Access Planning

What Access Planning does

Access Planning is a privately held Canadian boutique strategic advisory and transportation planning firm headquartered in Vancouver, with additional offices in Toronto and Montréal. The firm serves government agencies, transit authorities, municipal governments, and other public sector clients across North America — including TransLink, Metrolinx, the City of Toronto, Toronto Parking Authority (Bike Share Toronto), BC Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure, CMHC, YVR, and the BC First Nations Gaming Commission. Core engagements span major infrastructure projects, regional and city-wide planning strategy, transit network and systems planning, transit-oriented development, accessibility consulting, and new mobility initiatives. The firm also produces recurring analytical products such as TransLink's annual Transit Service Performance Review (TSPR) and HandyDART Service Performance Review (HDSPR).

The firm's core 'technology' is its advisory methodology and human capital — a multi-disciplinary team of planners, urban designers, engineers, project managers, public policy specialists, and Indigenous relations practitioners, several of whom (notably principals Andrew Devlin, Joshua Engel-Yan, and Tamim Raad) previously held senior leadership roles inside Canada's largest transit agencies. Differentiated service lines include stakeholder and public engagement, P3 and alternative delivery procurement advisory, transit design guide development (e.g., Toronto Transit Design Guide with Perkins+Will), accessibility consulting, and ridership recovery analysis. The firm maintains a content presence via its Ideas Blog and active participation in industry forums (Rail~Volution, CCPPP, AQTR, ACTU).

Commercially, Access Planning operates a pure professional services revenue model. Engagements are project-based and negotiated directly with public sector clients; no product, subscription, or self-serve channels exist. Business development is driven entirely by reputation, thought leadership, conference presence, and direct relationship management with senior public sector decision-makers. The firm is founder/partner-owned with no external investors, employs approximately 15–20 people across three Canadian offices, and achieves Carbon Friendly certification through a partnership with Offsetters.

Name

Access Planning

Legal name

Access Planning

Website

https://accessplanning.ca

Company type

Private

Founded year

2015

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Access Planning is a Canadian boutique strategic advisory and transportation planning firm serving government agencies and transit authorities across North America, with offices in Vancouver, Toronto, and Montréal. It provides consulting on major infrastructure, transit network planning, policy development, and stakeholder engagement.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Transportation Planning Consulting

NAICS

Other Support Activities for Transportation (4889), Administration of Urban Planning and Community and Rural Development (925120)

SIC

Transportation Services (4700)

akta.pro primary industry

Transportation & Infrastructure Planning (BPAHAKAF)

akta.pro secondary industries

Transportation & Traffic Engineering Consulting (BPAHAIAC), Local Transportation, Parking & Mobility Administration (BPAIACAM)

Keywords

• Transportation planning
• Strategic advisory
• Transit consulting
• Infrastructure advisory
• Urban planning services

Headquarters

HQ city

Vancouver

HQ country

Canada

HQ region

North America

Offices3 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Others

Revenue model

1. Professional Consulting Services: The firm generates revenue entirely through professional consulting engagements with government agencies, transit authorities, municipal governments, and other public sector clients. Revenue is project-based and likely varies by scope, duration, and client. No product or subscription revenue streams are described.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

Access Planning is a strategic advisory and transportation planning firm that helps public sector clients (transit authorities, municipal governments, provincial agencies) advance major infrastructure projects, regional and city-wide planning, transit network and systems projects, transit-oriented development, and new mobility initiatives. The firm delivers services spanning planning, urban design, engineering, project management, public policy, stakeholder engagement, and Indigenous relations, drawing on first-hand public sector experience from within Canada's and North America's leading transportation agencies.

Product overview

Access Planning operates as a strategic advisory and transportation planning consultancy, not a software product company. The firm offers a unified portfolio of advisory and consulting services rather than a modular software platform. Core offerings include strategic transportation advisory for major infrastructure projects, regional and transit network planning, and policy development. The firm produces analytical products including Transit Service Performance Reviews (TSPR) and HandyDART Service Performance Reviews (HDSPR) for transit agency clients. Supporting service lines cover stakeholder engagement, transit design guidelines, P3 advisory, accessibility consulting, ridership analysis, and carbon offset services. All offerings are professional services delivered by a team of planners, engineers, and policy specialists.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Strategic Transportation Advisory Services

Quantifiable outcome

• Access Planning led the drafting and production of TransLink's 2020 HDSPR and the 2021 and 2022 editions of both the TSPR and HDSPR, synthesizing ridership data for the entire TransLink system.
• +1 more outcomes

Named customers8 records

Segments1 record

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature1 record

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• OffsetterssupportingOthers · 1 January 2019Access Planning partners with Offsetters, Canada's leading carbon management solutions provider, to calculate and offset the company's carbon footprint. Access Planning is a certified Carbon Friendly company. The partnership directs carbon offsets to Canadian projects, particularly in British Columbia's Great Bear Rainforest (GBR) Carbon Project, which supports First Nations communities in forest management, conservation, and employment.

Scale indicators2 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Regional players

• Hemson Consulting: Canadian planning and consulting firm specializing in land use, growth management, and infrastructure planning for municipalities. Comparable in Canadian public-sector focus and boutique scale, with stronger land-economics orientation.
• Vreugdenhil & Associates: Canadian transportation and infrastructure consulting firm serving public-sector clients across Western Canada. Comparable boutique scale and public-sector transit/infrastructure focus, primarily in BC and Western Canada.

Broad incumbents

• AECOM: Global infrastructure consulting firm with extensive Canadian transportation and transit planning capabilities, including its IBI Group acquisition. Competes for the largest mega-program mandates Access Planning serves as a sub-advisor on.
• WSP Global: Global professional services firm with a large Canadian transportation practice. Competes for many of the same transit and infrastructure advisory mandates but at significantly greater scale and broader service scope.
• Stantec: Global design and engineering firm with substantial Canadian transportation and urban planning practices. Overlaps with Access Planning on transit, mobility, and municipal advisory mandates.

Direct peers

• Fehr & Peers: Transportation engineering and planning firm serving public agencies on multimodal planning, traffic, and transit projects. Closely comparable service portfolio and public-sector customer base.
• Steer Group (Steer Davies Gleave): Global transportation consulting firm providing strategic advisory, transit planning, and policy work to public-sector clients. Closely comparable in service mix and public-sector orientation.
• IBI Group (Arcadis IBI): Canadian-headquartered urban design, transportation planning, and infrastructure consultancy now part of Arcadis. Most direct comparable in the Canadian market for transit, TOD, and city-building advisory.
• Kittelson & Associates: Transportation engineering, planning, and research consultancy serving DOTs, transit agencies, and municipalities. Comparable boutique scale, public-sector focus, and multi-disciplinary transportation advisory offerings.
• Nelson\Nygaard Consulting Associates: US-headquartered boutique transportation planning and engineering consultancy focused on transit, multimodal mobility, and public-agency advisory. Highly comparable in size, mission, and public-sector client mix to Access Planning.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/access-planning
• Facebookfacebook.com/accessplanning

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles12 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Access Planning