Halifax Active Transportation

[Summerville]

Originally Posted by Nouvellecosse

With cars, there isn't really any "efficiency of use" to begin with when it comes to a congested downtown setting. Without even considering safety or energy usage, they just take up too much space per person - not just while in motion but even when while parked - for them to be efficient in the most land constrained part of a city. So no, you could not say that if you want to speak accurately.

Downtowns just can't function if a majority of people insist on arriving by car. That's why in all large cities across the country, the majority of downtown visitors arrive by other modes. Halifax may not be large enough to be at that point yet, but the more it grows, the closer it gets. And being historic with narrower streets means it's closer to that point to begin with. People really need to stop with the false equivalences. The whole reason that municipalities are trying shift the modal split is that some modes are more advantages to the function of a city than others. So there's no "if you can do/say X about one then you can apply it equally to others." The equivalence doesn't exist.

My guess is approximately 85% of cars at rush hour in Halifax only have the driver and no passengers. There has to be an incentive (ie. better transit) to get people out of their cars.