New expressway/transitway for the GTA?

[doady]

The Conservatives have not funded any of the transit projects across Ontario the GTA this year and yet they are already talking about funding a new expressway. Thisis good example of why i will never vote Conservatives. As much I loathe unions, I have no choice but to continue to vote for the NDP.

 

[Ed007Toronto]

Flaherty represents Toronto in the cabinet. Nice to know he knows what we need. :rolleyes

 

[gboykovekin]

I'm much more opposed to intra-city or suburban highways rather than those of an inter-city nature, of which I think there needs to be better connections, such as Guelph to K-W, finishing of Highway 8 to Stratford, etc.

Gah! Turning Highway 8 into a limited-access highway west of New Hamburg would just make for greater sprawl and allow for less connections to crazy bicylists like myself. And I personally believe that Highway 24 serves well enough between Guelph and K-W/Cambridge.

 

[Ontarian1976]

"Since funding and politics is drastically skewed towards highways and people with cars at present"

I bet if you looked at subsidy per trip though, transit is probably just as subsidized as highways, probably more. I don't even drive any more. I don't even own a car. But I do recognize that a highway network built for 2-3 million people cannot service a region of 6+ million people.

Transit is useful for certain trips, but the total number of transit trips will (and can) never equal the number of automobile trips if only because the automobile is so much more varied in the types of trips it is useful for.

Building another expressway is not going to cure all of our transportation problems, but neither is building another subway line.

 

[Antiloop33rpm]

Building another expressway is not going to cure all of our transportation problems, but neither is building another subway line.

The problem isnt what happens today. Its what happens 15 years from now. A subway is far more likely to produce areas that developers can create transit oriented, walkable neighborhoods, or build upon the urban form that allready exists.

Highways create sprawl. They create vast swaths of land that are ment only for the car. Highways solve a problem for only a very limited amount of time before they, in most cases, begin to create an entirely new set of problems that are often even larger in scale (such as saving John/Jane Q a few minutes on their commute everyday with a new highway but then putting environmentally sensitive areas such as the Oak Ridge Moraines and The Escarpment in serious jeopardy).

 

[adma]

Gah! Turning Highway 8 into a limited-access highway west of New Hamburg would just make for greater sprawl and allow for less connections to crazy bicylists like myself.

Although I'd imagine it'd be more of a continuation of Hwy 8's "bypass mode" going into NH, than an actual expansion of the existing Hwy 8--at least for the most part.

So, if you can already bike your way to NH via Petersburg and Baden, you'll likely be about to bike all the way to Stratford via *old* Hwy 8...