Why Only Public Transit Issues in Toronto's Transit City Plan, Peter CLARKE

Online, October 16, 2010 (Newswire.com) - Any comprehensive transit plan for the city and the GTA requires that all modes of commuting are taken into consideration.

It is Not just the public transit issue our city should be considering when dealing with the movement of people within and around our city.

Yet, unfortunately in Toronto for the past 2 decades the left leaning ideologies of a majority of councillors have ensured that our city's transit plans have continued to ignore and have excluded the reality of the commuting motoring public.

Council has done every thing in its power to ensure that private vehicle commuting traffic for business, employment or pleasure be discouraged.

The public has seen and daily experiences the ongoing draconian measures to force the motoring public including commercial vehicles from entering and then getting around within our city for the past 3 decades.

Because of this Toronto has a very serious and costly traffic gridlock problem within, around and getting to and from the city core by private vehicles. Costs from an economic and environmental point of view are in the hundreds of millions of dollars in lost productivity and time.

Toronto in my humble opinion requires at least three mega projects in the near future. These projects would have to be funded by the province, federal and municipal GTA governments. However at the moment the city is in a financial crisis that must and has to be dealt with first.

Any transit city policy must realistically include all existing forms of existing commuting and movement of people and the motoring public, which the current plan does not address.

Such a plan would include the widening of the Don Valley from the 401 to Eglinton in phase one and a phase two from Eglinton to Richmond street

Also council together with the province and federal governments must realistically consider funding a big dig for the Gardner that would include a tunnel toll and the leasing of air rights and space over the entire tunneled area.

Finally 29 years ago the Toronto's public transit system recognized that the future major transportation needs for the city would be in the downtown core area.

This plan back then was referred to as the downtown relief line or DRL which correctly foresaw the congestion problem that now exists within the down town core area of the city.

This DRL plan must be revised, implemented and included in any transit city plan to relieve the existing underground transit commute and movement of people within the city core itself and completed prior to any northern extension of the young subway line.

Peter CLARKE is one of 4 candidates seeking to unseat the 20 year political career of the incumbent councillor in Ward 23 Willowdale, North York within the city of Toronto. He asks all voters to visit and review his campaign mission platform @ http://peterclarketoronto.com which includes proposals for Transit, Controlled Spending and Cuts with Openness and Transparency.

Peter CLARKE also urges the voters to check out just how incumbent councillors have voted to spend your tax dollars @ http://robford.ca/councilvotes.asp