03-17-2026, 08:37 AM
And also, if we consider the traffic argument, I think my position still is the winner. Yes, building a P&R might take some traffic off the 401 and reduce congestion, but due to induced demand, probably not have any savings in time.
But at the same time, there's going to be 100k new people, and by encouraging the same development pattern all 100k of those people will be in cars that will be added to our already congested streets. So we're (optimistically) -1000 cars on the 401 per day and +100k cars overall.
If instead we built out a station with a transit oriented community around it of 30k residents. Then we're going to be +70k cars overall. This is what I mean about systemic changes. Yeah, taking 1000 cars of the 401 sounds good. But it's a drop in the bucket of the ongoing unsustainable and broken development patterns. If instead, the pattern is changed, that will result in much deeper changes to how things work.
But at the same time, there's going to be 100k new people, and by encouraging the same development pattern all 100k of those people will be in cars that will be added to our already congested streets. So we're (optimistically) -1000 cars on the 401 per day and +100k cars overall.
If instead we built out a station with a transit oriented community around it of 30k residents. Then we're going to be +70k cars overall. This is what I mean about systemic changes. Yeah, taking 1000 cars of the 401 sounds good. But it's a drop in the bucket of the ongoing unsustainable and broken development patterns. If instead, the pattern is changed, that will result in much deeper changes to how things work.