Well the last horse has finally crossed the finish line: the Rob Ford campaign has put out a transit policy, allowing us to compare it to the plans of his rivals for the mayor’s chair. The Ford campaign released a PDF of the plan and a YouTube video that could charitably be called “low budget.” It actually makes us yearn for the cinematography of the Stephane Dion Liberals. The highlights of the plan, after the jump.
- Extending the Sheppard and Danforth subway lines out to the Scarborough Town Centre
- 100 kilometres of off-road bike paths based in ravines and along rail lines and hydro corridors
- Removing streetcars from downtown “arterial roads,” like Queen and King streets, presumably
Streetcars suffer some heavy abuse in the Ford plan, which calls them slow and congestion-causing. Instead, Ford proposes replacing streetcars with buses, which are apparently nimble and svelte (never mind that buses might actually be slower [PDF]). The motivating philosophy behind the plan is pretty clear when you read it: words like “congestion” and “gridlock” make a heavy appearance, while “sustainable” is nowhere to be found. If a reader thought the Ford campaign’s idea of transit policy was “get everything out of the way of cars,” well done.
The other campaigns have reacted swiftly. Sarah Thomson, who regrettably started the cheerleading for new subways in this city, calls Ford on his Robbie-come-lately-ism, saying, “I have been saying since March that Toronto needs to build subways, not streetcars…but his subway plan is not well thought out. Toronto cannot expand the Sheppard line without first building a Downtown Relief Line.” Rocco Rossi is quoted by the National Post as saying, “It’s clearly a guy whose heart isn’t in it. The single biggest amount of money extracted from development [fees] doesn’t even go to public transit; it goes to roads.”
George Smitherman goes to town on what is unquestionably the biggest hole in Ford’s plan: the projection that the city can simply reallocate billions in provincial money from Transit City to subway expansion. Of course, it’s not like arguments between the mayor and Queen’s Park over transit spending could go wrong in any way, right?
• Rob Ford releases his transportation plan for Toronto …on YouTube [National Post]
• Rob Ford Releases Transit Plan [CityNews]
• Ford unveils transit plan on YouTube [CBC News]
• Rob Ford transit plan focuses on subways, roads [Globe and Mail]
• Scrap streetcars for subways: Ford unveils his transit plan [Toronto Star]
@ Manny Cars cause congestion not streetcars, look at the trafic on the 401! Also people that ride bikes pay property taxes too!
October 14, 2010 at 6:57 am | by AndrewMr Ford leave Toronto streetcars alone they are way better then buses they last longer they hold more people you need to get cars out off the city there’s way to much cars here and you know it. scraping streetcars is not going to fix the problem buddy.
October 25, 2010 at 11:49 pm | by SergioManny you want to get to work on time leave your house early buddy
October 25, 2010 at 11:51 pm | by SergioTo manny cars in Toronto. scrap the cars.
October 25, 2010 at 11:52 pm | by SergioI hate to break it to the cyclist haters… but most cyclists have driver’s licenses… And the amount of damage we cause to the road is on par with the amount of damage pedestrians cause to sidewalks and pedestrians don’t pay extra to walk on the sidewalk. Cars weigh a lot more and cause much more damage, that’s why they cost more to licence.
As for cycling insurance, I paid the equivalent of about $7 per year in Switzerland for my cyclist’s liability insurance. Is that all it will take to get the drivers to stop trying to kill us? Because I think there’s deep seated hatred there that is looking for excuses. These people aren’t looking for solutions, they’re looking for an outlet for their hate… possibly because they’re so out of shape they probably can’t cycle for 10 minutes without falling over.
October 26, 2010 at 4:11 pm | by SaraGreat idea about the streetcars. Until you realize where oil and thus diesel prices will be in 6 years. Ya, let’s switch the downtown core from electric street cars to busses that guzzle diesel. Great idea. I already own a chunk of Suncore shares so I suppose I should be happy about his plans.
October 26, 2010 at 8:01 pm | by TedI find people such as Chris don’t see the big picture… We need to scrap the streetcars, and put those idiots who were responsible for the streetcar idea in a public hearing since anyone would know it was a horrible idea to begin with…
Hopefully we won’t waste any more money on nothing, and build the subways that are needed… Why keep bandaging our city instead of supporting it…
October 31, 2010 at 8:43 pm | by DanielThe downtown core did not vote for this man. Why doesn`t he improve transit in the areas populated by those who did.
November 11, 2010 at 3:45 pm | by natashaI think the elitism of cyclists shows true in some comments here…
January 23, 2011 at 5:49 pm | by TobyThe politicians in this city are so short-sighted. Instead of planning for today, they really need to start planning for tomorrow. Although they are very expensive, subways or ‘Els’ are the more practical choice. They need to think of the city’s transit problems/solutions for the future. The infrastructure can barely sustain the amount of traffic as it is now. How will the city look in 10, 20 or 30 years with the population rising every year? Build subways out the the airport and out to Mississauga will essentially take many, many cars off our already congested roads. Please councillors, plan for the future, not for right now
March 8, 2011 at 2:29 pm | by Rob Y.What everybody seems to be missing is that Streetcars help make Toronto unique. Without them, Toronto would be much the same as any other city in North America. Forget about which option helps traffic flow or helps reduce CO2. I say save the streetcars and save Toronto’s character!
March 8, 2011 at 7:57 pm | by Michaelwe don’t need another subway line and cannot afford it, we need the new streetcars as it will alleviate the need for wheel transit as they are useless for most of their consumers. Accessible subways are the way to go and the accessible buses are rubbish we need something ttc drivers will be made to use for disabled passengers and the elderly. I personally would like to see Mr. Ford be forced to use a wheelchair or blindfolded and use a cane for a day and then use transit like the rest of us and see for himself how useless and terrifying the system is.
August 18, 2011 at 1:20 pm | by stellahttps://www.facebook.com/ReferendumForToronto
March 24, 2012 at 3:43 pm | by Debbie Benson