Highway 7 - Kitchener to Guelph

[SammyOES2]

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

I think you’re defeating a straw man there. We know that highway expansion creates expensive sprawl, and that induced demand means that the highway expansion will become congested. Nevertheless, I don’t think there’s many people who would argue that we should try to do away with highways. That’s probably not going to happen, and it would be silly to think so. Politically, it’s possible to build a new highway between KW and Guelph, but probably impossible to invest in good transit between the two.

We could build good transit between the two, and it would avoid yet more urban sprawl, which is a predictable outcome of a highway expansion project like this. But, unfortunately, in our current landscape that's pretty unlikely.

My point wasn't to defeat a straw man.  It was just that just because a new highway "reinforces the cycle" doesn't mean we shouldn't do it.

I also don't think its a foregone conclusion that the "induced demand means that the highway expansion will become congested". Although, its certainly a possibility.  But the point is that its the only reasonable solution for the current problem (imo).  And it doesn't need to be a forever solution where we're stuck continuously expanding it until its a 24 lane monstrosity.

I would also hope that in 25 years we have a very strong regional rail service (GO, or some alternative) that provides regular and fast access between Guelph and KW.