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Originally Posted by lrt's friend
If we want to improve public transit and see ridership growth, we cannot keep investing in the same people over and over again. My complaint with the current plan is that we are spending a ton of money to serve the exact same route that already has very good transit service.
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Define "very good transit service". Sure we have diesel-spewing buses running through Tunney's Pasture and the transitway trench every 5 minutes during rush hour, but we can't get on most of them, and if we do we won't get a seat because they're all taken by commuters from farther out. Ironically we pay higher property taxes to be closer to transit (therefore a higher transit levy), so yeah, we're the "same people over and over" but we are loyal, higher paying customers that deserve better. This isn't like a cell phone plan where better deals are for new customers only.
Quote:
Originally Posted by lrt's friend
As it stands, there is very few areas of the city where you can live without a car and still maintain a lifestyle that has a degree of convenience. We have not adopted the frequent transit service that exists in fairly large areas of Toronto and Montreal.
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All I can say is the direction of public transit has never been clearer in this city. We now know what is scheduled to be built for the next couple of decades and it is an obvious path to higher capacity. At this point, if transit and LRT service are that important to you, make the choice and live closer to it rather than expecting it to come to you. Contrary to what you say, there are still lots of homes that are affordable close to future LRT stations, if not in this phase then the next one. The Overbrook and Cyrville area comes to mind as well as areas near the future New Orchard and Iris stations. Look at MLS, there are still plenty of detached houses in the $300K - $400K range within 500 metres of frequent service.
Anyone who would choose to live car-free would never ever live in Riverside South. and it would take more than just great transit service to convince them to move there. Most people I know who are car-free are die-hard cyclists and value being close to cultural amenities more than anything else. You can't will that on a green field, it takes generations to evolve.