Road design, transportation and walkability

[danbrotherston]

Whether or not transit is practical for you specifically is largely irrelevant. Maybe in your particular instance a car is appropriate. That does not mean, however, that we can't work to make our cities more sustainable and shift other trips on Hwy 7 to transit. We need to recognize that in the face of climate change we have no other choice but to try to move in a direction that is not dependent on cars. Given that, what can we do to make our cities less car dependent, and does a new expressway between Guelph and KW meet those policy objectives? I'd argue no, and it therefore should be a non-starter.

Ok, but it transit practical for the majority of the population? That is relevant. Forget me. I’d argue that transit isn’t practical, and likely never will be.

I look at my own neighbourhood, we lost our transit due to the LRT (trying to save money). Closest stop is a 5 - 15 minute walk, depending on where you live. That past 4 summers though, due to construction, the GRT has been re-routed. So it’s not even close for anyone. I wanted my son to take the bus to his high school, since he didn’t like the walk (exactly 3,180 m, just 20 meters short of school bussing), but we realized that between mid-April and mid-December, there is no service. This affect the entire area. And we’re not the only neighbourhood having these sorts of problems.

For transit to be good for people, it needs to have consistent service. It needs to be quick. We need to be able to get to our “places” (be it work, doctors appointments, etc) in a timely fashion. For the majority, this isn’t the case. This is especially true for those with families. How much time does one want to spend outside the home, going to and from work, and other places, when they have a family to take care of. The majority of people would rather spend 15 minutes in their car getting to and from work, for example, rather than 90 minutes on a bus, both ways.

Transit also needs to be reliable. Currently, it is not. It also needs to be 100% safe for the user, and it is not. And when things like a pandemic come up, we can’t rely on transit. When strikes occurs (like this did last year), we can’t rely on transit.

As for climate change, I already said it once, and will say it again: cars will be electric in the future. Some vehicles might still be gas, but that will be reserved mostly for transport trucks, transit busses, etc.

As for the highway between Kitchener and Guelph, I’d also argue that it will be more beneficial for the environment than other options. Simply because, going onto a roadway with no stops and high speed, gas usage in cars drop. Though by the time it’s done, I think more cars will be electric, so it might be a moot point.

We have already had this conversation a number of times, but ironically, your statements here are even more disprovable.  Yes, transit is absolutely practical for the majority of the population, the majority live in places that are easy to serve with transit. Yes, plenty of folks live in far flung cul-de-sacs that will never see good transit, but not the majority, the majority live in dense areas and dense buildings because those areas are dense and have more people.  Now, the majority of those folks do not choose transit for a number of reasons, but that does not mean it isn't a practical choice.

I don't think anyone here would disagree about transit being convenient, and fast, but transit, including GRT often is, the majority of people who live in denser areas near main routes, could easily be served by high frequency fast service, that's why transit is practical for the majority. The far flung suburbs are a problem only if the goal is 100% riding transit, which it isn't (and bicycles solve the last mile problem there very well anyway).

As for climate change, EVs will not solve climate change. They are better than gas cars, but they are still so incredibly impactful that switching to them does NOT solve climate change. It ONLY solves it for us, by forcing other countries to fail. Our numbers look good, because as usual, we are shifting our burden elsewhere. EVs are not a path to climate stability.

As a side note, I find it interesting you suggest that trucks and transit will still be gas, those are among the first vehicles being converted to EVs. Aside from EVs simply being cheaper for freight operators, local deliver and transit buses benefit immensely from electrification because their current driving pattern is near pessimal for internal combustion engines.

The highway to Guelph is a clear environmental loss. Vehicles use more energy traveling faster, they only do poorly in stop and go traffic, with extensive idling, highway 7 doesn't experience that much, and in return at all other times vehicles will travel faster and consume far more (it's a square power) energy doing so.