Metronauts, the community transportation discussion group, has developed a new website aimed at furthering the discussion of transit in the Greater Toronto Area (and Hamilton), the area under the jurisdiction of (the still poorly named) Metrolinx. The new, visually appealing site has a lot of new content that is worth reading through and and commenting on. One of the new features is a blog with regular postings. This follows several Metronauts “unconferences” held in the region.
Here are some of the more interesting discussions that I found earlier today.
Lawrence Lui (also of 299 Bloor Call Control) asks readers to identify six stations on the 41-year-old Lake Shore Line (they only differ by parking lot configuration). On the Lake Shore, at least, GO offers frequent peak hour and hourly service seven days a week. Yet, giant parking lots are only a barrier to what should otherwise be dense, suburban hubs, though there are some examples of GO stations with decent density, such as Port Credit and Brampton. The seas of parking have another effect — they do not make alternative transport options (walking, biking, local transit) attractive when one must walk across a large unsheltered lot to get to the station.
Andrae Griffth comments on the polarizing subways versus LRT debate, with some interesting points about whether the built form on a street is as dependent on a particular mode of transit, reconstructing the development-related arguments.
Karen Smith comments on some simple bicycle infrastructure in Vancouver — traffic signal buttons for cyclists, and bus racks for buses (this topic was previously featured on Spacing a year ago). Here in Toronto, bike racks are finally now seen on newer buses throughout the system, and GO Transit and the Hamilton Street Railway are adding them as well, with Brampton Transit soon to follow. She also suggests the idea of a regional transit planner that can also be used to suggest bicycle routings, or integrated transit/bicycle trips.
There are many other posts on the blog to browse through, with more to come. And while they have a good team of writers to start off with, the Metronauts facilitators are also looking for more contributers to fulfill their mandate of being an open, discussion-based community.
photo by David Michael Lamb
One comment
At both of the Oakville stations, the local transit drops you off right outside the station, closer than almost any parking space. You need only get off the bus and take a few steps into the station. No need to cross any parking lots. Bike racks are also installed right next to the station, so again no need to cross the parking lot other than riding your bike to where the racks are located. Port Credit is similar, the bus platform is totally separate from the parking lot and is closer than the nearest parking space.