Y’all ever heard of trains?
Haven’t tried recently but I heard it still takes all day to go from Kitchener -> Montreal, and it costs $200 each way. (Hearsay.)
It’s a tragedy that our trains are so poor.
I mean Kitchener to Montreal is something close to 700-800km even if we had high speed trains that would still take about 4 hours if they average 200km/h, and they still have to make stops on the way.
But having more trains running would be a good start at least.
I went from Guelph to Toronto recently for a baseball game with my partner. Via rail was somewhere between $40 and $50 (I forget the exact amount) per person each way. We drove instead.
In short, make transit a more viable option and maybe more people will use it.
I live in Hamilton and work in Milton, to use Go transit to get to work I would have to leave my house 3 hours before my shift, it’s only 30km! What the hell is wrong with the GTA?!?
You wanted to take the Go. It is much cheaper and more convenient. The trade off is customer service and ostensibly comfort. (Though the via stock is pretty fucking old these days…) But the Via staff treat you like a human being and make an effort to solve whatever travel emergency you have encountered.
Why we keep trying to build more highways to alleviate congestion is beyond me.
Its an idea that has been consistently and thoroughly debunked since the 80s. No one who studies traffic has ever suggested highway upsizing to decrease congestion as anything more than a very temporary stop gap. Single or dual occupancy vehicles cannot continue to be the primary way we commute to work in a dense area like Toronto. It simply will not work, full stop. We can fight against the idea, but we’re wasting our time and money.
We need high density solutions. TTC line 1 was built in the 50s. Line 2 in the 60s, which comprise 64km of the current 70km in use. Line 3 was added in the 80s, but has been decommissioned due to maintenance costs and poor performance, but even that was only 6km. Why have we barely expanded the system since the city consisted of 30% of the current population?
We used to have more rail lines running throughout the province, mostly privately owned. They have since been discontinued with the advent of trucking. Why have we not reintroduced rail service? Canada as a whole is low population density, but the Niagara-Toronto-Ottawa-Montreal corridor has more than enough people to justify a regular rail line.
The Bradford Bypass and Highway 413 are an estimated 8-10$ billion, on the low end. Combine with his current proposed cuts to transit funding of ~$150 million, and it paints a clear picture of his priorities.
Roads are like computers - it doesn’t matter how much speed, memory or disk space you have - you’ll eventually consume it all as the Operating System bloats and the ability to create massive files increases.
Given that #bigoil needs consumers of their product, I’d be really surprised if the ‘we need more roads’ #government ‘solution’ goes away any time soon. 😞
That’s a lot of Grand Theft Auto’s.
Does anyone have faith that our governments will have a solution? Will it be as bad elsewhere too?
TBF, the GTA is seeing the biggest transit expansion in their history, and by far the biggest expansion in North America. TTC has the Ontario Line, Line 5, and Line 6 under construction. GO Expansion is making huge improvements, from more frequent service to electrification to a lot of smaller projects that will improve travel time and reduce conflicts. Then there’s projects outside the core like the LRT projects in Mississauga, Brampton, Hamilton, and Kitchener-Waterloo.
At the same time, the Ford government seems to want to have it both ways with the 413, cutting tolls, eliminating registration fees, etc.
EDIT: Added some other projects outside the core.
What’s Ontario like for riding a bicycle?
I get honked at, cut off, yelled at and/or threatened about once per week.
Not good. I used to bike everywhere but a portion of motorists have become so openly hostile and vindictive that it is unsafe anyplace infra isn’t fully separated. I’ve been run off the road enough times and I rarely do it anymore, despite that it was one of my favourite things once.
Maybe it’s possible to form an alliance and move politically and legally.
For example being able to use dashcam footage in court and charging it as assault.
That being said, sorry to hear you can’t do it anymore.
We are already benefiting from such movements, eg Critical Mass. Imagine what it would be like without.
Bad enough in my area that I’m surprised our air ambulance helicopters don’t have bike racks for how often they’re picking up mangled cyclists lately.
