Highway 7 - Kitchener to Guelph

[SammyOES2]

A LRT line isn't an acceptable substitute anytime soon.  There's too many people starting and/or ending their journeys in locations with no/bad/average transit.  These people would still have to drive a portion of the route or make at least 2-3 transfers on systems with not very frequent service.  And that's during peak periods.  Trying to get between some random residential area in KW to some other random residential area in Guelph on a weekend or later in the evening would be a huge waste of time.  

This is a reinforcing cycle. Transit is “bad” in KW and Guelph because we’ve invested so much to make driving convenient and cheap for the user, and promoted sprawl that’s hard to serve by transit. This new highway will continue that pattern.

By this logic we should never invest anything in making driving better because it "reinforces the cycle".

The reality is that driving IS more convenient in a lot of use cases - regardless of how good your transit system is.  I lived in NYC and still had a car because sometimes its easier and necessary.  I just didn't have to take it to work or every time I wanted to leave the house.  And travel between cities that are 10-20km apart is never going to be easily solved by public transportaiton.

There's a clear need for a better transportation system between KW/Guelph, right now.  And its not a need that an LRT line can address.  So I don't think an acceptable solution is to ignore that need.