The plan is to build high density at Richmond Hill and Langstaff which means less people need to transfer if 16th Ave buses go to Richmond Hill Centre.
That's exactly it though, the YRT barely has any kind of routes that split off to go to high density areas to make transfers less necessary. And wherever they do it, they only do it because they're cutting the route short and they will be turning the buses back at that point (85B). Tell me of a route that the YRT has that veers off its main road, goes for 10 minutes to a central location, and then comes back up to continue its trek without turning back? I don't know of one except for Viva Purple, which does it twice.
If the YRT gets better at planning route schedules and frequencies, then fine, that's an acceptable solution. For the time being there is obviously not enough going on along 16th Ave to justify a subway stop at Yonge, however I think this is only because we're looking at the intersection in its
present form, which is an incorrect observation to make.
It's already well known that on the south-east side of 16th Ave and Yonge, there are zoning changes being made to build at least 5 new high-rise condo towers.
5! (I think it was 5.. I think a thread about it exists somewhere on these forums). That's nothing to balk at. They have intensification plans for 16th Ave just the same as they do for Hwy 7. So fine, right now there's no point in a 16th Ave station, but a few years from now people will be saying the same thing. I think people underestimate just how many people bus in from the east/west communities along 16th Ave to get to Yonge, just to bus down to RHC or Finch Station. And the potential for growth along route 85 is big, given how many schools, homes, and businesses are located along the street in the first place.
In fact, in YRT's latest survey they ask if they should consider 16th Ave to be the next rapid transit corridor.