Another comment related to induced demand: inefficient modes appear to “need” or “deserve” expansion more than efficient modes. For example, the 401 is 83m across through Toronto (curb to curb) for 14 lanes of traffic. It’s still clogged often and looks like it “should” be expanded. That number of lanes can move maybe 13300 vehicles per hour in each direction.
If however all that traffic was replaced by LRT, the entire road could be replaced by the same 2 tracks that we see on Ion; you would need about 75 of our Ion LRT vehicles every hour in each direction (or, more realistically, a 4-car train every 3 minutes). A careful observer would notice that it was a very busy LRT line, but it wouldn’t appear particularly congested.
Similarly, by the time a one-lane-wide sidewalk (i.e., a fairly wide sidewalk) is congested with pedestrians, it’s carrying an absurd number of people compared to what the same space would be carrying in cars or even buses. Same comment applies to bicycle paths. As a result, bicycle paths and sidewalks typically appear underused even though the benefit per dollar spent may be quite reasonable.
If however all that traffic was replaced by LRT, the entire road could be replaced by the same 2 tracks that we see on Ion; you would need about 75 of our Ion LRT vehicles every hour in each direction (or, more realistically, a 4-car train every 3 minutes). A careful observer would notice that it was a very busy LRT line, but it wouldn’t appear particularly congested.
Similarly, by the time a one-lane-wide sidewalk (i.e., a fairly wide sidewalk) is congested with pedestrians, it’s carrying an absurd number of people compared to what the same space would be carrying in cars or even buses. Same comment applies to bicycle paths. As a result, bicycle paths and sidewalks typically appear underused even though the benefit per dollar spent may be quite reasonable.