A rising
international reputation combined with a robust high-tech and rebounding
manufacturing economy. It all adds up to population growth and more cars on the
road in Canada's technology triangle of Kitchener-Waterloo-Cambridge.
With increasing
congestion and a growing population comes the need to expand transit in the
region. The regional planning authority has drafted potential transit
strategies that include light rail transit between Waterloo and Kitchener.
While some area residents have expressed concerns about the cost of developing
such a system, a far better question is what the costs of inaction will be.
Traffic congestion
already costs the province billions of dollars annually. Goods and people stuck
in bumper-to-bumper traffic makes for neither a productive nor efficient
economy. We could try to solve this problem by building more roads, but
experience demonstrates that as fast as you build new highways, increased
traffic clogs them up.
On the other hand,
building transit can help immediately relieve congestion. A photo the Toronto Transit Commission
created a number of years ago comes to mind. It illustrated what would happen
if each rider of a single streetcar was in individual cars — the cars covered
an entire city block.
However, LRT is an
extra step beyond streetcars. LRT can move more passengers at higher speed and,
moving swiftly in its own lane outside of traffic, makes it a highly efficient —
and comfortable — way to move people through urban areas.
Is Kitchener-Waterloo
well suited to this kind of technology? Absolutely. The Conference Board of
Canada ranked the region number four for urban density among mid-sized Canadian
cities. Furthermore, LRT is effectively being used in suburban areas of Edmonton
and Calgary, which have lower densities than the corridor being examined for
Kitchener-Waterloo.
Additionally, LRT
offers significant benefits over the current backbone of the area's current transit
system, belching diesel buses. These benefits include attracting even more jobs
and increasing land-values. LRT is a self-fulfilling technology. Their
high-tech rail aesthetic and speed will attract new riders to transit where a
bus will not
The environmental
benefits of light rail also shouldn't be ignored. Transportation is the fastest-growing
source of air polluting and climate destabilizing emissions in Ontario. And a
lot of these smog-creating and lung-irritating emissions are released right in
our community at nose level, making them even more harmful.
On a cost per
passenger kilometre basis, light rail is the most efficient way to cut these
emissions dramatically. The Regional planning authority found that by 2031 an
LRT would cut more than double the pollution of a rapid bus.
Every commuter who
chooses to ride the rails rather than driving their car reduces the amount of
smog-causing air contaminants by 90 per cent.
Best of all, both
the provincial and federal governments are standing by with funding to support
transit in this region. How often does that happen? Yes, the region itself will
also need to provide its share, but for once municipal government doesn't have
to go it alone.
In the end,
however, the only thing that will really take a big bite out of congestion is
enhanced transit. Kitchener-Waterloo-Cambridge companies will tell you that the
competition to attract the best talent for their companies is fierce — and
getting fiercer.
Taking this leap
will help the region grow into a true international hub for innovation and not
get cut off in the growing traffic around talent acquisition. An LRT is as much
a symbol of the future, and where this region is headed, as it as a cost-effective
and practical way to get around.
