[Pimpmasterdac]

A big factor to London's employment numbers is our poor levels of transportation infrastructure.

The London of today has relatively the same roads, highways, bus service that it did 10, 20, 30 years ago. While other cities have made serious improvements in all these areas to help not only the people that live their to move quickly, efficiently and by different modes, but also employers (manufacturers especially). London has fallen behind, which makes it look more like the city of the past than one of the future!

To be fair though, we do appear low on the totem pole of senior government levels of investment. Toronto is/always will be top dog of Ontario of getting money for infrastructure. Other areas of the GTA are also benefiting due to their closeness to Toronto. Border cities Windsor, Sarnia, Fort Erie, Niagara Falls either have or are getting major investments from senior government.

Meanwhile the only things London has on the horizon is VMP becoming a freeway sometime by the mid-21st century, 2 new interchanges one of which will make VMP a truncated freeway, a BRT system that looks tentative at best (most likely just being an express route system), inner-city roads that are over-capacity with unpgrades set 5-10 years from now with no hope of them being actually implemented. Essentially the same situation now, just negligibly better.

London needs some type of a vision of what type of city it wants, how its going to get there, and what investments are needed locally, provincially, and federally. Investment in a good and balanced transportation network is something that would hand in hand with economic prosperity. If only our council would recognize this and stop pissing and wasting our time talking about backyard chickens, deer culls, NIMBY opposition to development and progress.