Showing posts with label Sprawl Repair. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sprawl Repair. Show all posts

Tuesday, August 30, 2016

From Congress for the New Urbanism —
The morbid and mortal toll of sprawl

A federal report revealed that US traffic deaths have risen 9 percent over the last year and have totaled 19,100 in the first six months of 2016. More than 2.2 million people have been seriously injured in that time. The economic cost is estimated annually at $410 billion, or 2.3 percent of gross domestic product. The human cost is harder to calculate. They are the most frequent reason for fatality of children 5 and up and young adults. Much of the blame has been placed, predictably, on distracted and drunk driving and rising vehicle miles traveled. The “elephant in the living room,” the factor that nobody wants to talk about, is sprawl and the infrastructure of sprawl. The roads built to support sprawl, designed to modern safety standards, are contributors to the majority of US traffic deaths and injuries.
Read more: The morbid and mortal toll of sprawl | CNU
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Wednesday, July 27, 2016

From CTV News Vancouver Island —
Victoria area Mayors say now's the
time for South Island commuter rail

With construction on the McKenzie Interchange scheduled to begin in a few months, four south island mayors have come up with a new solution to ease congestion that is expected to follow suit.   Mayors of View Royal, Esquimalt, Victoria and Langford have penned a letter to the Island Corridor Foundation asking about the feasibility of a rail line. “I think definitely we need to start using that corridor, it’s there, it’s bought and paid for by the public and it’s a great opportunity for the region,” said David Screech, View Royal mayor. Read more: Could a restored rail line solve the ‘Colwood crawl’? | CTV Vancouver Island News
The McKenzie Interchange is part of a $107m investment in induced demand creating future congestion, environmental social and economic damage on Vancouver Island. Meanwhile a publicly owned rail line thru these Victoria suburban communities sits idle. Background — Victoria Times Colonist, July 2015: $85-million McKenzie interchange project expected to start late 2016
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Sunday, December 6, 2015

From Business in Vancouver —
Traditional infrastructure funding
throws money down the sewer

PETER LADNER Amid all the excitement about the Christmas bounty of infrastructure spending coming at us from our deficit-happy new federal government, it’s a good time to ask how we got ourselves into this infrastructure hole. 
Charles Marohn, the Republican civil engineer behind the U.S. Strong Towns movement, has an answer. He likens traditional suburban development to a Ponzi scheme. Tax revenues from low-density development don’t come near paying for maintenance and depreciation on costly infrastructure. He estimates suburban property taxes bring in only $0.04 to $0.65 for every dollar of liability. So cities embrace new developments to keep their cash flowing, or they go into debt, or both. At every stage, they pile on future liabilities.
“When people say we’re living beyond our means, they’re usually talking about a 40-inch TV instead of a 20-inch TV,” Marohn told Time magazine. “This is like pennies compared to the dollars we’ve spent on the way we’ve arranged ourselves across the landscape.” Municipal servicing costs in low-density sprawl can be 2.5 times those in compact, high-density neighbourhoods. Read more: Traditional infrastructure funding throws money down the sewer | Economy | Business in Vancouver

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Friday, April 3, 2015

From The Star — Toronto transit expansion spawns community-cultural hub

Toronto council endorses artistic community-cultural hub for Weston @TorontoStar http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2015/03/31/toronto-considers-artistic-community-cultural-hub-for-weston.html

Posted by Nanaimo Commons on Tuesday, March 31, 2015
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