Car Sharing and the compact, intensified Transit City

First came the Sheppard East subway line_from Yonge to Don Mills. The Sheppard East LRT has begun in east Scarborough and will arrive in Ward33 in a couple of years with a walk over connection at the Don Mills underground station.

With the subway line came much development: mostly high rise condos along Sheppard from Bayview to Don Mills and towards Vic Park. Included in this development is increased vehicle traffic and a lot of people coming to live here, mainly south of Sheppard. Canadian Tire has also announced its new Head Office tower building near the Leslie subway station. We expect to see more people walking the street as more commercial storefronts open up from Bayview to Don Mills outside of peak time for work and school activities.

Such is the compact, intensified Transit City_ more people per sq. km., more walking to the office or neighbourhood store or just strolling and better access to transit and transportation.

We also expect the condo towers to provide convenient built-in "green bin" handling in addition to the blue bin recycling and grey bin solid waste for these new ward residents and be greener than the older structures. They must catch up with single family dwellings.

What we aren't sure is whether the new residents will be able to live with fewer cars, have better transportation options and use public transit effectively and affordably.

As part of the Transit City strategy, we should expect our city government to work out how new households in the intensified city do not continue to add to traffic congestion and road busyness.

One way is to ensure that autosharing services (Autoshare, ZipCar) are built in to our malls, subway stations and new condo developments and other access points in our neighbourhoods.

Such a city strategy would also need to consider the imminent arrival of electric cars and the need for electric refill stations on city streets.

City council needs to legislate for these now. They need to be part of the Transit City strategy. If people can learn to live with fewer vehicles per household we will have a greener, cleaner and less congested city.

Today's Star features a column by Trevor Hamilton Sharing the road The number of drivers turning to car sharing is forecast to grow eightfold by 2016 and a report says automakers should be worried.

You should find this interesting reading_ things are changing. You might want to ask our 2010 candidates for office how they plan to get fewer vehicles on our ward roadways.