Quote:
Originally Posted by MonkeyRonin
Investing more in rapid & active transit infrastructure than in road infrastructure makes perfect sense. The problem in Canada though, is that we tend to cheap out and do neither. Particularly in places like Halifax and Vancouver, where there's an ideological aversion to building highways or expanding road capacity; but transit funding has not been increased accordingly to fill the void. Montreal and Toronto at least have been a little bit more ambitious with their transit projects (while also still building new freeways in the suburbs).
The end result is that getting around by transit is slow and inconvenient in most cases, so people prefer to drive for obvious reasons. But because road infrastructure hasn't kept up with demand either, we end up with intolerable congestion. I'd rather copy the European model than the American one, but instead we get the worst of both worlds: insufficient transit and insufficient road capacity.
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Our built form (even in old central cities) is North American so simply importing European ideas isn't optimal. We need to follow a Canadian model tailored to Canadian cities and that seems to be what Canadian urban planners are doing.
As frustratingly slow as things can be, most Canadian municipalities are moving in the right direction. Unfortunately but largely unavoidable, we're in for 20+ years of chaos before intensification, TOD, infrastructure improvements, and pedestrianization efforts hit a tipping point. Building lots more roadway would alleviate current congestion, but it's short sighted, counter-acts attempts to invert the rides share ratio between cars and other forms of commuting, and a colossal waste of money.
If Toronto is to urbanize and become a transit, cycling, and pedestrian oriented city, all that 'new' roadway would have to be torn down again in 20 years. The Ontario Line, Eglinton Crosstown, and GO investments are huge positive steps in that direction but we need to keep our foot on the gas. Eventually, things will get better but this really is our only workable way forward. We need to double down on transit, stay the course, and not give in to drivers demanding even more car infrastructure. Doing so will prolong this mess we're in.
In closing, many criticize our rapid population growth but it's really a blessing in disguise. Without that growth, it would take us far longer to transition our cities from ones built for cars to ones designed for PT, cycling, and walking.