Accountability, Semantics & Transparency

Files 1.055 and 1.072 mentioned in a recent Environment & Transportation Committee agenda use such terminology as "northern freeway corridor" and "peripheral freeway." A May 7th e-mail to the Mayor and to Environment & Transportation Committee pointed out:

• Freeways: divided roadways carrying traffic at high speed under free-flow conditions with access at interchanges only, typically connecting larger cities.
• Arterials: roadways where movement of through traffic is the primary consideration with land access a secondary function.
• Expressways: generally divided arterial roads with at-grade intersections.

Elected representatives are left with these questions: What city are they connecting to in Middlesex? If a freeway is preferred, why not engage all affected counties and the Province?

Buried in the January 04 State of City Address, "...we have continued our discussions with the County of Middlesex and the Province regarding the ongoing issue of a ring road." In the January 05 address neither a ring nor a peripheral expresssway is on the radar.

Back in 1972, Queens Park committed to helping with construction of Airport Rd. Thirty-three years later it's not a four-laner. Yet, some members of council would kid taxpayers that London can go it alone on a northern corridor (twice the length of initial Airport Rd) ...and in another municipality, without financial and planning assist from the province. For the sake of accountability, the January 06 State of the Capital address should reveal the amount spent on ring/peripheral road studies over the last 10 years.

Montreal, in its fight to retain the Shriner's Hospital, plays the "poor transportation access" card. Local support for a northern trade corridor provides broad regional access ...and 403 interchanges at major arterials takes pressure off an already jammed Wellington Rd.

Now, this blog encourages comment; pro, con or straddling the median. Perhaps a few brave council members will lend some transparency by accepting the challenge to sell voters on their doable 33-yr peripheral vision?

Closing the Ring

Middlesex County always cast a wary eye on London's plans for an exclusionary expressway ..and rightly so, since it did nothing for the people of Huron, Middlesex, Oxford and Perth counties. Intersecting their major north/south roads with a 403 extension to Strathroy gives Exeter, Stratford, St. Marys and Wingham greatly improved access to a NAFTA route.
Our midwest cities and towns will only thrive if they cooperate now in promotion of such a high-speed corridor. The region either enhances its NAFTA presence or watches future generations of graduates follow the jobs south.
It is unlikely that an August 2004 letter from the London Development Institute was noticed in the counties. The letter provided ring road estimates of $62 millions for right-of-way purchase and construction estimates of $335 millions. LDI concluded: London can't afford to go it alone on its north expressway and urged the Mayor to improve external links by leading a rally to have the Province sponsor a Regional Transportation Plan.
As the newly self-proclaimed Capital of the Southwest, London should be ready to push the more practical and affordable alternative to the in-city-out-of-city agri-expressway. Indeed, all municipalities have to turn a new leaf ...and focus on connections instead of separations.
An inter-city freeway with ramps at Clark/Airport Rd and at a connected Westdel/Denfield Rd completes the north ring at minimal local expense -and just as importantly, benefits the counties.
Simple and straight-forward, yes, but it takes exceptional resolve to get municipalities to work together for the collective good. Voters will have to persist in e-mailing editors, their Mayors, MPPs and MPs.
Sent to the press in Exeter, St Marys, Strathroy & Stratford in March 2005 ...and appeared in the Lononer Apr 20, 05

Surprise! London is # 3

Cheer up sno-birds, global warming is putting London on the map. Although we still shovel snow for four months, London Ontario is a great place to retire -at least according to Geography Professor, Dr. Warren H. Bland. The well-traveled prof just published a 300 page book, Retire in Style: 60 Outstanding Places across the U.S.A. and Canada.
On his 12-point ranking, London comes in 3rd, behind 1st place Victoria, BC and 2nd place Boulder, Colorado.
For the full scoop on London, the Chamber of Commerce and the big real estate offices can order the book; the rest of us can start with a book review by Robert H. Bruss.

Transport Board Needed

Cities and regional governments around Toronto have a joint board whose top priority is a seamless highway system. Given the province's decreasing role in funding roads, the London area should move to such a structure to avoid turf wars over road routing, design and cost sharing.
Case in point -Middlesex and London drivers are not convinced north and west agri-expressways fix inner-city traffic woes. Although the far west has no industries, millions would be spent on a heavy-duty high-speed stub across creek and through productive woodland and cropland from the 402 to Oxford St W; far better to avoid such disruptive mid-block corridor and join two existing roads, Westdel and Denfield; thus connecting Highway 4 at Clandeboy with the 402 .
Perspectives -In 98 the Province said there were plans for widening the 401 between Wellington Rd and the 402 intersection, but no current plans for a freeway connecting Woodstock to Strathroy. Regardless, business and political leaders in the area can best advance their NAFTA priorities by pushing for that northern 403/402 link.
Reality Check -The thru-London stretch of the 401 is not capable of handling future truck and auto volumes. Perhaps with London's ring distraction, other south-west municialities will take the lead in creating a strategic Transportation Authority.
In London Business Magazine & St. Thomas Times-Journal back in 1999

Ring Fixation Risks Provincial Support

Brampton and Vaughan vie for a Highway 427 extension to service their industries. In the Niagara and Guelph/Kitchener regions, concerted lobbying has brought new 400-series roads to the planning stage. Sarnia quietly promotes a major upgrade of Highway 40; what is good for the Chatham and Wallaceburg areas must be "great" for Sarnia. New crossings at Bufallo, Sarnia and Windsor spell carnage through south London; yet, the city opts out of any region-based initiative and snubs benefits of a 403 westward extension. Unlike an expressway ring, it gives 400-series outlets to Richmond and Adelaide and other major roads shared by London and Middlesex.

Albert Einstein said, "Problems cannot be solved at the same level of awareness that created them." London is not an island and should not be obsessed with drawing a ring around itself. Fom the get-go, promotion of an in-city-out-of-city expressway ring begged regional and provincial players.
The whole area needs population growth to produce the critical mass enabling London status as a regional cultural, educational and medical center. Only broad public agitation overcomes political denial of competitive yet collaborative regionalism.

Across the Southwest we need a strong movement to push for integrated transportation and economic growth planning. Incumbents have the choice of accepting such reality now -or facing rebuff down the road.
In London Free Press & South London Reporter in spring of 2002

Trade Corridor Needs Champion

Back in Vision 96 days, council cheered the NAFTA Highway concept and asked the province to improve the 401 between London and Windsor. Then they forgot the trade corridor and launched expensive and inconclusive reports on a self-serving commuter ring.
The 1950s design of the Woodstock to London segment never anticipated a 21st Century free trade highway. Now, looking ahead 20 years, a multi-laned 401 through London will not be able to absorb projected truck volumes. Think of a clogged six-lane Wellington Road with a cloverleaf at Commissioners Rd. Relief would be provided by a NAFTA link near the north London boundary giving new outlets for north/south arterial roads such as Adelaide St., Denfield Rd, Hyde Park Rd, and Richmond St.
The city's Transportation Master Plan shows a proposed mid-block corridor paralleling Westdel Bourne (a designated 4-lane arterial) from the 402, north beyond the Thames then easterly near the city boundary to Clarke Rd. There is no evidence of a cost/benefit analysis comparing the ring with the 403 extension and west arterial alternative.
Council believes a peripheral loop avoids gridlock. The key assumptions: future generations in the west end would take a far-out northern ring to jobs in the east end ...and would tolerate their fuel taxes going to inter-city freeway expansions in more dynamic regions, while we bear full brunt of construction and maintenance of a city expressway.
Local councils resist improving London and Middlesex traffic flows while we await a modern-day Adam Beck to champion the obvious solution to Londons future traffic woes.
In South London Reporter in May 2004

Parallel Freeway Urgent

To accommodate 50-yr build out, London vowed to protect a ring corridor even as it approved subdivisions to the north border. No problem. Just route it through the township. Result: Rather than intersect their major north/south roads with a provincially funded freeway, London and Middlesex lock horns.
Meanwhile , Dorchester, Mt. Brydges and Strathroy complain about bearing the brunt of 401 closures due to accidents and weather. When the city and its neighbours fail to see a road around such problems, the Transport Ministry naturally allocates our fuel taxes to new 400-series projects in more cohesive regions.
Queen's Park will soon legislate our region's landfills as a quick fix for GTA's trash overflow. Smart politicians might join in advancing a long-term solution -deposit residential waste in salt caverns -and use methane to generate electricity. The salt beds have remained sealed since the primordial ocean evaporated eons ago. Saline leaching never threatened our freshwater lakes. Let the finest minds in hydrology determine if aquatic life and drinking water would be at risk.
Rather than a local landfill crisis and a far-out commuter ring, better a provincially financed garbage road and trade corridor. Our NAFTA-driven economy depends on moving the freight just in time. The province knows that without a northern freeway, US gateway improvements will soon choke the sole mid-west truck route, and that for national security reasons alone a parallel freeway is imperative.
Neighbouring counties and London win big with a 403 extension sweeping by Arva over to the 402. Normally, it takes a coalition of municipalities seven years to get the province to complete a highway needs study. The garbage crisis shortens that time frame. But, as more garbage trucks pound the 401/402 and irate Michiganders quack foul, the trash coalition reacts rather than pro-acts.
In Strathroy Age Dispatch and TheLondoner in spring 2003