10-04-2025, 11:35 PM
PMTSAs are generally considered walking distance to a station. Those are generally an 800m radius around the station much larger than the 250m you've stated. The vast majority of people can walk 800m with no issue, people are just generally lazy and think its so far because they're used to the convenience of a car.
One just has to look at the distance to get bussed to elementary school and high school to realize that 250m is ridiculously small for a radius, and an 800m PMTSA is more realistic. For elementary students (1-8) they have to live 1.6km to get bussed, in highschool its 3.2km.
That 800m radius which is roughly the boundary for PMTSAs is is 10 times the area you stated, and a rough estimate for Kitchener's population is 10%, much higher than the 4% you've started, naturally that number will continue to grow as intensification is expected without PMTSAs, Kitchener only has about 1000 acres left to be developed (that isn't currently in construction), so densification will be the primary form of housing growth, which will occur along the LRT.
Plus keep in mind that we invest billions upon billions of dollars into highways and road widening, realistically we should be doing the same for transit but we don't because people get bent out of shape over it.
It's going to take decades to design our cities in a way where cars are not king but building the LRT is a good first step but we can't let petty politics get in the way. Is it perfect, no but places like Essen, Germany have a metro, multiple tram lines, a large university, all with a similar population to KWC, so why should we not strive for something similar?
I've said it before here but the geotechnical conditons alone will make it expensive to build phase 2 but the longer it gets dragged on the more expensive it will get. One only has to look at how stupid the Homer Watson ramp from the 401, Hwy 8 ramp from the 401, King/Eagle/Fountain intersections are at rush hour to realize we need some kind of alternative. There is simply no way to rebuild those interchanges to increase capacity without having a BCR that's entirely unrealistic.
One needs to think of alternatives, obviously better GO trains to the GTA (not just Toronto, think Mississauga and Hamilton) ontop of better last mile transit is what we truly need, which means we need to think about designing in a transit first attitude not a car first, which also comes down to costs, if we're spending billions on the Bradford Bypass (likely starting construction next year), why can we not be entitled to spend similar funds on public transit?
One just has to look at the distance to get bussed to elementary school and high school to realize that 250m is ridiculously small for a radius, and an 800m PMTSA is more realistic. For elementary students (1-8) they have to live 1.6km to get bussed, in highschool its 3.2km.
That 800m radius which is roughly the boundary for PMTSAs is is 10 times the area you stated, and a rough estimate for Kitchener's population is 10%, much higher than the 4% you've started, naturally that number will continue to grow as intensification is expected without PMTSAs, Kitchener only has about 1000 acres left to be developed (that isn't currently in construction), so densification will be the primary form of housing growth, which will occur along the LRT.
Plus keep in mind that we invest billions upon billions of dollars into highways and road widening, realistically we should be doing the same for transit but we don't because people get bent out of shape over it.
It's going to take decades to design our cities in a way where cars are not king but building the LRT is a good first step but we can't let petty politics get in the way. Is it perfect, no but places like Essen, Germany have a metro, multiple tram lines, a large university, all with a similar population to KWC, so why should we not strive for something similar?
I've said it before here but the geotechnical conditons alone will make it expensive to build phase 2 but the longer it gets dragged on the more expensive it will get. One only has to look at how stupid the Homer Watson ramp from the 401, Hwy 8 ramp from the 401, King/Eagle/Fountain intersections are at rush hour to realize we need some kind of alternative. There is simply no way to rebuild those interchanges to increase capacity without having a BCR that's entirely unrealistic.
One needs to think of alternatives, obviously better GO trains to the GTA (not just Toronto, think Mississauga and Hamilton) ontop of better last mile transit is what we truly need, which means we need to think about designing in a transit first attitude not a car first, which also comes down to costs, if we're spending billions on the Bradford Bypass (likely starting construction next year), why can we not be entitled to spend similar funds on public transit?