Toronto Mass Transit

appborder — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 03:58:36 +0000

“Ahead of the Toronto Transit Commission’s efforts to secure CA$6b for its proposed “Transit City” plan, The Globe and Mail is duly repeating the government’s fear-mongering party line. “Exhaust pollution kills 440 each year, report finds,” the headline trumpets. “Thirty-per-cent drop in traffic would save nearly 200 lives and $900-million in health costs, city’s medical officer of health says.” So, what else needs saying? The cure: 120 kilometres of new light-rail lines. After sounding a somewhat cautionary note, the Globe doesn’t twist the “pollution kills” knife as much as use the report’s conclusion to disembowel the rail project’s opposition. “Children, too, feel the effects, with an estimated 1,200 cases of acute bronchitis a year caused by traffic pollution. Children are also more likely to suffer from asthma, and the report blames 68,000 ‘asthma symptom days’ each year in Toronto’s population on tailpipe emissions. It also found 67,000 ‘acute respiratory system days,’ when people suffer from coughing, wheezing and other symptoms.” Clearly, unavoidably, inevitably, something must be done!”

So while mass transit competes with the automobile industry for tax dollars, I think the better solution is to live close enough to work that you can walk or bike comfortably.

That is, of course, if you don’t take into account the high crime, substandard schooling, and a cost of housing that’s grossly disproportional to the size of the apartment/condo you live in that goes with living in the city.

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Toronto Mass Transit