Quote:
Originally Posted by accord1999
The problem is when these benefits are used by some groups to argue against building or expanding roads.
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Personally, I think the bigger issue is that a lot of people are under the mistaken impression that a new or expanded road is a magic bullet that solves traffic problems. It
might, in the short term, but invariably you still end up where you started.
For instance a lot of people in my ward (11) were vociferously opposed to the 14th Street SW BRT, and Jeromy Farkas won his seat on council in 2017 largely on the back of being a vocal opponent of that project (and frankly Dan McLean in Ward 13 won last night over Diane Colley-Urquhart in part because he opposed it). Many of the opponents thought it was a giant waste of money because it would see little use, especially after the ring road was complete. These people were/are banking on the ring road alleviating traffic on 14th Street, which is
nonsense.
There's NO reason for that to be the case. Other than a relatively small proportion of people living in Woodbine/Cedarbrae/Oakridge/etc who were taking 14th to Glenmore to Hwy 8 or Hwy 1, most traffic on 14th Street goes to Glenmore and then Crowchild. The ring road does nothing to help that. The ring road may be an appealing alternative to people living on the western fringes of the SW communities, but otherwise for most it's taking them miles out of their way.