Road Ahead: LRT promoters have persuaded enough people to embrace their vision
Election results show that rail transit promoters have persuaded enough people to embrace a bold vision that's unsupported by evidence.
The transportation evidence shows that street-level electric trains are an overreach. Look to low ridership, a central route that lacks jobs, residents, and congestion, high costs, and commuters who stay in their cars even as transit expands.
Cost-benefit studies in 2005 and 2009 and further evidence in 2011 found that better buses would move people more efficiently.
But the trains that launch in 2017 in Kitchener and Waterloo are not about achieving value for money, or responding to growth management plans, or even about moving people. Promoters understood this in 2002 when they unveiled rail transit, without pretending that it's about new ways to get around.
"We're not trying to fix the transportation system," former regional chief administrator Gerry Thompson explained. "What we're trying to do is build an urban form. That's the visionary nature of it."
Reference:
Outhit, J. (2014, November 15). Road Ahead: LRT promoters have persuaded enough people to embrace their vision. Retrieved November 15, 2014, from http://www.therecord.com/opinion-story/5030409-lrt-promoters-have-persuaded-enough-people-to-embrace-their-vision/
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