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circuitboy84
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Don't know if this has been posted:
Mar 23, 2007 04:30 AM
The task is enormous and failure is not an option.
What's at stake for the new Greater Toronto Transportation Authority is nothing less than the quality of life for the majority of citizens in Canada's busiest commuter corridor.
Blow it and family life, air quality and trade will deteriorate, warns Paul Bedford, Toronto's only citizen appointee to the GTTA.
The city's former chief planner is one of 11 board members charged with creating a transportation plan so seamless and sensible that driving a car will become the least attractive option between Oshawa and Hamilton.
"It will be a true regional transportation plan to service (the Golden Horseshoe) for the next 30 years," says Bedford.
Former Burlington mayor Rob MacIsaac will chair the GTTA.
Other appointments have yet to be confirmed but are expected to include GO Transit chair Peter Smith, Mississauga Mayor Hazel McCallion, the chairs of York, Durham and Halton regions and Hamilton Mayor Fred Eisenberger.
The Toronto contingent will include Mayor David Miller, TTC chair Adam Giambrone and Councillor Brian Ashton.
"That board has to think and act like a region. It has to.
"That's my pitch," says Bedford.
"This is our last real chance to get it right as a region."
On the surface, he is the ultimate urban animal. Professionally, he worked under eight mayors. Personally, he has for years eschewed automobile ownership in favour of the TTC and car sharing.
But make no mistake: Nominated by the City of Toronto, he nevertheless joins the inaugural meeting of the GTTA today, as a man of, and for, the region.
Any historical divisions between the interests of the 905 communities and Toronto cannot come to that table, Bedford said during a recent interview in Mississauga.
He has come from his downtown Toronto home on public transit, transferring from the TTC to GO Transit to arrive steps away from the Mississauga Living Arts Centre in about an hour.
It's the kind of cross-border commute that should be available to everyone travelling in the region throughout the day, says the son of an Oakville councillor, who still has family in that town and in Hamilton.
Bedford, who says he knew from the time he was in Grade 9 he wanted to be a city planner, retired from City Hall in 2004 and carried on his career in a role that he's dubbed "urban mentor."
He serves on the National Capital Commission's advisory committee on planning, design and realty.
He's also involved in the Toronto waterfront design review panel and the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health campus redevelopment.
He notes what has become abundantly clear in recent months – the political, as it relates to transportation, air quality and urban sprawl – is more than ever personal.
Bedford quotes research showing that the average Canadian commuter spends about five years of their life in a car and he refers to MacIsaac's frequent admission that, when it comes to transit, the region needs more of every kind, everywhere.
"This is very personal to people. It's time they can't devote to their families, their gardens," says Bedford.
"Gridlock is personal and in your face everyday," he says.
"People want this (change). They're ready for it."
The bones are there already. GO has "a pretty good skeletal system," says Bedford.
With the TTC, "you've got something to build on. It's not like a lot of bigger cities that are built really only for cars."
He envisions a transit system where the next bus or streetcar is always in sight
"If you see one's coming you're going to wait for it."
-The Star
EDIT: Corrected GTAA to GTTA
Mar 23, 2007 04:30 AM
The task is enormous and failure is not an option.
What's at stake for the new Greater Toronto Transportation Authority is nothing less than the quality of life for the majority of citizens in Canada's busiest commuter corridor.
Blow it and family life, air quality and trade will deteriorate, warns Paul Bedford, Toronto's only citizen appointee to the GTTA.
The city's former chief planner is one of 11 board members charged with creating a transportation plan so seamless and sensible that driving a car will become the least attractive option between Oshawa and Hamilton.
"It will be a true regional transportation plan to service (the Golden Horseshoe) for the next 30 years," says Bedford.
Former Burlington mayor Rob MacIsaac will chair the GTTA.
Other appointments have yet to be confirmed but are expected to include GO Transit chair Peter Smith, Mississauga Mayor Hazel McCallion, the chairs of York, Durham and Halton regions and Hamilton Mayor Fred Eisenberger.
The Toronto contingent will include Mayor David Miller, TTC chair Adam Giambrone and Councillor Brian Ashton.
"That board has to think and act like a region. It has to.
"That's my pitch," says Bedford.
"This is our last real chance to get it right as a region."
On the surface, he is the ultimate urban animal. Professionally, he worked under eight mayors. Personally, he has for years eschewed automobile ownership in favour of the TTC and car sharing.
But make no mistake: Nominated by the City of Toronto, he nevertheless joins the inaugural meeting of the GTTA today, as a man of, and for, the region.
Any historical divisions between the interests of the 905 communities and Toronto cannot come to that table, Bedford said during a recent interview in Mississauga.
He has come from his downtown Toronto home on public transit, transferring from the TTC to GO Transit to arrive steps away from the Mississauga Living Arts Centre in about an hour.
It's the kind of cross-border commute that should be available to everyone travelling in the region throughout the day, says the son of an Oakville councillor, who still has family in that town and in Hamilton.
Bedford, who says he knew from the time he was in Grade 9 he wanted to be a city planner, retired from City Hall in 2004 and carried on his career in a role that he's dubbed "urban mentor."
He serves on the National Capital Commission's advisory committee on planning, design and realty.
He's also involved in the Toronto waterfront design review panel and the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health campus redevelopment.
He notes what has become abundantly clear in recent months – the political, as it relates to transportation, air quality and urban sprawl – is more than ever personal.
Bedford quotes research showing that the average Canadian commuter spends about five years of their life in a car and he refers to MacIsaac's frequent admission that, when it comes to transit, the region needs more of every kind, everywhere.
"This is very personal to people. It's time they can't devote to their families, their gardens," says Bedford.
"Gridlock is personal and in your face everyday," he says.
"People want this (change). They're ready for it."
The bones are there already. GO has "a pretty good skeletal system," says Bedford.
With the TTC, "you've got something to build on. It's not like a lot of bigger cities that are built really only for cars."
He envisions a transit system where the next bus or streetcar is always in sight
"If you see one's coming you're going to wait for it."
-The Star
EDIT: Corrected GTAA to GTTA