Road design, transportation and walkability

[ijmorlan]

From an Equity and social lens I would argue that not everyone can afford (or wants) to live in downtown Guelph or Kitchener in the walkable "desirable" neighbourhoods.  A lot of people live in kitchener but work at the auto factories in guelph. As much as I wish transit was a viable option to travel everywhere, it is not. What will take them 10-15mins by car would take 1-2hrs by transit to the manufacturing neighborhoods of guelph and vice versa.

Nobody is saying everyone can or should live in downtown Guelph or Kitchener, but forcing people to own a car is an equity problem, it is unaffordable for many people, yet, in most places, it is a requirement as you explain. We should be seeking to allow people everywhere to live car free, not increasing the car dependence by building car exclusive highways. The fact that I am wealthy enough to live in an area where I can live car free is kind of the point.

Those neighbourhoods are expensive due to a combination of high demand (the neighbourhoods are desireable) and low supply (it is illegal to build them). So the fact that walkable neighbourhoods are expensive is a reason to build more, not a reason not to build more.

I will admit that some of the attractiveness is not readily copied; for people who like a 100 year old house, a new house that looks like a 100 year old house won’t necessarily have the same feeling, even if it’s basically a replica. And in most cities there is a downtown which has certain features that are found only in one place in any given city. But most of what is good about those old neighbourhoods could perfectly well be built anywhere. And for that to happen, we need to (1) allow it and (2) support it by building transit lines and active transportation first, not as an afterthought.

Tests don’t cause disease but roads do cause car dependence.