Can commute be improved for Toronto drivers?

[Hipster Duck]

^The flipside to that argument - and I admit it's a "glass half empty" perspective, but valid, nonetheless - is that if more employers moved to walkable, transit-friendly neighbourhoods, those walkable neighbourhoods would become very desirable and people who cannot afford to commute by anything other than public transit/walking would be pushed out to places where they need a car. Basically, it's another way of understanding the problem with gentrification from a mobility perspective.

 

[SlickFranky]

I think trying to browbeat people toward quitting their jobs and working closer to home is approaching things from the wrong side. Governments instead need to encourage businesses to locate near population centres (walkable neighbourhoods) or transit stops, and not by highway offramps on service roads.

Changes to these policies decades ago would have made my recent moving decision much easier. Because of their lack of foresight, I now work in the wilds of Steeles East. I could have very easily gotten a place very nearby, for relatively cheap. It was tempting. But then I'd have been stuck living out in the middle of nowhere. So I said screw that, took a place off College, and am stuck with a 1hr-plus TTC commute. I don't actually mind too much though...I get tons of reading done.

 

[nfitz]

I think trying to browbeat people toward quitting their jobs and working closer to home is approaching things from the wrong side. Governments instead need to encourage businesses to locate near population centres (walkable neighbourhoods) or transit stops, and not by highway offramps on service roads.

To a point. And yet at the same time, we see increasing amounts of commuting from the downtown core up to the 407.

 

[archanfel]

I think trying to browbeat people toward quitting their jobs and working closer to home is approaching things from the wrong side. Governments instead need to encourage businesses to locate near population centres (walkable neighbourhoods) or transit stops, and not by highway offramps on service roads.

Which would of course make these locations more expensive and thus less attractive to businesses.

 

[archanfel]

Changes to these policies decades ago would have made my recent moving decision much easier. Because of their lack of foresight, I now work in the wilds of Steeles East. I could have very easily gotten a place very nearby, for relatively cheap. It was tempting. But then I'd have been stuck living out in the middle of nowhere. So I said screw that, took a place off College, and am stuck with a 1hr-plus TTC commute. I don't actually mind too much though...I get tons of reading done.

Which is probably not very good for your eyes. Subway is better, the sun is very harmful on a moving bus/street car.

 

[GraphicMatt]

Which would of course make these locations more expensive and thus less attractive to businesses.

Eh, there's a lot governments can do to control costs. Not the least of which would be to use zoning to ensure more neighbourhoods are walkable or build more infrastructure so there are more transit stops to locate businesses near. If these types of locations become more commonplace than they'll feel less 'exclusive'.

 

[archanfel]

Eh, there's a lot governments can do to control costs. Not the least of which would be to use zoning to ensure more neighbourhoods are walkable or build more infrastructure so there are more transit stops to locate businesses near. If these types of locations become more commonplace than they'll feel less 'exclusive'.

Toronto have tons of transit stops, which ones are cheap and not a dump? Markham town center is becoming the silicon valley of Canada. Companies move there for a reason. On the flip side, all the major banks are in downtown and they are there for a reason too.

 

[lead82]

I think the main issue here is that our industrial areas are not really dense and difficult to serve by transit. Employers also provide lots of free parking which encourage driving to work. We need figure out how to reduce the taxes on the industrial land and encourage our employee zones to be denser than just large one floor boxes taking up massive space.