Rocco Rossi - "If I'm elected I will Kill Transit City and eliminate Bike Lanes"
- Thread starter james t kirk
- Start date
Like Rocco Rossi stands a snowball's chance in hell of getting elected. Smitherman is the front runner.
Yea, Barbara Hall was the front runner in 2003 too, by about 50% over her closest competetor, John Nunziata. David Miller and John Tory both had about 5% name recognition, nevermind support.
Paul Martin was a pretty signifigant front runner too
So was Kim Campbell.
Things change over a 10 month campaign.
Finally! A municipal politician I actually want to vote for! I agree with every statement and opinion attributed to him. Too bad most of the people who might have voted for him have long ago given up and escaped to the 905.
Rossi is a relic of the 60s. He will only suck the votes from any reasonable Conservative, like a John Tory for example.
Bike lanes will continue to increase in big cities all over the world (well...maybe not Dubai-which I coin the devil's den-western engineers building superhighways) because private automobiles take up too much space and their realm needs way too much money to maintain.
The 905 here is following sui (mass public transit)...just slower. The expense to transform those dead zones is simply asternomical. It won't happen so soon, but it is happening. Queen Hazel has proclaimed the proposed Hurontario LRT as a 'pipedream', not because its stupid, but because hell will freeze over before the higher levels of governments will pay Mississauga to fix their mistake...suburbia! So who will?
Subways...at 5-6 times the cost of an LRT...who's gonna pay that? Better yet, what govenment's going to pledge such a whopping ten billion when they can have a 'functional' system like an LRT.
Buses...nobody accepts them as a true city building piece of permanent infrastructure. They can disappear anytime. People won't invest around such a wild card.
Development is what happens around permanent elements like subways and LRTs, which means capital, businesses, presidents...taxes! That's the best we can do in our times of...fiscal restraint...til the emperor shows up!
Even Mississauga knows this.........
Bike lanes will continue to increase in big cities all over the world (well...maybe not Dubai-which I coin the devil's den-western engineers building superhighways) because private automobiles take up too much space and their realm needs way too much money to maintain.
The 905 here is following sui (mass public transit)...just slower. The expense to transform those dead zones is simply asternomical. It won't happen so soon, but it is happening. Queen Hazel has proclaimed the proposed Hurontario LRT as a 'pipedream', not because its stupid, but because hell will freeze over before the higher levels of governments will pay Mississauga to fix their mistake...suburbia! So who will?
Subways...at 5-6 times the cost of an LRT...who's gonna pay that? Better yet, what govenment's going to pledge such a whopping ten billion when they can have a 'functional' system like an LRT.
Buses...nobody accepts them as a true city building piece of permanent infrastructure. They can disappear anytime. People won't invest around such a wild card.
Development is what happens around permanent elements like subways and LRTs, which means capital, businesses, presidents...taxes! That's the best we can do in our times of...fiscal restraint...til the emperor shows up!
Even Mississauga knows this.........
Are you a cyclist?The bike lanes on major routes like Jarvis St. are fucking ridiculous.
Such as?I am voting for Rossi, why would anyone want a McGuinty cabinet minister as mayor? LRT at street level is plagued with issues.
I'd love to read your list please.
So subway tracks do not freeze/thaw?
The LRT's do not "obstruct" one lane of traffic. They eliminate one lane of traffic, and replace it with an LRT, that's kind of the goal. As for the driver/passenger ratio being low: Compared to what? Compared to busses it's high. Compared to single occupant vehicles it's very, very high.
The LRT's do not "obstruct" one lane of traffic. They eliminate one lane of traffic, and replace it with an LRT, that's kind of the goal. As for the driver/passenger ratio being low: Compared to what? Compared to busses it's high. Compared to single occupant vehicles it's very, very high.
Actually Street Car tracks have approximately a 50 year life span.the fact that the tracks crumble in a freeze/thaw climate, they obstruct one lane of traffic. the driver/passanger ratio is low, they are NOISY...etc etc
The Bathurst Street track which was recently replaced dated from the 1940's. The design of the street car bed is a concrete foundation pad on which the steel ties are founded on rubber tie pads.
The second pour of concrete is the concrete infill between the ties.
The third concrete pour is the concrete infill between the rails.
It would be this layer of concrete that suffers the greatest freeze thaw damage, however, it typically has a 20 year life span (about twice as long as asphalt)
Street cars move a far greater number of passengers than busses, they are environmentally friendly as they do not spew diesel fumes and dust and they hold a known path. Further they last far longer than buses and require less maintenance.
As to them blocking a lane of traffic - that's the point. You need to make driving in the city more cumbersome to encourage people to swich to Transit and protect the environment. Not make it easier for cars because then you turn streets in to highways. (As they did in Hamilton turning all the streets into one way streets so that everyone can drive along at 80 km/hr down King or Main Streets and they destroyed their inner city.)
No.So subway tracks do not freeze/thaw?
The LRT's do not "obstruct" one lane of traffic. They eliminate one lane of traffic, and replace it with an LRT, that's kind of the goal. As for the driver/passenger ratio being low: Compared to what? Compared to busses it's high. Compared to single occupant vehicles it's very, very high.
Depending on the installation. The at grade subway tracks are typically founded in railway ballast (rocks)
The tunnels are out of the cold.
Freeze thaw damage is not a huge issue inside the tunnels as far as I am aware.
Much of the subway is not inside a tunnel, though. Large sections of it are in open air. I am not of the opinion that freeze/thaw is a big problem for either subway or LRT, I was throwing that back to nottyboi who objected to LRT's on this basis--seems to be subways would have the same problem in their open air sections, but they appear to work just fine.Freeze thaw damage is not a huge issue inside the tunnels as far as I am aware.
Not so. I had offices on both and saved lots of time when jay walking, I mean crossing the street. You only had to look one way before running.That's a good point about one-way streets ruining the city. Adelaide and Richmond are the two bleakest streets downtown.
Try Ottawa or Hamilton sometime for one ways. TO is just fine.
As much as I agree. I don't think it will ever happen. Just too expensive, although I think there might be a case for a downtown relief line. The new light rail feeder lines may overload the existing subway systems.it looks like he is saying put the bikelanes on non-arterial routes not no bikelanes.
I like what he is saying- i would like to get rid of these deisgnated lanes for streetcars and build subways- yes higher costs but better long term for the city.
I have always felt that those bike lanes on Eastern Avenue were put in by the city to squash any possibility of Walmart moving in in that location(as was highly rumored). Note that there are excellent bike lanes one block south of eastern on lake shore.It isn't the fact that there are NO bike lanes, just that they are used poorly. For eg: along eastern ave it is 2 lanes east/2 west. ALL the way from where it is King st up until Carlaw. Then they put in bike lanes, cut the traffic to 1 lane each way....for 6 blocks! Then they go back to 2 in each direction. R E T A R D E D. Couple that with the fact that they cut dundas down to 1 in each direction they have effectively closed one of the two main routes down.
Bike lanes do NOT have to be on major thoroughfares. COuple that with the fact that maybe 1 rider out of every 30 cars uses then and THEN only for about 4 months a year. (this year being the exception due to lack of snow). Bike lanes are just not an effective use of transportation routes. It would be far better to devise a system like Jarvis where in the morning, 3 lanes go south/2 north. Then in the evening, 3 lanes go north/2 south. Denote 1 lane for bikes from April to October.
In addition, put bike only paths on routes like the railway right of way. You could pave it, cover it, and put in exits to major cross streets. That way as a bicyclist you wouldn't have to worry about car doors, getting cut off, sharing a lane etc. It'd be healthier too since you won't be sucking on car exhaust.
You realize that the lrt along eglington will be underground from keele to Warden(I believe).the fact that the tracks crumble in a freeze/thaw climate, they obstruct one lane of traffic. the driver/passanger ratio is low, they are NOISY...etc etc
The fact of the matter is that Toronto is growing in leaps and bounds. When I started working here in 1993, the population was 2.1 million. Now it's 2.6 / 2.7 million I believe.
In ten years, it will be 3 million - easily. And I'm talking Toronto proper here, never mind the GTA. Adding a million people in 25 years increases the demand on the system, including Transportation. Building the city around the automobile is not sustainable. Whether you like it or not, we need some sort of improved Public Transportation.
The LRT is a Poor Man's Subway. It's a compromise.
I'd love to see subway on Eglinton, Queen, Jane, Vic Park, whatever. But it aint going to happen because we have neither the money, nor the political will. The dedicated street car is a compromise and Mr. Rossi is obviously a ludite to criticize what has been done on St. Claire.
In ten years, it will be 3 million - easily. And I'm talking Toronto proper here, never mind the GTA. Adding a million people in 25 years increases the demand on the system, including Transportation. Building the city around the automobile is not sustainable. Whether you like it or not, we need some sort of improved Public Transportation.
The LRT is a Poor Man's Subway. It's a compromise.
I'd love to see subway on Eglinton, Queen, Jane, Vic Park, whatever. But it aint going to happen because we have neither the money, nor the political will. The dedicated street car is a compromise and Mr. Rossi is obviously a ludite to criticize what has been done on St. Claire.
So I guess the recent report issued by the TTC that criticizes the inefficieny of the project makes them ludites too. Or the countless studies that showed that the plan was a bad idead. Or the 4 years of neighbourhood and financial chaos that this badly planned project (that will what shave 5 minutes off of what was already there to begin with for no good reason) has put the city through. It's not a comprimise, it was stupid.The dedicated street car is a compromise and Mr. Rossi is obviously a ludite to criticize what has been done on St. Claire.
Just wait until the try to do the same thing to other areas too.
I'm not againist the advancement of public transit, but we've been livng with a era fo stupidity with the TTC, and we need to stop and evaluate the situation better before going ahead. Here's an idea..why does the TTC not run 24 hours like other systems?
I applaud Rossi for trying to bring this issue to the front of this campaign, at least now we can all talk about it.
