Downtown Kitchener Fire Station | 19 fl | Proposed

[MidTowner]

My family has one car. On average it travels three times a week.

Kids were mentioned. Typically, if my wife or I need to go somewhere alone that is too far to walk, we get on transit. If one or more kids are with us, we tend to drive because GRT charges children a full adult fare from the age of seven (which is not usual for a transit agency in this part of the world). If that were different, we would drive even less. Transit in Waterloo is pretty good with kids apart from the high price.

[Kodra24]

I get that there is a cost to own a vehicle (or 2) but isn't time your most precious resource? It doesn't even cross my mind to take transit and we live walking distance to LRT, I just don't need it nor is it efficient except maybe to take the GO train to catch a Jays game

My spouse and I have 2 active kids who have a ton of extracurricular activities all over the Region, there is no way we can make do with even 1 car

However I could care less about cars, if they commercialized a teleport machine I'd get that (if feasible) if it means saving me more time

[taylortbb]

I get that there is a cost to own a vehicle (or 2) but isn't time your most precious resource? It doesn't even cross my mind to take transit and we live walking distance to LRT, I just don't need it nor is it efficient except maybe to take the GO train to catch a Jays game

I think there's two differences here, for a lot of people transit is actually quite time efficient, and there's also the factor of how that time is used.

I live in DTK near an ION station, and while I do own a car, for a trip to uptown ION is equal time and there's no concern with how many drinks I have with dinner. I also sometimes go to events at UW, where the parking situation makes ION the faster and cheaper option.

The other is how time is used. Even when driving to Toronto is faster, I have to spend my time focused on the road driving. On the GO train I pull out my laptop and get stuff done, bringing me out ahead in usage of my time.

When I've got to go to The Boardwalk yes I drive, but I just don't go there very often. Home and work are both in DTK, so I just walk, and many of my daily necessities are here too. Driving to a suburban grocery store might be slightly cheaper, but I value my time more so just walking to Marche Leo's and paying the premium makes more sense. The end result is that my car gets used ~2 times a week, and replacing car ownership with car share would be a time-efficient (and significantly cost saving) option for me.

[tomh009]

I get that there is a cost to own a vehicle (or 2) but isn't time your most precious resource? It doesn't even cross my mind to take transit and we live walking distance to LRT, I just don't need it nor is it efficient except maybe to take the GO train to catch a Jays game

I think you are assuming that everyone has more disposable income than available time. And that is definitely not the case.

I think there's two differences here, for a lot of people transit is actually quite time efficient, and there's also the factor of how that time is used.

I live in DTK near an ION station, and while I do own a car, for a trip to uptown ION is equal time and there's no concern with how many drinks I have with dinner. I also sometimes go to events at UW, where the parking situation makes ION the faster and cheaper option.

The other is how time is used. Even when driving to Toronto is faster, I have to spend my time focused on the road driving. On the GO train I pull out my laptop and get stuff done, bringing me out ahead in usage of my time.

When I've got to go to The Boardwalk yes I drive, but I just don't go there very often. Home and work are both in DTK, so I just walk, and many of my daily necessities are here too. Driving to a suburban grocery store might be slightly cheaper, but I value my time more so just walking to Marche Leo's and paying the premium makes more sense. The end result is that my car gets used ~2 times a week, and replacing car ownership with car share would be a time-efficient (and significantly cost saving) option for me.

Exactly. I walk to work, too. We pick up groceries regularly at BT, New City and Full Circle, and at times from Food Basics (a bit more of a walk but doubles as exercise), Marche Leo's or SDM. Four (!) pharmacies (Queen's, Benton, Market and SDM) a short walk away, and the Benton urgent care clinic, too. So we still make a monthly trip to Costco ... but it's really a legacy shopping habit that we could easily give up, especially since their packages are LARGE and our storage space is constrained.

This is not to convince anyone to give up their cars if that's one prefers, but the point is that one doesn't NEED one if one lives downtown.

[MidTowner]

I get that there is a cost to own a vehicle (or 2) but isn't time your most precious resource? It doesn't even cross my mind to take transit and we live walking distance to LRT, I just don't need it nor is it efficient except maybe to take the GO train to catch a Jays game

My spouse and I have 2 active kids who have a ton of extracurricular activities all over the Region, there is no way we can make do with even 1 car

However I could care less about cars, if they commercialized a teleport machine I'd get that (if feasible) if it means saving me more time

There is a huge cost to own a vehicle, let alone two.

With respect to time, I like to take transit or walk with my kids, even if it takes longer. Driving I consider lost time, but when on foot or bus or train, we can talk about things, look at things. It can often be time very well spent.