Rob Ford wants to terminate the "War on Cars"....

[andomano]

He cites that city vehicles such as Garbage trucks and Snowplows are damaged, and that it slows general traffic. My main concern would be that it slows the emergency services.
I'm surprised that nobody has sued the city yet for endangering their lives by having the bumps. (or have they?)

 

[rbt]

He cites that city vehicles such as Garbage trucks and Snowplows are damaged, and that it slows general traffic. My main concern would be that it slows the emergency services.
I'm surprised that nobody has sued the city yet for endangering their lives by having the bumps. (or have they?)

New bumps are requested by people in the neighbourhood and go through a consultation process. This isn't something the city forces on an area.

It is a direct result of folks in the houses around the bumps feeling that others are driving too quickly on their street or their are too many drivers there. If bumps are removed against a neighbourhoods wishes then I expect we will have a lot of demands for dead-ends to be created.

 

[PukeGreen]

Shortsighted and idiotic. Is it really that hard to understand that public transportation helps car drivers, not hurts them? If any significant percentage of the millions of people on the TTC were to convert to cars, the roads would be even more jammed. Also, you can "spruce up" the Gardiner all you want but eventually all cars need to exit, where they'll meet the same overloaded streets and lack of parking we have today. Finally, speed bumps are only on side roads and residential areas that shouldn't be used by passing-through commuters anyway.

 

[nfitz]

Speed bumps and four way stops are common only on trivial residential side streets.

They are ... but you still have to drive down these to get out to a main street. The things are dangerous and annoying. Even though they are designed for the speed limit, you get people who suddenly slow down to 10 km/hr to go over one.

 

[reaperexpress]

Here I was thinking our transit system needed more capacity because lots of people use it, but then Rob Ford comes along with the real solution. We don't need to increase transit's capacity, we need to reduce the number of people taking it! Removing speed bumps and streetcars more than offsets the thousands of additional car trips that taken every day due to unattractive transit. That guy is a genius! Why didn't I think of that before?

On a more serious note, my suburban arterial has just had bike lanes put on, and the number of cyclists I see every day has gone through the roof! Before the lanes existed I would see a cyclist every few weeks or so, but now I see nearly half a dozen every day in the time I spend waiting for the bus (about 5 minutes). I guess someone forgot to tell them (and the 6 lanes of car traffic) that they're on a "road to nowhere".

Since all the bike lanes did was narrow the car lanes, they didn't even reduce the automobile capacity of the street, so I have no clue what it is that Rob Ford has a problem with.

 

[Calrissian]

One reassuring thing about having a mayoral position that is pretty much ineffectual and restricted in power is that it can also work in our favour for, if and when, morons like ass-backwards Ford are somehow voted into the spot.

 

[Chuck]

I disagree with Rob Ford's platform. It crosses the line between pro-car and anti-sustainable transportation.

Having said that, the war on cars must stop. Toronto's overall transportation system has remained as is for 40 years, and frankly this is a time when all modes of transportation need to be improved. Sustainable modes such as transit and cycling should be prioritized, but no mode should be expanded at the cost of another when everything is operating at 110% capacity and the city is growing by 100,000 people a year.

It is time that a comprehensive analysis of the entire inner city road network was done from Dufferin to the Don River, and up to Eglinton. There are many opportunities to provide new bike lanes and increased capacity of surface routes that are being missed by only working on a piecemeal basis. Countless more breaks in the street grid exist that if linked up could benefit everyone. For example, the Dufferin and Simcoe jog elimination projects each benefit cars, transit, cyclists, and pedestrians.

 

[EnviroTO]

I think the "war on cars" has been overstated. There is limited space in street ROWs so giving any of it to pedestrian, cyclist, or transit has been considered anti-car. The question is why wasn't there any room for cyclists and transit to begin with... was there a war on cyclists or transit before? No. They are not planning on getting rid of cars and obviously the city uses roads to deliver services such as police, fire, etc. There has been new connections under the railway at Dufferin and Simcoe, and improvements at Strachan's railway crossing will help cars as much as it helps trains. The city is not green space so any new road lanes will mean removing something else. If a new road conection results in the destruction of three homes will it be considered a "war on homes". The rhetoric is over the top in my opinion. There isn't a war on cars and there never has been. All the people who live on side streets where they installed speed reducing devices own cars. I'm sure every city councillor and the mayor owns a car. Transit has been underprioritized in the past so any improvement will undoubtedly have some impact on cars... but it still is faster in most cases to drive so the supposed war looks to have cars winning.

 

[reaperexpress]

Having said that, the war on cars must stop.

What war on cars? I only know of one instance where car capacity was sacrificed for sustainable transport: Jarvis.

Countless more breaks in the street grid exist that if linked up could benefit everyone. For example, the Dufferin and Simcoe jog elimination projects each benefit cars, transit, cyclists, and pedestrians.

I agree entirely. Seeing as the city is working on this type of thing already, you've shown that they don't hate car drivers, who are the main people to benefit from these projects.

 

[Chuck]

"War on cars" is just a name coined by the media. The more important meaning is that the flow of surface traffic (not just cars) is often disregarded when planning decisions are made pertaining to use of our roads.

The 4 way pedestrian crossing at Yonge and Dundas has created terrible gridlock eastbound on Dundas in the afternoon, which don't forget affects the movement of streetcars as well. A spin off is that cars get stuck in the Bay and Dundas intersection, blocking the HOV lanes and creating further gridlock for cars and transit on an unrelated street. Adding 4 way crossing was the right thing to do, but surely it could have been implemented in a manner less damaging to the evening commute.

 

[reaperexpress]

Adding 4 way crossing was the right thing to do, but surely it could have been implemented in a manner less damaging to the evening commute.

I can't think of any other way. It's very straightforward: they added a light cycle just for pedestrians. Either there is one or there isn't. Even with the pedestrian scramble, pedestrian congestion is often worse than car congestion.

 

[nfitz]

Having said that, the war on cars must stop.

To what war on cars do you refer? Isn't that just a newspaper thing to sell more papers?

 

[doady]

When people like Chuck and Rob Ford call for an end to the "War on cars", what they are really calling for is the continuation of the "War on transit, walking and biking."

 

[nfitz]

When people like Chuck and Rob Ford call for an end to the "War on cars", what they are really calling for is the continuation of the "War on transit, walking and biking."

Seems rather an odd way to become mayor; alienate much of the electorate. The only way one of these fringe candidates will ever be elected, is if the electorate is so split, no one gets more than 5-10%.

 

[valkoholic]

What war on cars? I only know of one instance where car capacity was sacrificed for sustainable transport: Jarvis.

I agree 'the war on cars' is a bit dramatic (wars have generals), but in the last few years we've also seen:

- Harbour / Lake Shore dual left and right turns removed for pedestrian / cycling reasons
- bike lanes on Eastern Avenue
- St. Clair Streetcar right-of-way
- pedestrian scarmbles at Yonge / Dundas and Yonge / Bloor
- dedictaed bus lanes and signals on Allen Road
- cancellation of Front Street extension
- bike lanes on Annette (I think)

There's also a lot of projects in the works that will reduce road capacity in the City, such as the Gardinar ramps project, Queens Quay LRT, etc. that may or may not happen depending on who's elected.

If there was a 'war on cars', and our general was competent (Miller is not Napolean), they would basically adopt the 'road tolls for transit' strategy. I've been watching this City for a while and I'm postive that's the best way forward.