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Who knows, perhaps they'll just transfer it to CN in Thunder Bay, and come through Winnipeg.
The point of transit is to get from point A to point B as fast as possible. "Citybuilding" is not the purpose of transit, it's a byproduct. Should the yonge subway have circled away from mount pleasant cemetery because it didn't have redevelopment possibilities? Why don't we just build one big ziggity zaggity all around town so everyone can be "urbanized" with transit that is slower than a pregnant dog? This plan was %100 made by someone that drives exclusively, and probably has ties to whoever owns the land in that awkward corner.
I'm familiar. Show me a streetcar suburb that started out as a corporate wasteland with no housing nearby, no small lots for the investment to help actual people. Quite frankly if the hideous American corporation that owns Hespeler Road wants a streetcar they can build it them dam selves. The benefit of this transit project should be to the people who pay for it an live in the community. Not only will it cost millions of hours of life from the transit riders over the long run, the monetary benefit of our communal funds will be used to increase the value of an inanimate object. It's called corperate welfare and it should be illegal.
All of those cities existed before they had transit systems - walking builds cities.
You obviously have some strong feelings about this subject, but I'll give this a try anyway. Waterloo Region is growing, gaining about 200,000 people in the next couple of decades. These new residents are going to have to live somewhere. Given a choice between building more sprawl and urbanizing a corridor with large amounts of open space and low-density land use, what do you do? Waterloo Region has chosen to focus on infill development, and Hespeler Road is ripe for it. If the region is successful in their efforts to urbanize the Hespeler Road corridor, the LRT will benefit many more residents than it would as a straight line from Preston to Galt.
why is large lot development preferred for you? Why divert our transit away from a beautiful downtown that could use an injection of life and modern amenities (after all, the streetcar used to go here). Galt has the architecture and natural heritage that brings people to it. Why divert the impending value increases to Suzie Sheirs and Applebees when it could go to a real existing neighbourhood? Nobody wants to take transit that's not direct. You're vouching for the system of development that has sprung up along the Shepard line in Toronto. Except even that goes in a straight line. Small scale and small lots are how actually nice cities are made. I've lived in large developments before, they're boring as heck, and all the money goes to the developer. As a result of diverting the train, you're making it less desirable to use and also funnelling the economic benefits into a single non-entitie's pocket. hespler road is unwalkable and not well connected to any surrounding area, and probably always will be. Dumping condos on it will leave you with an even worse version of bayview and Shepard. That intersection has the worst traffic congestion of all of Toronto, because not everyone ie trying to get o the Yonge line. Do you actually enjoy being in large lot developments? They're usually completely car dependant, and at Hespler they definitely will be. If you're ok funnelling time and money to that, and believe that living in a tower block on a suburban arterial with an indirect streetcar route is superior to living in a centrally located infill in a booming historic downtown with direct transit connections to heavy rail and cultural institutions, then there's Probably no point of this convo. I do question your connection to this project and the area in general, specifically why Hespler alignment benefits anyone, and who. If this goes through it will be a wasted opportunity to make Galt an actual place, and will rob their population of benefits while creating a Logan's run type scenario beside suzie sheirs and an endless industrial park. Putting in a core route and having a feeder system of buses has been proven to work. If this gets built it will have pitiful ridership for the first 70 years and inconvenience those who actually use it, while also messing up traffic on the actual road as well. It's a lose lose. The only money to be gained is by smartcentre or whoever else owns the monstrosities along this unfortunate stretch. (Edit:your/you're)
I like how you keep implicitly accusing any member willing to engage in discussion with you of having some financial conflict of interest, as if that's the only possible reason that someone could support that alignment. Maybe you just have an unpopular opinion. Sorry!
I believe that's the first time I mentioned that. But you can't possibly live on Hespler, because there aren't any houses there, or even within walking distance. So Why do you want people living in Cambridge to have crappy lives?
