{"id":10403,"date":"2011-09-13T08:30:00","date_gmt":"2011-09-13T11:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacingatlantic.ca\/?p=10403"},"modified":"2013-01-21T04:51:27","modified_gmt":"2013-01-21T08:51:27","slug":"transit-can-be-a-more-moving-experience-than-road-widening","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/atlantic\/2011\/09\/13\/transit-can-be-a-more-moving-experience-than-road-widening\/","title":{"rendered":"Transit can be a more moving experience than road widening"},"content":{"rendered":"

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EDITOR’S NOTE<\/strong>: This article is kindly cross-posted from the Halifax Media Co-op<\/a>. Check out the original here<\/a>.
\nAlso, Spacing Atlantic has created a Facebook Event to easily notify and inform others of the Public Meeting on Bayers Road Expansion, please help us get the word out! https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/event.php?eid=114181238686810<\/a><\/p>\n

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HALIFAX – <\/strong>There’s no way to get around it. \u00a0Metro needs better transit.\u00a0Fortunately, the It’s More Than Buses<\/a><\/em> group have big ideas of how to fix that. After several public meetings, \u00a0this week they unveiled a proposed High-Frequency Public Transit Network <\/a>[PDF]\u00a0and a set of guiding principles.<\/p>\n

It’s an exciting and promising approach led by the Planning and Design Centre (PDC) in Halifax in partnership with Fusion Halifax. \u00a0More than 100 members of the urban and suburban public participated in the meetings. \u00a0Also present were Eddie Robar,\u00a0the new head of Metro Transit, \u00a0and Richard Butts, HRM’s Chief Administrative Officer.<\/p>\n

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More than Buses is seeking public support to make sure that HRM planning exercises now under way avoid “just trying to build our way out of traffic congestion,” said Ross Soward of PDC.<\/p>\n

“Widening Bayers Road, for example, is no way to make progress,” he said.<\/p>\n

Public action will have to start right away. HRM is expected to discuss on Sept. 27 a Road Network Functional Plan that includes a massive,\u00a0$21-million\u00a0re-widening of Bayers Road as a “planned project.”\u00a0 “We have to shift our approach to dealing with traffic congestion,” said PDC planner Mark Nener.<\/p>\n

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Guest speaker Paul Bedford, Toronto’s former chief planner, said\u00a0the traffic-choked, 16-lane\u00a0Highway 401 shows that road widening “just doesn’t work.”<\/p>\n

“Not doing it (road-widening) not only saves money but it would give time so that transportation, development and land use can be planned together,” Bedford said.<\/p>\n

Councillors Jennifer Watts and Jerry Blumenthal have organized a\u00a0public meeting on the Bayers Road widening on Sept. 14 at the St. Andrews Centre on Bayers Road. Mayor Peter Kelly will attend.<\/p>\n

More than Buses will be making a presentation to HRM’s Transportation Standing Committee on Sept. 22.<\/p>\n

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Guiding Principles:<\/strong>
\nIt’s More Than Buses presented eight principles to guide the development of public transit that would really work for people:
\nDependability and Frequency<\/strong><\/p>\n