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Originally Posted by roger1818
Good thing no one is suggesting that. It is just your go to strawman argument.
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When there's people talking about building a bus terminal for them in the core, somebody is subsidizing them. So hardly a strawman.
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Originally Posted by roger1818
I don't buy the argument that commuter buses will make traffic downtown worse. The key is to significantly reduce the number of cars downtown, not buses.
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We're going to fail at reducing cars or buses in the core if we add hundreds of thousands of residents to these exurban communities. For the simple reason that they will never have 100% transit modal share to the core. And if they did, we'd end up with higher bus traffic from these rural buses still.
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Originally Posted by roger1818
The single seat ride argument is also weak if transfer frequencies are high enough.
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Why would transfer frequencies be high if they are getting single seat rides to the core? They are going to get better service than folks from Orleans, Kanata, Stittsville, Barrhaven, Nepean, etc.
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Originally Posted by roger1818
Why do you hold community numbing, high-rise condos in such high esteem? They are as much of a blight as sprawling mansion growth would be.
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Who said I did? I just gave you a video lamenting the lack of Missing Middle developments and you jump to this strawman?
I guess it's really hard for you to just admit that people move to these towns for cheaper square footage and acreage. And that it's not actually about lower cost of housing. Again, show me who is moving to Arnprior or Navan to live in a townhouse or even a semi, or because they want cheaper rent than Ottawa.
I should ask why you advocate so much for the hollowing out of the city?
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Originally Posted by roger1818
Having said all that, with the high cost of housing, we are starting to see today (compared to even a decade ago) increased density in the suburbs and exurbs with more and more duplexes and townhomes being built and the singles that are being built are smaller than they were. I would like to start to see triplexes and low rise apartments being built though.
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Now you've gotten to mixing up suburbs and exurbs. While Ottawa has imposed much tighter zoning on suburbs, it has no control over those exurbs. We should be striving to develop enough of our suburbs to house all that growth within 20-30km of downtown. Not jumping right to discussions about how to facilitate easier 50 km commutes.
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Originally Posted by roger1818
Do you beleive that you have physic powers, and can know the intentions of others, or are you just making assumptions about their intentions?
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What does an externality have to do with reading minds? You live in the boonies and take a rural bus to work? You are contributing to traffic, sprawl and environmental degradation. Those are facts. You can debate how much we should weigh those facts or regulate against them. But that doesn't change reality.
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Originally Posted by roger1818
So you would rather see those ex-urban commuters driving their cars downtown, or would you rather use your property tax dollars to subsidize their use of OC Transpo? You can't have it all.
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Frankly? I'm okay with them driving. It's expensive and tiring for them. Which should at least discourage some of it. And we can add further disincentives by taxing parking spots in the downtown core too or adding congestion charges, we should pursue that. The more expensive and inconvenient it is for them to engage in sprawl the better.
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Originally Posted by roger1818
For now that would be adequate, but there is wisdom in planning for the future.
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Indeed. Which is why it's even further madness, with all that we know about sprawl, climate change, etc. to advocate for a future where we require regional buses to the core and even a rail network apparently.