Rapid Transit Consultations

[pnijjar]

On Tuesday I went to the Region of Waterloo's Rapid Transit Environmental Assessment public consultation at St. Andrew's church. They are asking for public input as to the best routes to use for the new transit system. There is another consultation happening at First United Church (beside Waterloo Town Square) from 2-8pm tomorrow (Thursday Jan 17

Comments

[mynatt]

FWIW rapid transit via buses works quite well in Ottawa due to a series of dedicated highways. But yes, no link to at least Guelph is stupid.

[pnijjar]

The RT people are pushing Ottawa's model as well. And if we make the
mistake of going BRT, it will have (some? all) dedicated lanes. But I
have to wonder how they sold BRT in Ottawa politically. (Keep in mind
that Ottawa is a city where it is socially acceptable to skate to
work.)

[cincinnatus_c_]

http://transitea.region.waterloo.on.ca/

"The Flash Player 7.0 is required to view this website."

Boo!

I remember this being an issue in the last round of municipal elections, but I never got a sense from anyone of what the rapid transit system was supposed to do. What is it supposed to do? From a perspective of having grown up with the TTC in Toronto (where many transit advocates oppose the expansion of rapid-transit at the expense of busses), the idea of having a rapid-transit system in a place as small as K-W seems odd--it doesn't seem that difficult to get from one end of the place to the other with the existing bus system; on the face of it, it seems like if you want to move more people, you ought to just add more busses.

Is it supposed to go to Cambridge, too? Is the whole idea to collect students, university workers, and RIM workers from Kitchener and Cambridge and deliver them to Waterloo??

[pnijjar]

I second the booing.

The real reason they want rapid transit is as a planning tool. The
thought is that if they have a "spine" going from Waterloo to
Cambridge, we will keep up urban densities in the central core and be
able to handle the immense population growth the region is facing. As
a sidenote the system is supposed to move people up and down the
region, to workplaces, universities, shopping and such.

Nobody has quite figured out all of these people are going to get from
their suburban windy roads TO the central spine so they can get to
work and school, but that is outside the scope of this study. (Meh.)

If you think it doesn't take long to get up and down the spine you
should try to take the bus from Waterloo to Cambridge pre-iExpress. It
is better now, but (as I learned firsthand) when iExpress stops for
the evening you are hosed.

Hey Paul

[anonymous]

Just browsing and stumbled on your site.

Quan,
qtieu@hotmail.com