Ford government tends to look at Transit infrastructure as a luxury, a "nice to have". It's why, for example, they'll only commit to implementing two-way all day service on the Milton line if the Feds pay for half but make no such demands to build highway 413.
 
UtakataNoAnnex said:
This government needs to focus on the people who use and need adequate public transit and not instead for well heeled developers and/or angry entitled motorists...as they are likely a far larger voting block as opposed to the latters.
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Fully agree but sadly developers and entitled motorists generally have more money so political parties tend to court them for fundraising reasons, despite being a smaller group of people. The only way to end this is a complete reevaluation of how our political parties are funded.
 
TossYourJacket said:
Fully agree but sadly developers and entitled motorists generally have more money so political parties tend to court them for fundraising reasons, despite being a smaller group of people. The only way to end this is a complete reevaluation of how our political parties are funded.
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What's sad is that plenty of well-heeled people think transit is a good idea and use it themselves. The corridor of wealthy neighbourhoods along Yonge Street from Bloor to Lawrence is well served by transit, as is Forest Hill and even a suburb like Oakville (with all-day GO transit and free connections to the subway). Wealthy and successful people use transit (or at least higher-order transit in areas that are well served by it).

However, sometimes, those in charge just assume that they don't and that they have to cater to those obsessed with driving everywhere. That sort of thing then unfortunately reinforces driving as the primary form of transportation among anyone who have a choice. It's a positive feedback loop.

It's sad to see so many businesses and institutions, even those located downtown or on prime transit infrastructure outside of downtown, providing driving and parking directions first and foremost on their websites, for instance, before providing transit information or not providing any information at all. And cycling directions (e.g. "we are easily accessible by the Martin Goodman Trail")? No chance.

The assumption is that the people they want as their customers are those who drive, even when it isn't necessarily true. But it helps to reinforce cultural norms that those who have a choice should be driving and not coming by transit or cycling.
 
junctionist said:
What's sad is that plenty of well-heeled people think transit is a good idea and use it themselves. The corridor of wealthy neighbourhoods along Yonge Street from Bloor to Lawrence is well served by transit, as is Forest Hill and even a suburb like Oakville (with all-day GO transit and free connections to the subway). Wealthy and successful people use transit (or at least higher-order transit in areas that are well served by it).

However, sometimes, those in charge just assume that they don't and that they have to cater to those obsessed with driving everywhere. That sort of thing then unfortunately reinforces driving as the primary form of transportation among anyone who have a choice. It's a positive feedback loop.

It's sad to see so many businesses and institutions, even those located downtown or on prime transit infrastructure outside of downtown, providing driving and parking directions first and foremost on their websites, for instance, before providing transit information or not providing any information at all. And cycling directions (e.g. "we are easily accessible by the Martin Goodman Trail")? No chance.

The assumption is that the people they want as their customers are those who drive, even when it isn't necessarily true. But it helps to reinforce cultural norms that those who have a choice should be driving and not coming by transit or cycling.
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Anyone wealthy enough to own a car basically only ever uses transit when it can beat the travel time of a car.

Which is going downtown. Those people in Forest Hill and Oakville drive for 95% of their trips, and use transit to go to the office as driving downtown in rush hour is slower. But the other 95% of the time, it's faster, so they drive.
 
innsertnamehere said:
Anyone wealthy enough to own a car basically only ever uses transit when it can beat the travel time of a car.

Which is going downtown. Those people in Forest Hill and Oakville drive for 95% of their trips, and use transit to go to the office as driving downtown in rush hour is slower. But the other 95% of the time, it's faster, so they drive.
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As a suburbanite growing up in Oakville and now living in Burlington, I have to disagree slightly. I of course can't speak for everyone however for the majority of people I knew/know, the GO Train was and still is typically the method of choice for travelling downtown for sporting events, concerts, etc. The mindset was always "it's just easier/we don't have to worry about the car".

When I lived downtown but still had friends in the burbs they would all choose to take the train in for nights out and avoid the drive mostly because parking overnight was way too expensive and the GO train was more appetizing to be hungover on especially with a quick stop at the Union Mcds.
 
Mariner35 said:
As a suburbanite growing up in Oakville and now living in Burlington, I have to disagree slightly. I of course can't speak for everyone however for the majority of people I knew/know, the GO Train was and still is typically the method of choice for travelling downtown for sporting events, concerts, etc. The mindset was always "it's just easier/we don't have to worry about the car".

When I lived downtown but still had friends in the burbs they would all choose to take the train in for nights out and avoid the drive mostly because parking overnight was way too expensive and the GO train was more appetizing to be hungover on especially with a quick stop at the Union Mcds.
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That's a bit more nuanced of an explanation but generally aligns with my experiences of "upper middle class" and above's transit use. I find those demographics tend to have a mix of people - some only use transit downtown, some only drive, some will drive some times, transit some times.
 
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