Brant St to Dixie Rd would be a 2.5 hour route. Not even GO Transit would be able to provide such a service. If it's over 2 hours, that's what cars are for. Transit is for "live/work" communities.
That traffic volume map shows the real problem in Oakville. Counts of around 10,000 along Lakeshore Road in the downtown. 20,000 along Speers Road. Compare that to Queen St and Steeles Ave in Brampton where the counts exceed 45,000. Oakville is still a "bedroom community".
Oakville will not have trouble getting people onto transit once Dundas Street and their
"Uptown Core" gets built up. It follows more the
Don Mills neighbourhood model that the rest of suburban Toronto has followed. Oakville's previous major shopping area was deliberately located on the boundary
far from any residences. Uptown Core will be Oakville's first "Don Mills".
Quote:
Originally Posted by Nouvellecosse
It's true that transit doesn't have to compete as much with walking or biking in the suburbs, but it has to compete more with cars since there's a higher rate of car ownership and car trips are usually faster and more convenient in suburbs than in the city. So it kind of balances out with captive riders, people who don't have an alternative, being forced onto transit. But what differentiates a medium or high ridership system from a low ridership system is their ability to attract choice riders. And that is not as easy to do in suburban setting. But that's also affected by demographics as others have mentioned since places with lower incomes tend to have fewer cars.
|
I'm not saying suburbs will have higher transit ridership. I'm just saying few of them actually have low transit ridership. Urban sprawl has not had a major effect on transit ridership in Canada. Transit ridership in Canada is the same as in the UK.
There's no such thing as "choice riders" or "captive riders" because people who invested in a car are not going to use transit, period. To reduce car ownership is a goal of transit in the first place. Even in the murder capital of the USA, if people need a car, then they will get a car.
Annual Boardings, 2023
Oakville Transit: 3,955,900
Memphis Area Transit Authority: 3,122,700