07-06-2015, 09:31 AM
Why Canada has fallen so far behind on public transit
Quote:"There was this consensus that the majority of transportation planning and funding should be oriented toward accommodating more cars," Litman says, adding that there is clearly growing demand for alternatives, particularly public transit, and policy has largely failed to reflect that.
"What it boils down to is that it's much easier for local governments to get funding for a highway improvement or new bridge than it is for a public transit project, even if public transit is the more rational investment."...
But political wrangling has stifled smart transit planning in Canadian cities says Murtaza Haider, an associate professor at the Ted Rogers School of Management at Ryerson University.
"Just look at the Conservatives right now. There's an election on the horizon and if somebody proposed a transit system based on flying monkeys and it happened to serve a contested area, they'd help fund it," he says, only half-jokingly.
"The result is that often we are not supporting the transit we need, but projects that advance electoral alliances and political gains."...
Moscrop argues that our inability to think on long time scales hampers decisions around public transit. These effects were likely on display during Metro Vancouver's transit plebiscite.