**1. Active Transportation Master Plan** Yes. I commit to implementing Markham’s Active Transportation Master Plan, and I will treat it as a work plan, not a shelf document. For Ward 6, I will track every project the plan promises our residents, publish the progress in my quarterly Ward 6 updates, and push at Council when a Ward 6 project slips. Residents should see what the plan promised, what got built, and what is late, in plain numbers.
**2. Expanding Markham’s Cycling Network** I support continued expansion of the cycling network, including protected lanes, separated tracks, and multi-use paths where they fit the street. My priority order is safety first, then daily usefulness:
routes that connect homes to schools, transit, community centres, and shops come before recreational loops. Where a road is already scheduled for reconstruction, the cycling facility goes in with that project, because building it once costs less than retrofitting it later.
**3. Safe and Connected Cycling Routes** A route that ends at a high-speed road is not a route. I will press to close the gaps between neighbourhoods and the places people actually
go: Angus Glen Community Centre, our schools, Kennedy Road businesses, and transit stops. The multi-use path coming with the 16th Avenue widening should serve as a spine for Ward 6’s southern edge, and I will work with York Region, which owns the arterial roads, to make crossings at those roads safe and direct.
**4. Protected Cycling Infrastructure on Major Roads** Where speeds and volumes are high, paint alone does not protect anyone, and I support protected infrastructure on appropriate arterial and collector roads, including reallocating road space where the safety case is proven. On quieter local streets, traffic calming and good design usually serve everyone better. I will decide street by street, on collision data and resident input, and balance the needs of people walking, cycling, taking transit, and driving rather than treating any one group as the whole answer.
**5. Road Safety and Vision Zero**
No death or serious injury on our streets is acceptable, and the measures are practical: safer intersection design, protected crossings, daylighting at corners so drivers and pedestrians see each other, traffic calming on local streets, speed management where residents ask for it, and automated enforcement where the province permits it. I already work on community safety with York Regional Police under my platform, and road safety belongs in that same work.
**6. Cycling Infrastructure in New Developments and Road Projects** Yes, as a standard, not an option. My platform holds that roads, schools, parks, and drainage must arrive in step with new development, and walking and cycling infrastructure belongs on that same list.
Development charges already collect money for growth infrastructure.
Requiring safe paths, crossings, and bike parking at the approval stage costs a fraction of adding them after the moving trucks arrive.
**7. Maintenance and Year-Round Accessibility** Infrastructure the City builds, the City must maintain: winter clearing on priority cycling routes and sidewalks, prompt pavement repair, working lighting, clear signage, and vegetation kept back from paths. My platform promises a resident repair channel for Ward 6 parks and trails, and I will extend it to cycling routes and crossings, with published response times so residents can hold the City, and me, to account.
**8. Safe Routes to School and Youth Cycling** Yes. Children in Berczy Village and Angus Glen should be able to walk or ride to school without a parent fearing the trip. I support traffic calming around schools, protected connections on school routes, secure bicycle parking at schools and community centres, and coordination with the school boards and crossing guard program. My Community Development Fund puts youth first, and safe routes are the same commitment on the street.
**9. Funding and Implementation**
I support dedicated, predictable funding for active transportation in the capital budget, with the accountability I promise on every dollar:
publish what was allocated, what was spent, and what was built, every year. Active transportation should compete as core infrastructure, judged on safety and use. I will also pursue senior government funding aggressively, as my platform commits, so grants from Ottawa and Queen’s Park reduce the pressure on Markham property taxes.
**10. Your Commitment to Active Transportation** Three commitments for my term. First, a Ward 6 active transportation scorecard in every quarterly update: promised, built, and late, in public. Second, a standing rule in my office that every Ward 6 development application and road project gets reviewed for walking and cycling infrastructure before I support it. Third, a resident repair and hazard channel for paths, trails, and crossings, with response times published. Listen, act, deliver applies to this file like every other.
Thank you for putting these questions to every candidate.
Shaun Michael Samaroo
Campaign manager, Patrick Yeung for Markham Ward 6