Transportation Master Plan

The Whitehorse Transportation Master Plan (TMP) is our long-term vision and strategy for transportation decision-making and investment over the next 20 years. The Transportation Master Plan guides how people and goods move around our city and sets our vision and priorities as a community in shaping a multi-modal transportation network. The TMP sets the direction for a vibrant city where people, goods, and places are conveniently connected by diverse transportation options and works towards developing a safe, equitable, and sustainable transportation network for all ages, abilities, incomes, and seasons.

Whitehorse has grown into a city of over 30,000 people. Over the next 20 years Whitehorse is expected to grow to more than 40,000 people. With growth, we need to reevaluate how people and goods move throughout the City.

As we set the vision for our updated Transportation Master Plan, there are important decisions and meaningful discussions to be had as individuals and as a city towards developing and shaping an accessible, equitable, safe, and sustainable transportation network and ultimately a vibrant and livable Whitehorse. Transportation decisions affect us all. How people and goods move affects residents, businesses, and visitors alike whether you walk, cycle, take transit, drive, or ship products or have them delivered. All the choices we make moving forward will require some give and take, compromises, and tradeoffs.

The goal of the Whitehorse Transportation Master Plan is to establish our vision and priorities as a community in shaping a multi-modal transportation network through 2040. The plan aims to guide the City's strategic investment in transportation infrastructure and services across Whitehorse through 2040 with the goal of working towards an accessible, safe, equitable, and sustainable multi-modal transportation network.

Background

The City completed a major review of its transportation network with the completion of a 1992 Citywide Traffic Study and the subsequent 2004 City-Wide Transportation Study. The City had implemented many changes and new initiatives between the two large studies that fall under the broader category of general transportation issues. Accordingly, the 2004 study was progressive, for its time, in achieving a balanced multi-modal approach to the planning of the network. Alternative modes of transportation were considered and given more weight in the decision-making process than ever before through the identification and creation of pedestrian, cycling, and transit routes through the City, thus maintaining and enhancing the quality of life for Whitehorse citizens.

The City is responsible for all the roadways within the city boundaries, with the exception of the Alaska Highway and the North Klondike Highway, which are managed by the Government of Yukon - Department of Highways and Public Works. A number of significant studies and tasks are in progress or have been completed since the 2004 City-Wide Transportation Study. These include the following: The Transportation Demand Management Plan (2015), the Bicycle Network Plan (2018); Transit Master Plan (2018); Trail Plan (2020), numerous Area Development Studies; several new traffic signals; downtown parking studies; the development of the Whistle Bend subdivision; a new City Operations Building; plans for a new downtown City Services Building; and rapid development across the City. The City is currently developing studies that relate to the Transportation Master Plan, which are the Whitehorse 2040 Official Community Plan and the Transit Route Modernization Study. The Transportation Master Plan will build and integrate with these previous and existing planning processes and provided a unified and holistic approach for how we develop our transportation network.