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?

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