“Is the Big Move really theBig Lie?” is how Tess Kalinowski, Transportation reporter for The Toronto Star,
opened her 2013.02.28 article “From Oakville, big questions about the Big Move”.
Kalinowski reports that
Oakville’s Mayor Rob Burton is questioning a few things about Metrolinx’s Big
Move. On one hand he is miffed that
Toronto’s Mayor Rob Ford “won’t support transit taxes or tolls” and that at one
particular meeting when Ford expressed his lack of support, Burton “was
rendered “speechless” when nobody at the meeting challenged Toronto’s
mayor”. Of course there are several other
proposals afloat to raise money for The Big Move, so being anti-tolls is not
necessarily anti-Big Move. Most
politicians are anti-tolls because they believe tolls are negatively correlated
with votes. Even John Tory, now
pro-tolling was anti-tolling when running against David Miller in 2003—a
position for which he has since publically expressed regret.
Kalinowski also quotes
Oakville’s mayor regarding the Big Move: “Before we marry this thing, I really would like somebody to prove to me
that’s really the very best we can do and it costs $50 billion.” This may
seem a very surprising statement—Burton has been Oakville’s mayor since 2006,
and he is a smart, progressive, conscientious mayor. So must have been at least
aware of the planning and promotions of the Big Move. His neighbor Mayor
McCallion was on the Metrolinx board when the Big Move was planned. The Star
article even states “Burton says he takes his cues from Mississauga Mayor Hazel
McCallion.”
Kalinowski continues to
quote Burton: “I’m not saying (the Big
Move) is not the best we can do. I’m asking: Is this all there is? Can we really
not make it better?”
Perhaps,
Burton is on to something. Assuming The
Big Move was “the best we could do” when it was published in November of 2008, we
are now over four years later, and still with no resolution to the funding
problem. I wonder, if it were re-planned now whether it might indeed change a
bit. But more interestingly, there is
now some reason to believe that the Big Move may soon be dramatically out of
date.
Those
who observe the progress of the autonomous vehicle—the driverless car—are
saying we should expect this technology to start to impact infrastructure
investment in the next decade. While the
GTHA has clearly under-invested in transportation infrastructure for nearly
three decades and many, including Burton, believe that this $50 billion only
means that “traffic
congestion and transit won’t get any worse,” it is likely the case that with a
new 'The Big Move II' (published circa 2015), $50 billion would indeed do far more for the GTHA than would the 2008 plan.
Here are a few
observations:
The market needs to monitor driverless cars and these new technologies – and their associated risks – as they evolve during the next few years. “Completely ignoring this scenario is not a good option”. — Donald Light
"Metropolitan areas will start using this technology … as a forward-looking metropolitan area, as opposed to being stuck in the 20th century." — Thomas J.Bamonte
"…it is important that strategic plans of this nature recognize that spiraling advances in technology will continue to present both opportunities and challenges that will require revisiting of the plan on a regular basis. The public consultation process brought to the attention of administration a potential “game-changing” technology that could affect not only transit but the entire transportation spectrum in the foreseeable future. This technology is the self-driving vehicle. Such technology is already at a significant level of development and its impact should not be underestimated. As technologies such as this continue to evolve play a greater role in society, it will be important to recognize the opportunities they present, and to attempt to foresee the impact on future capital and operating investments - to take full advantage of the opportunities to improve the community experience for the residents of St. Albert." — City of St. Albert Transit Long Term Department Plan2013-2027 (2013.02.04).
“As autonomous and even semiautonomous technologies become more feasible, governments —and especially their planners, engineers, and lawyers —should not be idle . …. Maximizing the net benefit of autonomous driving will require researching, modeling, planning, and regulating…" —Bryant Walker Smith
Mayor
Burton’s "Can we really not make it better?” is more prescient than he, or
Metrolinx, or the Province, or the Star’s readers may be aware.
