ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit

[danbrotherston]

Exactly. I don't understand why someone would drive their vehicle, just to park it in order to take public transit? Why not just take public transit to begin with - or drive? It's not like there are many neighbourhoods in the city without adequate service, including north Waterloo.

Suppose one wants to shop at Conestoga Mall, then take the train to Uptown Waterloo for some shopping then DTK for lunch, etc. If one lives near Conestoga Mall, this makes sense. If you're close to Uptown Waterloo, then use the parkade, or one of several garages in Kitchener if you're close to that.

Personally, being in Kitchener, I wouldn't travel to Conestoga Mall to take the LRT -- it defeats the purpose. I might park at Charles and Benton though, and head in whatever direction from there, as I am close to there, and it doesn't defeat the purpose of the LRT. Better yet, take the bus to Mill Station and go from there - if you can.

Now why would some take the car to take the LRT? Perhaps they have a disability, or they're a senior, and can't walk the distance to nearest bus station, and perhaps can't risk having to stand on a bus. Whenever I ride the bus and see someone that obviously needs a seat more than me, I will give it up, but whenever I have used the bus, it seems that my way of thinking is the exception, not the rule (as an observer already standing, or at the back of the bus). My last experience on GRT was watching a couple people with their bags taking up 5 seats and not bothering to give up a single seat for a mother with a stroller and baby nor the elderly person that also got on.  I also saw this in Toronto quite a bit, including some lady laying down across 4 seats reading her Kindle.

Yes, I'm sure we can all come up with examples of why people will drive to LRT stations, but we need to look at the actual numbers--how many people in the city would actually do this? We have a park and ride in the south so we can actually get very good numbers on this. Additionally, we must look at how it costs to provide parking, vs. how much benefit does it provide to the transit system, and mobility in general, vs. what else could be provided for that money. Keep in mind building even a surface parking space can cost 10k dollars alone, and that will carry, at best, one rider per day. Is there a cheaper way to get another rider, one that perhaps doesn't come with all the other costs of car drivership in the city?

There are rude everywhere. Rude people on transit are annoying and frustrate me.  Rude people in cars try to kill me. I'll suffer through rude people on transit every time.