Doady - you keep missing the point. the new planning "school of thought" is get transit in before development or people will buy 2 cars and that's it. There IS density coming to Don Mills and Steeles and there's already a huge job node at Leslie/7. You can take a lot of 404 trips off the road by going up there and it makes no more sense to stop at Steeles than at Cummer, Van Horne, or any other random street north of Sheppard.
Similarly, Jane is set to be redeveloped as a downtown core and there's already a decent job node there too.
Tens of thousands of new residents in the next decade or two.
As Scarberian said, I'm not sure what else counts as "a lot of people" to you.
Or we can just scrap these LRTs and subways and build another Mississauga if that makes everyone happy...
Are you saying that the York U extension happened 'because' York region got behind it, and that VCC was a viable destination for a subway? Or that the subway happened because York region and Sobrara got behind it as a political tool?
The two are not mutually exclusive. Personally I think the Sorbara stuff is exaggerated. York Region/Vaughan have long eyed that area right across from York as a downtown and now it's provincial law. It is very much a viable destination - and only became moreso with Places to Grow etc - and I think the idea of extending beyond Toronto (beyond being a natural thing to do, since Steeles is abitrary) made the whole project more palletable to the upper levels of government. The province, in particular, could hardly designate it a major growth node and then stop a subway 5 km away - especially with York Region putting up the money.
Tell me, what difference would it have made had YRT let the York extension terminate at Steeles West and run a VIVA BRT route north on Jane? Did it take Transit city for YRT to come to the realization about that route?
That's a totally academic question. These projects are always part planning, part political lobbying. Vaughan has pushed hard for that extension for a long time.
They might have been happy with an LRT as they weren't being overly ambitious. They were literally holding a regional council meeting to approve expropriations for bus lanes the week Move2020 came out. It's not that they didn't want a subway on Yonge but they weren't looking that far ahead, I'm saying.
Your point about the NIMBY's misses the point. It will take a couple of years to build the BRT lanes so by the time they're done (if not before) it will be time to dig the subway. The EA will be done in March. All you're doing is adding a couple of years of construction at this point. If the subway CONSTRUCTION (as opposed to opening) was 10 years off, that would be a different matter.
The difference with the Downsview busway should be obvious; it doesn't entail construction on Yonge Street.