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Forget auto pilot, get real transit plan
Aug. 9, 2006. 06:16 AM
ROYSON JAMES
We watched as American cities sprawled as far as the automobile would take them and listened to the complaints from tired, frustrated, gridlocked commuters. And we ignored or gave short shrift to their warnings.
So, we are really not surprised that the commute across the Toronto region is grinding slower and slower each year — even as we replicate the disastrous development patterns that inevitably lead to such transportation mess.
The prospects for change are dim. We're not short of money, but there are too few credible and studied calls for expenditures that might create a proposal we know will ease the traffic burdens.
Auto-dependency has proven itself a false promise, and even the proponents of more highways and more pavement are beginning to admit that more highways only lead to more lanes of clogged traffic.
Transit has its supporters, but the proposals are short-sighted, sporadic, underfunded and lacking innovation and foresight.
Governments are still unable to scale the built-in barriers: the feds are in charge of the railways, the province runs the highways and the cities — financial weaklings with gigantic responsibilities — are in charge of the buses and subways. They rarely come together for the benefit of the commuter.
Never mind the provincial government's pronouncement about Smart Growth and Markham's boast about its new urbanism and the curvaceous towers planned for Mississauga. Fact is, the towns and cities of the suburbs outside Toronto are not nearly as densely populated as they need to be to sustain public transit. And nobody is forcing them to be.
The province says it plans to set up the Greater Toronto Transit Authority, but do you think it will have nearly the powers it needs to even make a modicum of a difference? Hell, no. For that to happen, Mayor David Miller has to travel to Mississauga and meet with Hazel McCallion. They would then travel to Bill Fisch in York Region and then trek over to Roger Anderson in Durham and not leave until they've carved out the skeleton of a plan to ease travel across the region.
Then, they could go to Queen's Park and Ottawa with the clout of 4 million people — and be heard.
A kilometre or two of subway every year for 20 years.
A network of bus lanes for express inter-region travel — say from Mississauga to Scarborough, or whatever connections — are needed to move masses of people.
A GTA-wide funding plan — licence fees, gas tax, hydro levies, road tolls — that shows the Toronto area is prepared to pay its share of the funding to ease the pressure that's been building and which will get worse.
And even then, the Toronto region would have only a fighting chance. So, don't expect to whiz across town or country on our way to work each morning and have smooth sailing on our way back; not any time soon; maybe never.
Thankfully, people like John Stillich are eternal optimists. The general manager of a group called Sustainable Urban development Association has no illusions about how difficult it will be to improve our transportation options.
"We simply don't comprehend the enormity of the transportation problem created by 12 million trips a day in the GTA," he said, following the province's announcement that the Spadina subway would extend to Highway 7 and Weston Rd., from Downsview station.
"The extension will replace only 83,000 car trips per business day, and won't be operational until 2013. Travel by automobile will continue to increase by leaps and bounds. Compare our transit efforts to the city of Madrid, Spain, which has been building subways at a rate of 10 kilometres per year."
One solution Stillich has offered is a cross-GTA subway line, along Sheppard-Highway 401, stretching 58 kilometres from Pickering Town Centre to Mississauga Centre — 27 stops, nine of them underground.
Cost? About $6 billion, says Stillich.
Likely more. Maybe as much as $9 billion. But as he says, this would be the "most substantial public works project undertaken in the Toronto area.
The size of the project reflects the size of the problems facing the region and the benefits are commensurate in magnitude."
Stillich says people may have other ideas or more detailed costing, but his plan is "worth putting out there. I think it's doable. Do it in phases, minimize the disruption in traffic. But do it now or nobody is going to move later down the road."
Unless, you have a better idea.
Forget auto pilot, get real transit plan
Aug. 9, 2006. 06:16 AM
ROYSON JAMES
We watched as American cities sprawled as far as the automobile would take them and listened to the complaints from tired, frustrated, gridlocked commuters. And we ignored or gave short shrift to their warnings.
So, we are really not surprised that the commute across the Toronto region is grinding slower and slower each year — even as we replicate the disastrous development patterns that inevitably lead to such transportation mess.
The prospects for change are dim. We're not short of money, but there are too few credible and studied calls for expenditures that might create a proposal we know will ease the traffic burdens.
Auto-dependency has proven itself a false promise, and even the proponents of more highways and more pavement are beginning to admit that more highways only lead to more lanes of clogged traffic.
Transit has its supporters, but the proposals are short-sighted, sporadic, underfunded and lacking innovation and foresight.
Governments are still unable to scale the built-in barriers: the feds are in charge of the railways, the province runs the highways and the cities — financial weaklings with gigantic responsibilities — are in charge of the buses and subways. They rarely come together for the benefit of the commuter.
Never mind the provincial government's pronouncement about Smart Growth and Markham's boast about its new urbanism and the curvaceous towers planned for Mississauga. Fact is, the towns and cities of the suburbs outside Toronto are not nearly as densely populated as they need to be to sustain public transit. And nobody is forcing them to be.
The province says it plans to set up the Greater Toronto Transit Authority, but do you think it will have nearly the powers it needs to even make a modicum of a difference? Hell, no. For that to happen, Mayor David Miller has to travel to Mississauga and meet with Hazel McCallion. They would then travel to Bill Fisch in York Region and then trek over to Roger Anderson in Durham and not leave until they've carved out the skeleton of a plan to ease travel across the region.
Then, they could go to Queen's Park and Ottawa with the clout of 4 million people — and be heard.
A kilometre or two of subway every year for 20 years.
A network of bus lanes for express inter-region travel — say from Mississauga to Scarborough, or whatever connections — are needed to move masses of people.
A GTA-wide funding plan — licence fees, gas tax, hydro levies, road tolls — that shows the Toronto area is prepared to pay its share of the funding to ease the pressure that's been building and which will get worse.
And even then, the Toronto region would have only a fighting chance. So, don't expect to whiz across town or country on our way to work each morning and have smooth sailing on our way back; not any time soon; maybe never.
Thankfully, people like John Stillich are eternal optimists. The general manager of a group called Sustainable Urban development Association has no illusions about how difficult it will be to improve our transportation options.
"We simply don't comprehend the enormity of the transportation problem created by 12 million trips a day in the GTA," he said, following the province's announcement that the Spadina subway would extend to Highway 7 and Weston Rd., from Downsview station.
"The extension will replace only 83,000 car trips per business day, and won't be operational until 2013. Travel by automobile will continue to increase by leaps and bounds. Compare our transit efforts to the city of Madrid, Spain, which has been building subways at a rate of 10 kilometres per year."
One solution Stillich has offered is a cross-GTA subway line, along Sheppard-Highway 401, stretching 58 kilometres from Pickering Town Centre to Mississauga Centre — 27 stops, nine of them underground.
Cost? About $6 billion, says Stillich.
Likely more. Maybe as much as $9 billion. But as he says, this would be the "most substantial public works project undertaken in the Toronto area.
The size of the project reflects the size of the problems facing the region and the benefits are commensurate in magnitude."
Stillich says people may have other ideas or more detailed costing, but his plan is "worth putting out there. I think it's doable. Do it in phases, minimize the disruption in traffic. But do it now or nobody is going to move later down the road."
Unless, you have a better idea.