GO Transit

[danbrotherston]

I'll be blunt, and this is an unpopular opinion. I think new large park and ride facilities on greenfield space is a bad idea.

And I realize that I'm not going to convince anyone here, nor am I even going to be seen at anyone at GO/Metrolinx so this is a conversation for conversations sake, but the fact is, building a large park and ride facility is an investment that benefits a relatively small number of people (say 500-1000, who could possibly would use even a very large parking lot), at the cost of long term maintenance of the status quo--a transit station that will remain permanently and completely inaccessible by all the development that absolutely will happen around it. It is another missed opportunity to change the strategy of development in the province, and a significant loss of housing opportunity in a province with a desperate shortage of housing.

But I fully expect that a P&R facility will be built somewhere around the same time the 7 expressway is also completed, because nothing is changing in the province.

Ok, I guess myself and many others will just drive to Toronto then. Personally I live in the country so bus is not an option, but If I lived in the edge of town with bus connection I would not and I suspect a lot of others would not take the bus 30-45 mins to get on a train. I would however take the my car 10-15 mins to then jump on the train.   I just don't understand your all or nothing Bike/walk/take transit mentality. I know you live abroad in Europe (Netherlands) with a much better transit system then us. But they still build park and Ride with parking garages. They still have HWY's connecting small cities. The point is to invest is all aspects of the transportation system. Do I think we can do better on the Bike/ transportation infrastructure, absolutely, but that does not mean we don't invest in car infrastructure as well.

What is wrong with driving to Toronto in this context? Even here, I would not suggest people that live where you live are expected to take transit somewhere, and in fact, would find doing so fairly inconvenient (even if it's more possible than for you).

The point is that I'm arguing for building something that doesn't exist in Canada...a place where transit (and walking, and even biking) are put above convenience for drivers. Such a place does not exist.

You are arguing for making transit a more palatable option for some people, but without changing anything about the car oriented nature of every single place in the country.

I'm arguing for choice. If you want to live in a rural area, and be dependent on a car, that's a choice you can make, and there's nothing wrong with that. But conversely people _should also_ have the option of living in a comfortable urban environment and not be dependent on _or_ dominated by cars. Right now, only one choice is possible in Canada.

Now yes, what I am suggesting is that for you, the most reasonable thing to do is to drive to Toronto, but why do you take that as a problem? That's already the case.

P&Rs are not car infrastructure, their urban infrastructure. Yes, even the NLs has P&Rs, but not as many as you think. Where I live, if someone in the rural area outside the city I live in (somewhere you wouldn't bus/bike/walk to the train station) was going to Amsterdam (or indeed, even the centre of our city) that person would drive to the city and park in a Parking facility on the edge of the city centre. They wouldn't drive to an intercity train station and take the train in.