{"id":3326,"date":"2013-11-14T12:07:58","date_gmt":"2013-11-14T17:07:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/vivanext.com\/blog\/?p=3326"},"modified":"2013-11-14T12:12:27","modified_gmt":"2013-11-14T17:12:27","slug":"choosing-the-right-form-of-transit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/yrrtc.ca\/blog\/2013\/11\/14\/choosing-the-right-form-of-transit\/","title":{"rendered":"choosing the right form of transit"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

In September the Province set up an expert panel to look at how Metrolinx should be expanding transit in the GTHA, and to propose realistic options to pay for it.\u00a0 The panel has just released their second discussion paper<\/a>, and it\u2019s well worth a read for anyone interested in getting beyond the rhetoric and really understanding the facts and issues.<\/p>\n

Certainly the issue of what transit technology should be funded, and where it should run, is a subject that\u2019s dominated the headlines for months and is of interest to everyone.\u00a0 It\u2019s understandable that so many have views on this subject, and it\u2019s also reasonable to expect that the people doing the planning should listen to those views.<\/p>\n

But in the final analysis, choosing a mode of transit \u2013 the main rapid transit options are subway, LRT, BRT and commuter train \u2013 shouldn\u2019t be treated like a popularity contest. There\u2019s just too much money involved.\u00a0 Each mode of transit has its uses, benefits and drawbacks.\u00a0 Those qualities are well known to transit planners, and need to be thoroughly and objectively analyzed in the context of local circumstances including passenger volumes, current and anticipated densities, employment projections, and present and future land use patterns.<\/p>\n

Planners ideally will look at a range of transit modes to meet the needs of users across a region or area, with the primary consideration being a seamless system that enables passengers to make easy, fast connections.\u00a0 That doesn\u2019t necessarily mean the trip will be non-stop, or use the same technology the entire way.<\/p>\n

This is a concept we all already live with, so we shouldn\u2019t expect transit to be any different. Pretend you are taking a trip to a small island in the Caribbean.\u00a0 You\u2019d probably drive to the airport, then you\u2019d get on a big jet, then most likely transfer to a smaller plane for the last leg, or maybe even a boat if you were going somewhere out of the way. You\u2019d never expect the big jet to swing by your house to pick you up at your door, then whisk you non-stop to the tiny island.\u00a0 Getting around the GTHA, depending on where you\u2019re travelling from and to, follows the same logic.\u00a0 Some riders may need to take surface transit, then transfer to one form of rapid transit \u2013 and then possibly to another mode to complete their trip.\u00a0 The key point is to create a system that gets you there as fast as possible.<\/p>\n

In a world where there\u2019s only so much new money available for transit, careful decisions are needed to ensure final choices get the greatest number of people into transit, reducing gridlock on the road system.\u00a0 The most costly option \u2013 subways \u2013 should be reserved for where it will do the most good, i.e. get the greatest number of cars off the roads. \u00a0Given that the need for new transit massively outstrips the money available, every single transit dollar needs to be spent wisely.<\/p>\n

Professional analysis of facts has always been the basis for our vivaNext decisions. That\u2019s why we\u2019re installing BRT \u2013 the lowest cost form of rapid transit \u2013 along Highway 7, with the option to change to LRT when future volumes justify it.\u00a0 On the other hand, the ridership and future employment projections do justify the cost of extending the subways north to the VMC, and along Yonge Street from Finch to Highway 7, so our plan includes subways too.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re proud of the system we\u2019ve planned and are building for York Region, and are looking forward to the day when it will be connected to a system that covers the entire GTHA.\u00a0 Now that\u2019s something we think everyone will support.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In September the Province set up an expert panel to look at how Metrolinx should be expanding transit in the GTHA, and to propose realistic options to pay for it.\u00a0 The panel has just released their second discussion paper, and it\u2019s well worth a read for anyone interested in getting beyond the rhetoric and really […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53,78,30],"tags":[40,39,18,8,350,105,114,14,34,45,10,21,939,175,7,60,9],"class_list":["post-3326","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","category-lrt","category-rapidways","tag-brt","tag-bus-rapid-transit","tag-city-planning","tag-connections","tag-growth","tag-gta","tag-highway-7","tag-rapid-transit","tag-rapidway","tag-subway","tag-subway-extension","tag-transit","tag-urban-planning","tag-vaughan-metropolitan-centre","tag-vivanext","tag-yonge-st","tag-york-region"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/yrrtc.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3326","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/yrrtc.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/yrrtc.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yrrtc.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yrrtc.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3326"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/yrrtc.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3326\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3329,"href":"https:\/\/yrrtc.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3326\/revisions\/3329"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/yrrtc.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yrrtc.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yrrtc.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}