Quote:
Originally Posted by halifaxboyns
Thing to keep in mind about changing cities like Calgary (where people equate it with sprawl) is that it took roughly 30 years for the city to sprawl out, it can't change in a day.
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It is a really hard problem, because it is hard to modify the existing sprawl and it is hard to build better development outside of the sprawl belts of cities like Calgary.
In the 905 area of Markham there are some developments that are a bit better, with small blocks, garages in behind, small lots, etc., but everybody still drives because they mostly work in office parks or have long commutes that generally don't work with transit. In Toronto there isn't even good rapid transit coverage of the core, let alone suburban areas.
Halifax doesn't really have anything like that out in a genuinely suburban area but there have been a couple of proposals. One was for the Papermill Lake area of Bedford and the other is for the Motherhouse lands by MSVU. Regardless of how well-designed those neighbourhoods could be, I don't think many people would choose to live in them without regularly using a car to get around.
For now the best solution seems to be to encourage urban infill and to invest in rapid transit lines with transit-oriented development near the stations. Suburban Vancouver has many "town centre" areas that are reasonable places to live without a car. That would not be possible at all without transit.
For a city like Halifax a "best case" type of situation would involve some LRT or streetcar-like transit system and a 30-40% market share for new urban infill. A worst case 100% sprawl type of scenario would probably result in chronic budget problems, escalating tax rates, and economic problems. People need to accept that this is an economic and environmental issue, not something that comes down to personal taste.