Back on Monday June 23, Metrolinx and the Canadian Urban Institute hosted "Mobility Without Borders, An International Symposium on Transportation Innovation" at the ROM, which I attended. After a few opening remarks from the hosts, Prof. George Hazel gave a great presentation.
George Hazel's presentation set the stage for the panel discussion which followed. The panelists also included Dr. Pierre Laconte, Michiael Glotz-Richter, Sue Flack, Dr. Steven Cassidy and Rob MacIsaac.
George Hazel said much that was worthwhile, and I wish I could share it all with you. I did find some of the slides he used, and the report he referenced which provides most of what he said.
The report contains the key messages he was trying to convey, such as:
- Megacities prioritize economic competitiveness and employment
- The environment matters, but may be sacrificed for growth
- Transport overtakes all other infrastructure concerns
- Better governance is a vital step towards better cities
- Holistic solutions are desired but difficult to achieve
- Cities will seek to improve services, but could do more to manage demand
- Technology will help deliver transparency and efficiency
- The private sector has a role to play in increasing efficiency
He also referenced his own version of the holy trinity for urban centres which is "Environment," "Quality of Life," and "Competitiveness" which must be overseen with appropriate governance. He went on to say that our silo approach to planning and governance cannot last, we have to look at and plan how we want to build our cities and plan our infrastructure around that, not plan our infrastructure and then build whatever. We have to take a holistic approach to city building. And he mentioned that our transportation options should be as integrated as our cities; which is, unfortunately, currently not the case in Toronto. Lastly, he said that transportation is what ties our social, economic, environmental and quality of life goals for our city together.
I'll put what I got out of it this way: Transportation, including Public Transit, is just infrastructure. It's there to support what our city needs, and has to fit with the community and still fit in with the whole city.
Lastly, everyone spoke about our roads as places where we move people and goods. Only the Ontario Ministry of Transportation still strictly thinks in terms of moving cars; that attitude is a rot that will have to be removed if this plan has any chance of moving ahead.
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