On October 25, 2010, I waited with bated breath to see who would become the next mayor of Toronto: Rob Ford or Miller-lite George Smitherman. When Ford won, everybody in the bar I and Cincinnatus contributor Mike Downtown were sitting in, spontaneously cheered. I said, “Yes, Transit City is dead.”
I felt enormous relief because I understood that the Transit City plan of clogging major arterial roads with oversize streetcars would make Toronto unlivable. The light rail transit lines will cause commuter chaos because they will take up at least three lanes of traffic on streets that are already beyond capacity at rush hour. Because these slow, low-capacity ‘trains’ will never move a significant volume of rush-hour commuters, the amount of passenger cars will not diminish. As Toronto Sun correspondent, Christina Blizzard said, “And that’s what Transit City was — a quick and cheaper fix instead of the real deal.”
As I said yesterday, this is not conjecture on my part. The experiment has already been done and the results can be seen on St Clair West (whose residents voted for Rob Ford in 2010).
Blizzard also points out: “Scarborough already has an LRT — from Kennedy to Scarborough Town Centre. It’s unreliable and freezes up any time there’s snow and ice.” She might have added that the only reason we got stuck with it - instead of seeing the subway extended from Kennedy all the way out to the Metro Zoo and to the Scarborough Town Center (both of which could have been done above ground all the way) - was because in the early 1980’s, the provincial crown corporation, The Urban Transportation Development Corporation, needed somebody to be their first customer. Vancouver was interested but balked at being the first buyer, so the province armtwisted the Borough of Scarborough into purchasing this light-duty albatross. What was found to be inadequate in Scarborough will now be found inadequate throughout the city.
About Toronto’s traffic woes, even a recent Toronto Star headline admitted, “Worse than L.A.” Well, thanks to Rob Ford’s two-faced supporter, Karen Stintz, it’s about to get a lot worse than LA.
Might be interesting checking out problems in Calgary and Edmonton - they both have LRT.
Posted by: Frances | February 09, 2012 at 05:15 PM
Might be, Francis.
Not sure how relevant their experiences would be. Do they have similar passenger car and transit rider volume to contend with? And were their LRT lines built over existing roadways that were already clogged with cars?
Not criticizing you. I just don't know. Anybody who does, kindly please inform us.
Posted by: Cincinnatus | February 09, 2012 at 06:07 PM
It was 25 years ago, but when I lived in Edmonton the entire system was built on dedicated rights-of-way and the downtown section was all underground - basically a subway in LRT clothes.
They had an entire shopping mall underground and it was easily possible to live, work and play in the core of the city without venturing outdoors...
Posted by: Fred | February 10, 2012 at 09:44 AM
Hi Fred:
Thanks for the info.
Well, Toronto's got all that as well: a good subway system and a network of underground malls under all the skyscrapers downtown. And it is possible to live underground without venturing outdoors. Many people do. But that only takes care of about 1/2 million people at most. The rest of the 4 million people have to fend for themselves above ground.
It should be noted to non-Torontonians that the issue is not about building LRT's downtown. We already have a good underground subway system there, and there is no room for above ground trains. This is about the suburbs. And yes, they do need a subway - badly. They just don't need glorified streetcars clogging up their streets because a bunch of elitists downtown don't like cars.
Posted by: Cincinnatus | February 10, 2012 at 10:21 AM
It's time to realize that T.O. is the problem. It is Canada's problem.
Ontario's debt isn't because rural Ont. rose up and spent all the cash.
T.O. simply is sucking the life out of Ontario and Canada.
Posted by: bmatkin | February 12, 2012 at 02:28 AM
bmatkin - Toronto is also the engine that drives the rest of the country, so be careful when you express your irrational hatred.
Posted by: WiseGuy | February 12, 2012 at 11:38 PM