Sprawl is good for Montreal? (and other stories)

June 26, 2006 - This week's planning news headlines feature yet another article on why sprawl is good, why Toronto should learn from San Francisco's example, why a new subway line in Chicago caused more chaos and confusion than solving traffic problems, and why parks in Anchorage may become endangered.

Is sprawl good for Montreal?

A different perspective on urban sprawl - Montreal has been losing economic ground to Toronto, and more recently to Calgary. This article examines how sprawl development has helped keep housing prices low, which encouraged more people to own their homes, accumulate capital, and benefit the overall economy of the region. In yet another defense of sprawl, the author, Wendell Cox of the Montreal Economic Institute, challenged the conventional wisdom that sprawl is bad and why Montreal should build more highways, support suburbanization, and only fund transit projects if they reduce hours of travel delay.

My comments: What I like most about the article (and I'm being sarcastic here) is how Cox painted this picture where expanding highways and allowing sprawl will magically solve Montreal's economic problems. I also disagree with his "The choice is not between transit and roads. The choice is rather between more and less traffic congestion. The choice is also between more and less economic growth." argument. More highways lead to more congestion. Unfortunately, the greater the availability of roads, the more likelihood people will drive - which will lead to further congestion. The "we can build highways without interchanges so that they will be used mainly for transporting goods" argument - do you think honestly that any municipal politician (or even provincial ones) will allow a highway to pass through their wards and not lobby for an interchange on behalf of their constituents? And what about the environmental costs? the social costs?

FYI: The article was published in the Montreal Gazette, part of the Canada.com network that includes such papers as the very right-winged, pro-Conservative National Post, Ottawa Citizen, etc.

San Francisco offers free transit on smog days

To encourage people to get out of their cars and use public transit on the hottest and poorest air quality days, all 25 transit systems in the San Francisco Bay Area offered free rides for three days deemed "Spare the Air days". The $7.5 million campaign is the largest smog-fighting program in the U.S. Early findings revealed that transit usage increased by as much as 300% on the three days when free transit was provided.

In a not-so-funny comparison, Toronto's TTC went on strike on the hottest and worst air quality day of the year, forcing more cars on the road and hundreds of thousands of commuters to find alternative ways to get around.

Chicago Transit Authority opens new subway line

The Chicago Transit Authority opened a new subway line this week. The new "Pink" line is designed to increase transit service between Chicago's western suburbs and its downtown core. The new route also follows the city's infamous transit "loop", one of the oldest elevated subway lines in the world. During the first week of operations, riders were confused - some were unwilling to give the new line a try while others praised the increased service (trains now start running at 4am).

Anchorage debates selling off future parklands to fund park programs

Not surprisingly, in today's era of budget constraints, municipalities are trying to find creative ways to conserve budgets and raise funds. The city of Anchorage, Alaska, is looking to sell off land designated for future parks to raise money for the maintaining and improving the current park system. The author of this editorial compared this scheme to a family of 14 selling "one or two (kids) so the rest can go to college."