Darkness outside the heart of the city

The National Post's Peter Kuitenbrouwer hits many nails on their heads with today's story on Vaughan, suburban developments, faux cities, and his search for a bicycle basket in Vaughan.

The Darkness at the Edge of Town:

... Above the covered sidewalks that connect the stores are arches bearing paintings of Italian scenes: St. Peter's Basilica, the Colosseum in Rome and the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Rather than lend distinction to the place, the Italian scenes remind me that I am thousands of kilometres away from architecture that the builders of this place consider beautiful.

So many of the problems faced by cyclists and pedestrians come down to the original planning for a city, or lack of planning. Where I work, in Richmond Hill, it may be pedestrian friendly compared to Vaughan, with parking lots small enough that lunch crowds complain about finding parking, and roads that max out at a measly 8 lanes. Still, try to walk from a parking lot to a sidewalk (you're not meant to do that, by the way) and you can find yourself fearfully peaking around bushes hoping not to get hit by cars decelerating as they sweep into the lots.

Kuitenbrouwer's story sums up what is wrong in York Region now. Politicians are talking about trying to fix what was originally built wrong. Bike lanes are going to be added (some day) to roads that are 3 lanes in each direction with supposed 60 km/h speed limits. A subway is being built to a place where you'll have to get a taxi cab from the subway station just to cross a parking lot.

None of this will get fixed over night. The biggest shame is the fact that we continue to make the same mistakes.