re-use programs in Hamilton

Background Research

Dr. S has agreed to offer contacts, while Trevor has offered to connect with a staff representative/Community Partner. Dr. S will provide some background food justice research and resources. Students will be required to conduct background research and examples from another part of Canada or internationally.

Student Team: Samantha Bader, Devan Flaming, Madalyn Morrison, Sarah Ord, Shiza Muhammad

Faculty & Course: Emily Scherzinger, PHD, McMaster University, Social Entrepreneurship Capstone - IBH 4AB6

City Staff: Trevor Imhoff, Senior Project Manager and Head of Air Quality & Climate Change at the City Of Hamilton

Project Agreement

Final Report

Climate Change Campaign

The City of Hamilton declared a Climate Change Emergency and has developed a Climate Action Strategy. We need everyone involved in the actions and to start we need everyone aware of the existing and future problems and impacts of climate change.

Project Overview:

This project aims to create a detailed educational campaign strategy which includes up to three campaigns on communicating the risks associated with climate change (e.x., health impacts, property damage and other financial costs, climate justice, etc.).  

In Scope:

At a minimum the Education Campaign Strategy will include up to three campaigns on applicable climes risks (e.x health impacts, property/infrastructure damage, climate justice etc.). The students throughout the project will need to:

• Conduct extensive research and engage appropriate subject matter experts to inform the content;

• Ongoing City-wide efforts to identify synergy and collaboration;

• Best practices and case studies from other Cities;

• Create detailed recommendations for education campaigns including social and other media outlets, in-person activities etc.; and

• Develop approximate budget associated with different recommendations for education campaigns.

 Background Research:

In order to best inform the Education Awareness Strategy the student should conduct research including:

• Best practices and case studies from other cities, governments and organizations on applicable climate risks;

• 1:1 or group stakeholder meetings/interviews from subject matter experts;

• Research on most up-to-date science of climate change and vulnerability/risk assessments completed both locally, regionally and nationally.

Student Team: Leah Albi, Celine Do, Dima Ignjatovic, David Melko, Tristan Smid, Matea Tettmann

Faculty & Course: Emily Scherzinger, PHD, McMaster University, Social Entrepreneurship Capstone - IBH 4AB6

City Staff: Trevor Imhoff, Senior Project Manager and Head of Air Quality & Climate Change at the City Of Hamilton

Project Agreement 

Greening Hamilton's Fleet

What is next for fleet greening beyond the current 2024 Green Fleet strategy?

Project Description:

The City of Hamilton’s Public Works Energy Fleet and Facilities division has developed a thorough Action Plan and taken steps towards greening and updating the fleet of city vehicles to decrease the City’s climate impact. This focus has included upgrading vehicles, retrofitting with aftermarket modifications, implementing the use of bio diesel and more. Much of this focus has been on improving the light vehicle weight class. Public Works is seeking a student team to conduct research on the next wave of fleet greening innovation, by looking at leading countries and regions (ex: Europe) in these practices and understanding the future of fleet innovation.

Students will seek to answer the following questions:

• What is next beyond light duty vehicle upgrades, beyond the current strategy?

• What is on the global forefront for electrification and greening of medium and heavy duty vehicles?

• Other areas of consideration are examining the use of hydrogen, which is not readily or widely available for use in Canada. What could be the steps necessary for expanding the use of this in the Canadian market.

From these findings the student team will recommend program and policy development to enhance the implementation of the Green Fleet Strategy, with consideration to climate change, economics, and stakeholder consultations.

Objective: To identify, research, and evaluate upcoming technologies and innovations in fleet greening from leading regions around the world, with specific consideration to feasibility in Hamilton regarding fueling infrastructure, weather, access, with policy options for advancing the greening of the fleet.

Deliverables: Recommendations report based on literature review, Policy paper (Technology development around the globe, comparative policy analysis from other jurisdictions)

Background Research: Technology development around the globe, comparative policy analysis from other jurisdictions

Where the work will go and what it will be used for: From these findings the student team will recommend program and policy development to enhance the implementation of the Green Fleet Strategy, with consideration to climate change, economics, and stakeholder consultations.

City staff: Lesley Parker, Superintendent Fleet Capital Planning & Contract Management, Public Works

Faculty & Course: William Docherty, Environmental Capstone Project, Mohawk College

Students: Sandi Ouk, Hetalben Chavadia, Vhien Forbes

Project Agreement

Final Report

LEARN MORE ABOUT THIS CHALLENGE BY WATCHING OUR MATCHMAKER SESSION WITH LESLEY PARKER AND TOM KAGIANIS