04-20-2021, 07:28 AM
(04-20-2021, 07:09 AM)ac3r Wrote: That's true. Even without that, I think they'd expand it to Cambridge regardless. It's the second largest city in the region in both population and area with a huge manufacturing/industrial economy that pumps money into the region. Yet, it remains very disconnected from Kitchener and Waterloo, especially when it comes to transit. It may have seemed like Cambridge didn't want the LRT but I sense that those opposing voices were amplified louder than they actually were. When I was working at the UW School of Architecture for a short time, many of the students were investigating the viability of an LRT here (in the region and Cambridge) and a surprising amount of people in the community were for it because the only way between the cities is by car or two single bus routes.
You are certainly right that those who oppose get amplified. But I'd say it isn't "disconnected" by transit, it's disconnected by geography, it's physically far away, but does have transit connections. The LRT won't do a whole lot to change this either, it's still far away.
I *don't* think that Cambridge would have been the next best route to serve if we looked independent of the politics. Yes, it does contribute significantly to the economy, but manufacturing/industry is not a transit friendly land use, factories (today) are spread out, and most do not even have sidewalks.
That being said, I wonder if anyone considered a disconnected LRT section within Cambridge. Obviously this would be more expensive per km as a result of duplicate maintenance facilities, but I'd be curious about the value prospect over the current proposal.