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?

Mass Transit & Trade Corridors

All agree high-speed rail has priority over new freeways inside large cities. Still, this does not mean bullet trains are appropriate or affordable in medium-sized cities or in servicing vast but separated trading areas of the continent.
Convertible and SUV lovers now find they have to share their romance of the road with exhaust-spewing 18-wheelers. Via freeway networks these monster rigs help get food to the table, raw materials to factories and finished goods to consumers.
The urban planner's solution to resulting road congestion is densified housing along transit-served arterial roads. But, the children of families relegated by income to reside in such areas suffer the most from poor air quality. See Californian's lament about costs of free trade:
The boomer bulge pushed subdivisions beyond the range of mass transit. To paraphrase those old Caterpillar ads, "There are no easy solutions ...just tough decisions." In the absence of intelligent decisions on birth control and immigration we continue to build houses, factories, schools and supporting infrastructure. And, where the run to the job takes 40 minutes by stop-and-go bus or 10 minutes by car, few will spend an extra 5 hours a week on a bus.
Within a generation the motor replaced the horse. Soon the gasoline and diesel that powers today's engines will be replaced. So, don't feel guilty about your present mobility; just be prepared to welcome cleaner motive power over the next few decades ...and support staking out a future trade corridor north of London.