[Whoaccio]

We're talking in terms of expressway growth. Someone saying that Toronto would have less congestion if there were more expressways only need to consider Los Angeles to see that is untrue. While these "congestion free" cities like Stockholm fewer expressways per capita, and Singapore is the pioneer of downtown congestion pricing. Singapore had horrible traffic problems which were only solved by tolling.

Singapore has more expressways than Toronto and is actively growing its network at a fast clip. They have just started construction of the mostly underground Marina Coastal Expressway and also announced the construction of the North-South expressway. Currently, Singapore has about 160km of expressways (not counting pseudo expressways) which is a good bit more than Toronto. That is also in addition to it's ~120km subway (with another 35km under construction) and LRT feeder systems. There is a reason why it is consistently ranked as the world's best city in terms of infrastructure. Unlike here, city planners there realize that congestion has deleterious effects on urban life, the environment and the economy and take steps to actually fix it. Part of that includes congestion pricing and functionally high automobile taxes, the other part is actually providing a high quality transit network consisting of roads, trains and buses. Both are equally important.

 

[Second_in_pie]

I really dont think Tokyo, Singapore, and Stockholm have less congestion that Toronto because they built more expressways. It probably has more to do with their denser land use, higher capacity transit networks, and lack of car culture. Probably.

Sometimes I'm glad Toronto stopped building infrastructure in the 70s. Yes, we missed out on some subways, but we havent destroyed a single neighbourhood since then either. I think thats a better accomplishment. But now lets get back to building, albeit with some sensitivity and creativity.

I agree too. But now, we really have to start catching up on what we've missed, and that will all be based on mass-transit and rail infrastructure. Unfortunately, Toronto's current leaders don't seem to be up for the challenge. I sure hope they get booted out next election, because I do NOT want to see a perfectly good opportunity to build a rock-solid transportation system go to waste because "LRTs are pretty."

 

[DavidH]

I sure hope they get booted out next election, because I do NOT want to see a perfectly good opportunity to build a rock-solid transportation system go to waste because "LRTs are pretty."

The problem does not lie with the leaders, who have chosen cost-effective forms of transportation given the available dollars. The problem lies with the population which, while dissatisfied with congestion to some extent, is not interested in a wholescale redesign of transportation in the GTA. "We" all want the other guy to get out of his car, but "we" all have good reasons to keep our car. Once the population starts demanding large scale subway expansion, then we will get it.

 

[CodeMonkey]

I agree too. But now, we really have to start catching up on what we've missed, and that will all be based on mass-transit and rail infrastructure. Unfortunately, Toronto's current leaders don't seem to be up for the challenge. I sure hope they get booted out next election, because I do NOT want to see a perfectly good opportunity to build a rock-solid transportation system go to waste because "LRTs are pretty."

I agree with you, we need a rock-solid transportation system that mixed with subways and LRT's. The problem i have with the current "transit city is that we seem to have this notion that LRTs are our answer to all our transit problems, and as soon as we build a giant LRT network our problems will be solved.

The problem does not lie with the leaders, who have chosen cost-effective forms of transportation...

When have they ever pick anything cost-effective?