GO Transit

[ijmorlan]

I wouldn’t grant that. We build 4-lane roads out to new subdivisions with nobody living in them all the time; why not build LRT out to a small existing town and plan for the LRT rather than roads to take future traffic growth?

A student residence in Elmira straddling the tracks with elevators direct to platform level would be closer to UW in time than most existing student housing.

Hyperbole? Almost all existing student housing is within a 20 minute walk, and with the majority being less than 10 minutes from UW. When you include Laurier and Conestoga College the percentage of student oriented housing within 10 minute walk of a post secondary campus is probably >90%.

Elmira on the other hand, minimum travel time, by car, speeding straight down 85 from the south end of Elmira is already 15 minutes. No LRT is going to come close to being faster than walking from almost all student housing.

S Field Dr. in Elmira, at the tracks, to UW station is about 13km along the tracks, or 10 minutes at 80km/h.

So with the right LRT service, I think that compares pretty favourably to a lot of existing student commutes.

That being said, not every building could be literally on the station, and realistically if we ever get LRT to Elmira it would probably poke along at 70km/h, and depending on how many stops there are the real speed would be way below my 80km/h, and so on, but to just cede all interurban transport to road-based vehicles is in my opinion unambitious, especially in the medium to long term.