Peel Region rapid transit plan a step in right direction

As a transplanted Bramptonian, I am excited to see Brampton finally adopted bus rapid transit (BRT). I am similarly excited to see Mississauga develop its own MiWay BRT system.

Similar to Vaughan’s VIVA system, these services will shorten the frequency between buses during important times of the day like rush-hour.

Considering some buses still come every 30 minutes, this is space-age territory for the region. Here’s why these services are a step in the right direction:

Peel has over 1 million residents. Many commuters travelling to Toronto come from Brampton and Mississauga. It serves as an important transportation hub for the west end of the GTA. 

For too long this area was (and still is) a city of cars. Residents drive everywhere. It’s expensive and not very environmentally-friendly.

Cities like Brampton and Mississauga serve as fertile ground to expand public transportation because there are fewer options.

If transit is to succeed in the GTA these cities must embrace new forms of transportation, while it has the ability to change its ways, to thrive and reduce the number of cars on the road.

Speaking of new options, I would argue subway expansion should never have expanded into Vaughan and instead should have gone through Peel and up to Square One.

In doing so, rapid transit service would have accelerated to carry people to the subway and throughout the region. It would have captured more residents willing to take public transit and potentially ease rush-hour traffic in the area.

While this is no longer possible, both BRT services should continue to encourage residents with faster service and improve existing options within Peel Region and beyond.

This is a miraculous turnaround for a region that has always been dependent on vehicles for transportation.

I recognize this change will not happen overnight, but in Brampton’s case by 2014, with all four Züm lines in place, it will become very transit-accessible for its 450,000+ residents looking to travel to Vaughan, Toronto and Mississauga.

I have to be honest with you, this is a bittersweet moment for me. I was hoping for something like this a long time ago. It only occurred after I left for Toronto. Had this service existed when I was a teenager I would have used it.

Züm and MiWay will help transform the region and GTA but residents need to do their part and use the service.

If residents embrace it as a better way to commute to work and school these services will become a key component in expanding transit throughout the GTA. 

I’m also hoping these new BRT services will help change some antiquated urban opinions of the suburbs. Transit isn't a Toronto-only issue. It's now ballooned into a GTA-wide issue. Every little bit counts and for the west-end this is the start of a very significant contribution to GTA-wide transit.

About Robert Kirsic

Comments

[Andrew]

I agree, trasit and traffic should be a major issue that every politician should take seriously

[Another mother]

My 15/20 minute drive to work is more than two hours by bus. because it takes 4 buses to get there. Mississauga/McCallion completely lacks any interest in efficient transit and builds neighbourhoods before introducing transit. We have to buy cars until the transit comes. And now I've sunk my money into a car, I'm not paying to ride public transit until I run my car into the ground. I would prefer transit was built when they built these neighbourhoods in the first place.

[carlo]

Dear Sir...i as TTC employee agree with the Ford transit plan ...the name of the game is to move more people faster and cheaper.Street car are too expensive and too rigid inhteir flexibility in case of an emergency.NY has a two system buses and subway and it works fine.Transit city is another layer of bureaucracy.Trust me ..i seen it and will see it.Don't get sucked in to Miller and TTC propaganda .By connnecting the whole subway lines into one...it circles the city.....the eglinton LRT line could be replaced using articularor buses using bus only lanes..these buses are 60 feet long or also the longer bi-articularor models which are 82 feet long and have a capacity of 200 people so LRT are be all and all in transportation.

[Jada]

@Carlo

How did Ford's transit plan come into question? It wasn't mentioned once in the article, or any subsequent comments. I also HIGHLY doubt that you are a TTC employee. Your grammar and use of the English language are also deplorable.

That said, I will take on your actual transit "arguments". You cite NYC, which has 468 subway stations as an example of a system not needing LRT. We do not possess anywhere even close to the subway system that NYC has, nor do we possess the population density they have to necessitate such a system. They also started building their subways 40 years before us and did not neglect expansion for 30 straight years.

We need mass transit spread across the ENTIRE city, not just to a few small areas as Mr. Ford suggests. LRT on Eglinton will be buried underground and be much like a subway. Eglinton does NOT have the room to build a bus only lane, which would congest the road for drivers and still not be as quick as LRT, which will actually be removing buses from the surface, opening up the road for drivers. We would also need to buy special buses which now only run in this one place. This would be expensive and wasteful.

LRT is used all over the world efficiently (see Asia, Europe, Australia/NZ) and true LRT is different than our current streetcars. Most areas of the city do NOT possess the population density for subways and would lose the TTC millions of dollars in operating costs (see the Sheppard line). You can build 4-5 times as many kilometers of LRT as you can subways for the same money.

Also... please keep in mind that it was MIKE HARRIS who had the Eglinton crosstown SUBWAY line filled in after construction had already started. If anything, be upset with Harris that we now have to build LRT here instead of already having a fully functional subway line.