06-15-2015, 09:16 AM
(06-15-2015, 07:42 AM)Drake Wrote: Having a contest for the public or a vote on the stop names would have generated additional interest and participation in the LRT process.
While this may be true, I'm glad it didn't work that way. We came out with station names that (mostly) are descriptive of the locations they are in. Would we get that if we put it to a public vote? Would that process be able to resolve conflicts between "Victoria Park" and "Victoria St."? And would it have even saved us from "Central Station - Innovation District" if a councillor or mayor really insisted on that branding?
Remember, even at a large scale, a public response can be subverted. At a small scale like this, a determined campaign by the vocal opponents of this project could be allowed to embarrass us all.
I'm happy that we didn't go this way, and I'm happy we didn't consider selling station naming rights or anything else (beyond a little politics) that would jeopardize the legibility of the system.