12-20-2023, 04:55 PM
The inability of politicians to invest in transit has very little to do with classism and prejudice. That's a naive and uninformed view. Most politicians aren't thinking "ew the poors" when they speak out against large investments in things like transit. They're thinking "damn, my voter base isn't going to like this".
Most of the time it's down to economics. It's hard to sell the tax payer on massive public investments such as rapid transit lines (Line 5, 6, ION etc) or train lines (GO Transit) even if in the long term it is going to benefit them, their children and their grandchildren. Transit sounds like a great idea until you show people the price tag...just look at the reaction to the Cambridge LRT line after our region told us it is going to cost us billions of dollars, roughly on par what something like the entire REM cost or subterranean heavy rail subway line extensions in Toronto. People were like: ahahahaha nope.
How we convince the populace to actually take a moment to hear all sides and even consider supporting something they may have initially said No to takes a lot of work, unfortunately. We live in a democracy, not some sort of socialist totalitarian state where top down planners can just decide every city gets good transit and train connections because it may serve the greater good. So that means connecting to those voters is really the first step we need to take. Those democratic values mean that things do take time and may not always make sense or work out. It's super frustrating for sure and I often wish we could (well, not actually) just have something like a benevolent dictator for a few years to kick start things but it is what it is. Those democratic values also mean that it's partially up to us to attempt to connect with people who think differently than us. Think groups like TriTAG that used their own time and resources and who, thankfully, managed to help influence the decision to build the LRT. We can't just expect both all the voters to do their own homework because life is busy nor can we expect those we elect to do everything right.
Overall I think we've actually done an okay job with GO Transit improvements over the years. Yeah they're seriously lacking, but all sides of the aisle have been at least trying. I don't think they would have bothered to pilot running trains to London if they weren't. But they need to still be held to the fire so they don't start to slack and so they continue investing.
Most of the time it's down to economics. It's hard to sell the tax payer on massive public investments such as rapid transit lines (Line 5, 6, ION etc) or train lines (GO Transit) even if in the long term it is going to benefit them, their children and their grandchildren. Transit sounds like a great idea until you show people the price tag...just look at the reaction to the Cambridge LRT line after our region told us it is going to cost us billions of dollars, roughly on par what something like the entire REM cost or subterranean heavy rail subway line extensions in Toronto. People were like: ahahahaha nope.
How we convince the populace to actually take a moment to hear all sides and even consider supporting something they may have initially said No to takes a lot of work, unfortunately. We live in a democracy, not some sort of socialist totalitarian state where top down planners can just decide every city gets good transit and train connections because it may serve the greater good. So that means connecting to those voters is really the first step we need to take. Those democratic values mean that things do take time and may not always make sense or work out. It's super frustrating for sure and I often wish we could (well, not actually) just have something like a benevolent dictator for a few years to kick start things but it is what it is. Those democratic values also mean that it's partially up to us to attempt to connect with people who think differently than us. Think groups like TriTAG that used their own time and resources and who, thankfully, managed to help influence the decision to build the LRT. We can't just expect both all the voters to do their own homework because life is busy nor can we expect those we elect to do everything right.
Overall I think we've actually done an okay job with GO Transit improvements over the years. Yeah they're seriously lacking, but all sides of the aisle have been at least trying. I don't think they would have bothered to pilot running trains to London if they weren't. But they need to still be held to the fire so they don't start to slack and so they continue investing.