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Originally Posted by Hali87
Mill Cove, Birch Cove and Dartmouth Cove are all being planned as transit-oriented communities based around hypothetical transit systems that do not actually exist yet.
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Yes. Transit is often mentioned when high-level plans for different areas are created but then there are many transportation reports that analyze the cost/benefits of things like commuter rail without accounting for TOD. There seems to be a disconnect. I suspect the problem is that HRM transportation planning is behind the times.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Hali87
The official stance in the Regional Plan is that rail was not envisioned to be feasible in the short-term, but that rail corridors and potential multimodal transfers should be protected for when the city eventually decides to implement rail. There has been a gradual shift in attitude and language in subsequent staff reports, and the current Metro Transit 5-year plan asserts that some form of LRT will likely be NECESSARY within 10 to 15 years. There appears to be a lot of inconsistency in terms of what is considered "LRT" and what is considered "commuter rail" (some departments/councillors absolutely use the 2 terms interchangeably but others do not, while also failing to acknowledge that others do)
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I've noticed the inconsistencies too. They appear in staff reports, councillor statements, and in the media. A big problem in Halifax is simply that people do not seem to be aware of the options and technologies available. I think there would be a lot of value in having a study to present what these different options might look like in Halifax. With the commuter rail plan council has not been looking at alternatives properly.
Halifax does need better transit in 10-15 years. By then the region will be approaching 500,000 people, and traffic along major corridors and at bottlenecks will be much worse. Council is hesitant to widen roads and road widening is very expensive, so if they want the core areas to continue to work properly our existing transportation space will have to be used more efficiently. The way to accomplish this is to get more people on transit. An LRT route would be an extremely efficient use of space and would be a great way to avoid having to aggressively widen roads to accommodate new traffic.