road construction - build it and you will need to keep building

I live in Waterloo. I wrote our local newspaper in response to the following.


http://news.therecord.com/article/248928
Jeff Outhit:

"September 29, 2007

JEFF OUTHIT
RECORD STAFF

The cost of a new Highway 7 between Kitchener and Guelph has soared to $300 million, and may exceed $400 million by the time it's completed.

...

The new road -- 18 kilometres long -- will cut a 100-metre swath through the countryside, north of the current two-lane highway.

It will displace five businesses and 11 homes. It will span the Grand River, bisect a wetland, and consume 144 hectares of farmland, affecting more than a dozen farms."

D: My response:

"The Record has covered plans to expand highways and parking for automobiles. Absent from the discussion is any consideration of carpool lanes. Despite studies showing that high-occupancy-vehicle (HOV) lanes carry more people faster, none of the political parties are backing this.

The phenomenon of "slugging," which has drivers picking up strangers travelling to the same destination to qualify for HOV lanes shows just how successful this idea can be.

Build new highways, and in a decade we'll just have to build more. Convert existing lanes for HOV use, and the fines will render this approach self-funding.

Instead the community's leaders wish to spend a huge amount of money -- money which supports a regressive fiscal policy being of benefit only to people who can afford cars."

http://www.nationalpost.com/news/canada/story.html?id=256918

In 1992, 68% of Canadians aged 18 and older drove everywhere, according to a new report from Statistics Canada.

By 1998, that proportion was 70%.

In 2005, the most recent year for which numbers are available, 74% of Canadians were full-time drivers.

Biking and walking rates, meanwhile, declined to 19% in 2005 from 26% in 1992...

Canadian cities are sprawling almost unchecked, he said, and the search for affordable housing has pushed many people to the outskirts where an automobile may be the only realistic transportation option."

D: Depressing, indeed. By the time such concepts as public transit and bike lanes are discussed, we can see that the battle is already half over. All the ace cards are in the hands of drivers.

D: Leading to... smog days!
http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2005/06/14/smog-oma050714.html

"The damaging effects of breathing smog could contribute to 5,800 premature deaths in Ontario this year, the Ontario Medical Association said Tuesday."

But is it? http://news.therecord.com/article/276887

It now turns out government forecasters are wrong most of the time when they predict poor air.

Only 13 of 40 local smog days since 2006 have had poor air quality, environment records reveal. A pollution index shows there was never poor air during 27 of 40 smog days.

D: a good first step - free bus on smog days.

http://www.region.waterloo.on.ca/web/region.nsf/$All/E6677789A1F22F2785256ED8004E46D9?OpenDocument

Region offers free transit on first smog advisory day in August

Waterloo Region – In an effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve air quality, Grand River Transit (GRT) in cooperation with Region of Waterloo Public Health will provide free transit on the first smog advisory day in August.

The objective of this pilot initiative is to increase public awareness about the link between transportation choices and air quality. Motorists will be urged to leave their vehicles at home and ride transit free in an effort to encourage wise transportation choices on smog days.

“Public transit is a great defense against climate change,” said Regional Chair Ken Seiling. “A free transit initiative is just one way we are working to enhance our public transportation system and improve air quality in Waterloo Region.”

Waterloo Region often experiences extended periods of smog and poor air quality. Traveling by public transit creates 65 per cent fewer greenhouse gas emissions than traveling by car, making it a “green” transportation alternative.

D: I have air quality reports sent to my e-mail. I avoid hard cardio training during smog alerts.
http://www.airqualityontario.com/alerts/signup.cfm

D: a summary of the last decade or so of Ontario air quality alerts.
http://www.airqualityontario.com/press/smog_advisories.cfm

D: In summary, we encourage remote sprawling suburbs. Cheap vehicle fuel (relative to societal cost) encourages folks to commute from out of town to their workplace.
We may not associate these indirect health costs to motor vehicles, but suburbs are very unhealthy.

http://www.thestar.com/News/GTA/article/272582
"Toronto's inner suburbs are the urban epicentre of an obesity and diabetes epidemic that is shortening lives and threatens to overwhelm our health-care system, says a groundbreaking study to be released today."

D: whence cometh the suburban sprawl?
http://multinationalmonitor.org/mm2003/03october/october03corp1.html

Sprawl and Its Discontents
"Suburban sprawl" usually refers to development patterns with low density and a lack of mixed-use (for example, no apartments above stores), a lack of transportation options (forcing everyone to drive to work), strict separation of residential from non-residential property, and job growth in newer suburbs with job decline in older areas (both the core city and older suburbs).

Sprawl causes increased dependence on automobiles and longer average commuting times, deteriorating air quality, and rapid consumption of open space in outlying areas. It also causes disinvestment of central city infrastructure and services, and strains city budgets at the core (due to a declining tax base) and in some suburbs (because of hyper-growth at the edge).

The decentralization of jobs in manufacturing, wholesale and retail means work becomes scarce for low-skilled workers who are concentrated at the core. Since the suburbs lack affordable housing (often due to exclusionary zoning) and public transit fails to reach many suburban jobs, sprawl effectively cuts central city residents off from regional labor markets. That means greater concentrations of poverty for residents of core areas...

http://www.financialpost.com/analysis/columnists/story.html?id=b42fe4e0-eeed-4e64-a127-123d5afebe35&k=61625

A Toronto megalopolis, 150 kilometres in girth, will be born of the Ontario provincial budget announced this week. The budget's big-ticket transportation projects will drive this outcome through measures that will undermine public transit in the city while accelerating suburban sprawl in the Greater Toronto Area and beyond.

The Toronto subway system, rather than being expanded in the city's highly populated and underserved downtown areas, will instead be revamped to serve as a commuter rail line, extending to a rural highway in a regional municipality north of Toronto. The province expects as many as 100,000 extra suburban trips will be made daily on the new subsidized service, giving a big boost to suburban development.

D: our taxes and fiscal policy favour urban sprawl. Urban sprawl is unfriendly to public transit. It favours cars.

D: so there we have it. Build lotsa roads for car drivers from the suburbs, which are in turn encouraged through other monetary means.
I am NOT saying we should give up on alternative transportation, despite this heavy emphasis on long commutes and distant, low-density residential zones.
Since this blog is primarily about transportation, I will focus more exclusively on more immediate and practical concerns.

Tomorrow I will discuss road features that are bike/bus/walk friendly.