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Study awards Toronto a 'B' in urban transportation
GTA, Montreal tied as fifth-greenest in rankings
Karon Liu
National Post
Saturday, September 22, 2007
Toronto's urban transportation practices are the fifth-greenest in Canada, a new study has found.
"Toronto's grade of B is not bad. Toronto could, if it implemented the policies it announced, have a shot at getting first place. But there are some areas where Toronto are seriously behind," said Barry Appleton, whose private Appleton Charitable Foundation funded the study, which was conducted with the University of British Columbia's Sauder School of Business.
The study ranked the Greater Toronto Area in fifth place, tied with Montreal, and praised the city's commitment to replace all diesel-powered vehicles with ones fuelled by biodiesel by 2015, and plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that are in line with the goals of the Kyoto Protocol.
However, the study said that Toronto needs to adopt new greener technologies, such as adopting hybrids and alternative fuel vehicles in the city's taxi and public transit fleet.
"I think Toronto has the plans outlined, but they're expensive,'' said Toronto Transit Commission chairman Adam Giambrone.
''Until cities are financially viable, they're having trouble making basic needs and have trouble investing in programs that can even save them money. We need to solve the whole issue of how cities interact and are funded before seeing major movement."
The study found Toronto has the lowest number of registered vehicles per capita, meaning more people are taking public transit.
To further reduce the number of motorists, Mr. Appleton suggested cities consider introducing free transit services in the downtown core to increase transit use and to ease gridlock.
Mr. Giambrone said expanding routes is the better way to increase ridership.
"We collect almost $900-million in fares [each year] and to do a full, free system you'll probably have to add to the service because when something is free, there's usually more use for it. You're looking at a cost of up to $1-billion to provide free TTC service and you have to define what the downtown core is. Is it all-day free service? Only during rush hour?" said Mr. Giambrone.
"If you had $200-million a year, you should use it to expand the system. We know it's the best way to attract riders. Two hundred million dollars a year will allow you to build one new subway station each year. You can always be in construction and over four to five years you'll have a new line."
He added: "[And] what makes a downtown core resident anymore entitled to free transit than a resident in Etobicoke?"
With the second-largest transit system in the GTA, and ambitious expansion plans, Mississauga said its priority is to make transit better than driving.
"If we really want to get people out of their cars and deal with gridlock we've got to move people faster and make it a more viable option," said Martin Powell, Mississauga's commissioner of transportation.
He also said that even with provincial gas taxes and LRT funding, continuing funding is needed to implement new alternative fuel vehicles, which are relatively expensive.
Though Toronto received a "B" from the report, Appleton said none of the cities got an "A" because none were able to meet a tangible 10-year target that the study set up.
Victoria was ranked first, followed by Vancouver and Ottawa-Gatineau. St. Catharines-Niagara, Barrie, Moncton, Sudbury and St. John's ranked worst, each receiving an "F" for not following up on plans to improve air quality.
Mr. Appleton plans to audit the cities again next year to see if they've improved.
"We're hoping urban governments are going to able to use this data to assess themselves -- what works and what doesn't work," he said.
"They can help to figure out where they would rank next year if they started making changes."
Study awards Toronto a 'B' in urban transportation
GTA, Montreal tied as fifth-greenest in rankings
Karon Liu
National Post
Saturday, September 22, 2007
Toronto's urban transportation practices are the fifth-greenest in Canada, a new study has found.
"Toronto's grade of B is not bad. Toronto could, if it implemented the policies it announced, have a shot at getting first place. But there are some areas where Toronto are seriously behind," said Barry Appleton, whose private Appleton Charitable Foundation funded the study, which was conducted with the University of British Columbia's Sauder School of Business.
The study ranked the Greater Toronto Area in fifth place, tied with Montreal, and praised the city's commitment to replace all diesel-powered vehicles with ones fuelled by biodiesel by 2015, and plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that are in line with the goals of the Kyoto Protocol.
However, the study said that Toronto needs to adopt new greener technologies, such as adopting hybrids and alternative fuel vehicles in the city's taxi and public transit fleet.
"I think Toronto has the plans outlined, but they're expensive,'' said Toronto Transit Commission chairman Adam Giambrone.
''Until cities are financially viable, they're having trouble making basic needs and have trouble investing in programs that can even save them money. We need to solve the whole issue of how cities interact and are funded before seeing major movement."
The study found Toronto has the lowest number of registered vehicles per capita, meaning more people are taking public transit.
To further reduce the number of motorists, Mr. Appleton suggested cities consider introducing free transit services in the downtown core to increase transit use and to ease gridlock.
Mr. Giambrone said expanding routes is the better way to increase ridership.
"We collect almost $900-million in fares [each year] and to do a full, free system you'll probably have to add to the service because when something is free, there's usually more use for it. You're looking at a cost of up to $1-billion to provide free TTC service and you have to define what the downtown core is. Is it all-day free service? Only during rush hour?" said Mr. Giambrone.
"If you had $200-million a year, you should use it to expand the system. We know it's the best way to attract riders. Two hundred million dollars a year will allow you to build one new subway station each year. You can always be in construction and over four to five years you'll have a new line."
He added: "[And] what makes a downtown core resident anymore entitled to free transit than a resident in Etobicoke?"
With the second-largest transit system in the GTA, and ambitious expansion plans, Mississauga said its priority is to make transit better than driving.
"If we really want to get people out of their cars and deal with gridlock we've got to move people faster and make it a more viable option," said Martin Powell, Mississauga's commissioner of transportation.
He also said that even with provincial gas taxes and LRT funding, continuing funding is needed to implement new alternative fuel vehicles, which are relatively expensive.
Though Toronto received a "B" from the report, Appleton said none of the cities got an "A" because none were able to meet a tangible 10-year target that the study set up.
Victoria was ranked first, followed by Vancouver and Ottawa-Gatineau. St. Catharines-Niagara, Barrie, Moncton, Sudbury and St. John's ranked worst, each receiving an "F" for not following up on plans to improve air quality.
Mr. Appleton plans to audit the cities again next year to see if they've improved.
"We're hoping urban governments are going to able to use this data to assess themselves -- what works and what doesn't work," he said.
"They can help to figure out where they would rank next year if they started making changes."