The urban 'sprawl' surrounding many cities has several potentially detrimental effects on the sustainable development of our natural resources, including the loss of valuable agricultural and eco-sensitive lands such as wetlands and forests. While Canada is generally viewed as a sparsely populated nation, its population is highly urbanized and urban growth is concentrated near, and encroaching upon, Canada's limited high-quality agricultural land and important temperate eco-systems. With this urban growth comes an increase in private vehicle use that affects land use and adds to energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions.

The Centre for Sustainable Transportation (CST) has developed a widely accepted definition of a sustainable transportation system. The CST is a federally chartered, non-profit organization that provides reliable information regarding sustainable transportation, fills knowledge gaps through research, educates stakeholders and offers strategic policy advice in selected areas.

The CST recently commissioned a study to address transport-related energy consumption and the impacts of transportation corridors on eco and human health. Based on this study, a suite of transportation performance indicators, designed to gauge the sustainability of urban growth from a transportation perspective, was recommended by government policy-makers and private sector transportation experts. Thus, the CST undertook the Sustainable Transportation Performance Indicators (STPI) Project to provide a means of determining whether progress is being made towards sustainable transportation.