(04-13-2021, 02:01 PM)danbrotherston Wrote: Are there NIMBYs who are opposing the Sportsworld alignment? I thought most opposition was to having it go near Preston/anywhere where people live. Sportsworld is a low density mostly commercial area.
Oh yeah. For every alternate route proposal I saw basically three groups of people.
One group were the people who honestly thought that the alternative was a better route and would have more riders. Usually due to lack of knowledge and usually were willing to have their opinions changed.
Group two were the limited NIMBYs who would honestly support and vote yes for it, just not near them. This group would usually admit they were wrong about an alternative route being better once shown the facts, but would say they were still against it in their neighbourhood.
Group three were the malicious NIMBYs—completely against it regardless of route. These were the people who would propose another route but not seriously. They would do it to try and fracture the pro-LRT side in the hopes to get them to fight and the politicians would see it as limited public support for the preferred route and get the project sidelined. A divide and conquer strategy.
Group 3 are the people who, prior to 2014, tried to push that Stage 1 after Mill St end up on Homer Watson Blvd. and head down to Conestoga College. Why? "Because students", even though ridership to Conestoga was fairly low back then even without comparing it to the 200 & 7. (They're also the same people who think that UW+WLU students are/were the only riders on the then 200+7 and now ION, completely ignoring the riders head away from the Universities during the morning rush hour.)
For Stage 2 ION it morphed into "Make Fairway a spur and branch off of Mill/Block Line to go to Conestoga College, and then got tacked on to the "run down Maple Grove Rd." or "run down the middle of the 401" faux suggestions.
Yes, both of those bad suggestions do avoid Preston, but they were being made mostly by people who lived in Galt and Kitchener, not Preston.
(04-13-2021, 02:01 PM)danbrotherston Wrote: Certainly there is development opportunity there, but I don't think there's much real demand. The main source of boardings are transfers at Sportsworld Station and those could move anywhere, Sportsworld Station is exceptionally mediocre as far as transit goes.
And yet more ridership goes through there than down to lower Doon and Conestoga College.
(04-13-2021, 02:01 PM)danbrotherston Wrote: There is lots of opportunity for growth on Homer-Watson, there is actually a few bits of density, but tons of car infra and very poor transit, improving transit could unlock a significant pent up demand. And again, the College could be a huge driver of trips, and transit could also help alleviate the housing crunch there. I think there are compelling reasons why Homer-Watson is a reasonable alternative. And I really don't think it would help solve the NIMBY opposition, there are lots of people in that area who would object as well.
Sure, some day. Just not right now, and not before the other possible corridors like Victoria/Highland or Ira Needles/Erb/King N. will need it, unless something drastic changes in the way urban growth has played out the last few decades.
(04-13-2021, 02:01 PM)danbrotherston Wrote: That being said, there's really no reason to get frustrated by it, the fact is the LRT is (hopefully will) get built along highway 8, and there is zero chance of that plan changing to Homer-Watson at the moment.
But it can get put off. If the politicians feel there's no public support, it doesn't matter how solid the numbers showing it is necessary are. Or if the naysayers get more people like Lorentz or Harris elected as Regional councillors who have a history of ignoring public opinion on things like public and active transit and voting against it.
The people behind T4ST and individuals like Lee Ann Mitchell are still out there, even if they are not vocal right now.
(04-13-2021, 02:01 PM)danbrotherston Wrote: More, our world is an n=1 experiment...neither you, nor I, nor anyone will ever know whether Homer-Watson would be a better or worse routing...it is not something that is possible to know for certain.
No, but we can say whether it is a better or worse choice to go with right now.