According to a new sturdy, Toronto has missed several vital opportunities to expand upon its existing transit infrastructure.
Shocking, I know.
The report, which was published by the University of Waterloo, says “Toronto and Montreal have both missed opportunities to vastly expand the role of transit in promoting sustainable, reliable, and economically-supportive transportation networks.”
Indeed, between 1996 and 2012, Toronto only added 18-kilometres to its existing rapid transit system. For the sake of comparison, during that same time span Dallas, Texas added 106-kilometres. What makes Toronto’s lack of expansion even more confounding is that in 2012 the TTC was ridden about 133 times per person, whereas the Dallas transit system was ridden about 11 times per person.
The report goes on to conclude, “Given the observed growth in usage in other cities where investments have been made, our expectation is that investments in Canada’s two largest metropolitan areas will produce greater returns on investment than in other cities due to the existing roles that transit plays in contemporary travel patterns. Failure to make these investments presents the risk that these metropolitan regions will experience decreased global economic competitiveness and quality of life for residents, as well as poorer environmental conditions.”
In other words, we need to figure how we’re going to expand our public transit system and we need to do it quickly. [via Metro]
Image via Flickr user Nayu Kim.
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Igor Bonifacic is the managing editor of Toronto Standard. Follow him on Twitter.
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