Like you and your cohorts are any better? Why I had to bring it to the mods attention just last night that The Mad Navigator refered to me and CC as c---suckers. When having to argue with juvenile minded individuals, it tends to affect your own brain cells as result.
Did you really think I'd come back here and make such statements if I wasn't prepared to back them up? You can see who favours light-rail construction: immediate area property owners; rail contractors like Siemens; and people who hate automobiles. If you are not in one of these groups -- if you are among the vast majority of Toronto taxpayers who use automobiles or HRT usbway transit for much of your travel -- then light rail will cost you far more than any benefits you will ever receive.
Rail Disasters 2005 chronicles what has happened to every major city across America that has introduced light-rail into their transit networks, both old rail regions and new:
http://americandreamcoalition.org/RD2005.pdf - Pg. 7
Table One
Percent Growth in Driving, Transit Trips, and Transit Passenger Miles, 1983-2003
Driving Trips PM
Rail Regions
Atlanta 153.9 18.8 60.3
Baltimore 94.5 7.7 23.5
Boston 53.6 49.1 122.8
Buffalo 75.1 -50.1 -35.0
Chicago 68.2 -19.7 0.2
Cleveland 55.8 -42.5 -44.4
Dallas-Ft. Worth 93.5 92.2 92.3
Denver 75.4 61.1 48.2
Los Angeles 64.4 26.4 34.2
Miami 115.1 67.7 83.9
New Orleans 23.6 -24.3 -26.3
New York 11.2 4.0 15.1
Philadelphia 70.1 -7.9 6.2
Pittsburgh 42.2 -23.9 -31.6
Portland 129.2 112.9 108.3
Sacramento 94.5 110.3 51.6
Salt Lake City 91.2 75.9 124.3
San Diego 101.3 136.1 103.5
San Francisco 122.5 -13.8 122.1
San Jose 64.9 33.3 41.7
Seattle 81.0 59.0 -5.0
St. Louis 90.8 -16.5 29.7
Washington 104.4 53.3 117.5
Bus-Only Regions
Austin 160.1 522.4 639.9
Charlotte 181.2 115.0 239.8
Eugene 58.0 72.9 23.8
Houston 80.5 73.9 111.0
Las Vegas 354.1 1,239.0 1,161.2
Louisville 61.3 8.8 70.0
Phoenix 146.6 146.1 117.9
Raleigh-Durham 239.3 430.4 923.2
Source: Driving data from Highway Statistics, 1983 and 2003 editions, table HM-72; transit data from Federal Transit Administration National Transit Database, table 516083 for 1983; table 19 for 2003.
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See the trends going on there? Light Rail-based networks have seen total transit usage haemorrhage meanwhile bus-based networks like Austin's has seen passenger growth at a rate 3x higher than that city's auto-driving growth.
GMAFB. I'm probably the most pro-transit oriented person here. I want better transit service everywhere, to every part of the City, not 51 kilometers of boondoggle that commuters would have to
commute to to really benefit from it. You implement limited stopping BRT in a ROW along the outskirts of town feeding into an expanded subway system. It's not Rocket Science, and it's what the City would be building right now if David Miller didn't lowball and oversell the benefits of light-rail when we all have first hand experience with the failings of the existing LRV network. For Pete's sake, 77 Spadina was faster than the 510 and wouldn't already be requiring a massive renovation after only 13 years of service.