Comment 108633

By kevlahan (registered) | Posted January 31, 2015 at 12:01:29 in reply to Comment 108627

That's a good point. But the kind of suburban development we should be encouraging should be less car dependent and denser and mixed use. That's not happening in Hamilton now where new suburban development is driven by road building, not transit, is low density and is not mixed use, but it actually is happening in Vancouver.

I was very impressed driving along Marine Drive in North Vancouver to notice that what once looked like Upper James is now beginning to look quite urban and pedestrian friendly with lots of mixed use condo buildings lining the street. Similar things are happening along Lonsdale. Metrotown in Burnaby is another example of a dense suburban town centre planned for and stimulated by rapid transit (the skytrain). It also a good example of forward looking transit oriented developed planned by the GVRD over many years.

Vancouver has also been careful to extend rapid transit to the suburbs and to have a cohesive transit strategy for the entire region. This is very different from Hamilton's "beggar thy neighbour" approach to transit as burden to taxpayers.

But the key lesson from Vancouver is that excellent transit and walkability means you can have lots of people living downtown and lots of people commuting downtown without building new roads or widening new roads. Road capacity is not a limiting factor and is actually pretty irrelevant for most people going downtown since most don't drive. And, of course, Vancouver has had bus/hov lanes, notably along Georgia St, for many years.

Comment edited by kevlahan on 2015-01-31 12:04:58

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