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Transit decisions must remain local, former city planner says

Keesmaat, Jennifer
http://www.thestar.com/opinion/contributors/2017/12/07/transit-decisions-must-remain-local-former-city-planner-says.html

Publisher:  The Star
Date Written:  07/12/2017
Year Published:  2017  
Resource Type:  Article

The Toronto Region Board of Trade seeks to plunge us into a massive transit amalgamation process.Reminiscent of arguments made two decades ago touting the efficacy of the megacity, the board sees magical solutions for revenue shortages, better planning, superior service levels, and the adoption of modern technologies through the creation of a mega transit corporation, Superlinx.

Abstract: 
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Excerpt:

Like Toronto's municipal amalgamation 20 years ago, total transit amalgamation threatens to be a cure worse than the disease. It's a solution that misses the mark on most of the problems it identifies, while overlooking other critical realities of city building. The board identifies fare integration and municipal border issues, but these are being addressed through the capabilities of the Presto card. And lumping together regional transit operations ignores our region’s most basic land use reality -- this region isn't designed to accommodate transit.

The intersection between land use and transit is an area where regional authorities fail -- and it is the biggest challenge we currently need to fix. While the city is far from perfect in leveraging the city building potential of its TTC stations, they stand in stark contrast to the regional GO stations designed as desolate wastelands with almost no connection to the urban fabric. Current strategies for future GO stations show little improvement.

Indeed, local sensitivities to social need, public realm, economic vitality, and the broader mobility matrix of walking, cycling and evolving "last mile" technologies are core reasons for keeping local transit governance local. These detailed and nuanced considerations were at the heart of the city's multi-year Feeling Congested consultation process that, combined with other land use planning strategies, has produced the most integrated transit and land use policies of any city in North America.
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