ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit

[Canard]

Even if I was a year late in opening, in the world of public transit projects that's not really the kind of thing you hang people over.

I just posted what Dan said more for the theft thing. Pretty sad and sick.

[DHLawrence]

I would imagine the number of transit projects that launch on time is rather small.

[Canard]

Ours has gone excelrionally smooth compared to others.

That's why things like "the dome! Omg!" are a thing; the haters have nothing else tangible to clutch on to.

[Canard]

1/2 - Saturday, August 26, 2017

A really fun update today!  While attending "Aviation Fun Day" at the Airport, I went for a flight with the Waterloo Wellington Flight Centre crew.  I hoped I might get a glimpse of the line; I had no idea the flight plan was going to take us over the entire thing, from head to toe!

I don't think I'll caption these; you folks are far more familiar with the road names and directions in the Region than I am!

   

   

   

   

   

[Canard]

2/2 - Saturday, August 26, 2017

   

   

   

   

   

[Pheidippides]

Some interesting insider info from "Dan" in Toronto:

http://urbantoronto.ca/forum/threads/ion...st-1250889

Great photos!

Sure hammers home how much land is wasted sitting as empty parking lots 95% of the time.

The alternating embedded and ballasted section along Hayward is so strange!



As for the insider info, is "Dan" perhaps getting mixed up with the theft of Spurline trail materials?

[Drake]

Looks a lot like SimCity.

Thanks for the photos

[chutten]

I adore how green our region is. So many trees!

[Viewfromthe42]

Visuals hammer home a few things.

We are not overly urbanized as many opposed to LRT have maligned.

We have a massive urban forest, one that can certainly be enhanced and preserved, but also one so large that individual trees here and there shouldn't prevent sidewalks or developments from happening.

We have, far more than urbanized buildings taking up space and land, low density buildings and oodles of parking taking up the largest non-single-family-residential parts of our land.

So much to work with!

[panamaniac]

Visuals hammer home a few things.

We are not overly urbanized as many opposed to LRT have maligned.

We have a massive urban forest, one that can certainly be enhanced and preserved, but also one so large that individual trees here and there shouldn't prevent sidewalks or developments from happening.

We have, far more than urbanized buildings taking up space and land, low density buildings and oodles of parking taking up the largest non-single-family-residential parts of our land.

So much to work with!

There's a school that believes that sprawly K-W is "overly urbanized"?  I find that extraordinary.

[Coke6pk]

Looks a lot like SimCity.

Great photo's Canard!  Hope you enjoyed the day @YKF!

"SimCity" was what popped into mind on the Northdale picture.  The roadway looks kind of fake as it cuts across the x-way.

Coke

[MidTowner]

Waterloo Region does not have a massive urban forest. The tree canopy in Kitchener is a little less than Toronto's- Cambridge's is about the same. We're hardly excelling.

Individual trees should probably not often prevent development, it's true, but around here they never do. A mature tree is a lot more valuable than the tree that would replace it, since the survival of that replacement tree is not guaranteed, and the plantings nowadays are less diverse (this is something that I think is being acknowledged more and more).

I think Waterloo Region is fairly green, but we certainly shouldn't congratulate ourselves on our "massive urban forest." There's a long way to go, and we're behind other cities where the urban forest really is prioritized.

[danbrotherston]

Waterloo Region does not have a massive urban forest. The tree canopy in Kitchener is a little less than Toronto's- Cambridge's is about the same. We're hardly excelling.

Individual trees should probably not often prevent development, it's true, but around here they never do. A mature tree is a lot more valuable than the tree that would replace it, since the survival of that replacement tree is not guaranteed, and the plantings nowadays are less diverse (this is something that I think is being acknowledged more and more).

I think Waterloo Region is fairly green, but we certainly shouldn't congratulate ourselves on our "massive urban forest." There's a long way to go, and we're behind other cities where the urban forest really is prioritized.

I would agree our urban forest is not terribly substantial.  Even in the townships, it's quite depleted.  Trees for Woolwich has been attempting to reverse this trend, but the ash borer has been devastating there as well.

I am curious how you know plantings today are less diverse?  I realize that historically they have been pretty much a monoculture (mostly ash, unfortunately), but I thought we'd realized how terrible an idea that is, and would now be planting a more diverse population.

[MidTowner]

I replied in the trees thread; it's a neat issue.

[chutten]

Which is this thread for those who don't want to look it up.