Here's the link to Larry Di Ianni's column:
http://www.chrisecklund.com/diianni_column.html
(The awesome 800x600 banner must be seen to be appreciated.)
It's great to see politicians from across the political spectrum expressing support for light rail. Larry Di Ianni adds his voice to that of the Mayor, several councillors, Terry Cooke, the Spectator editorial board, the Realtors Association of Hamilton-Burlington, and several neighbourhood associations, not to mention a large majority of citizens who responded to the city's public consultation.
Some reflections on Di Ianni's argument:
* Di Ianni thinks the LRT should connect all of Hamilton's communities so it can achieve broad political support. This will have to be balanced against affordability. It may make more sense to take a phased approach: build phase one and then use its success as an argument to extend it. How this plays out will reflect the political compromises among council, staff, Metrolinx and the federal government.
* Di Ianni argues that the mountain line should run along the Red Hill Valley Parkway. I think this is a bad idea from a TOD point of view, because the expressway limits a) pedestrian and bicycle accessibility to the stations, and b) potential for new property development on the transit corridor. I've written more about this here:
http://raisethehammer.org/blog/761
* He writes about "the disruption to car traffic that an LRT system would naturally cause". However, LRT on dedicated lanes would actually reduce congestion by carrying more people than an equivalent automobile lane could carrry.