AFTER ALL THE RHETORIC - A LITTLE LIGHT

Slowly the worm may be turning. Incrementally there may still be change. Historically, even the winners in a populist-based election come face to face with reality. Cynically I suggest that even Rob Ford, the colourful new mayor of Toronto, maybe has more smarts and a better sense of realism that I gave him credit for. True, he did ice the winning night cake with Don Cherry, who has about as much political savvy as a turnip, laying it on thickly to the “bike riding left wing kooks.”

Politics is for show. Reality demands action. We’ve had the show. Is it now too much to believe that this man will accept new realities? Case in point: one city councillor, a right-wing Ford supporter is suggesting a new network of east-west and north south bike lanes with a curb separating them from the road.What happened to “the war on the car is over!?” Perhaps my optimism is premature. But I am convinced that Rob Ford uses other people to float his ideas. I said it before when I called Don Cherry a"stalking horse" for Ford's ideas.

Current local papers are full of stories about the success of the dedicated streetcar lines. The Globe and Mail says Rob Ford is wrong about dedicated light-rail transit. Remember the hullabaloo from the merchants along St. Clair west while the city (and it did take far too long) disrupted traffic to put in the dedicated line. The dust has settled. Surprise! It works. Everyone is happy! This from the Globe: “TTC reports that a streetcar comes every three minutes in rush hour on average. Now that the streetcars don’t have to compete with motorists for road space, the average trip takes eight minutes less than before. Streetcars arrive more regularly, so riders face fewer of those annoying long waits. The number of riders is up 15 per cent since before the project began. Far from showing how crazy it is to put rail transit above ground, St. Clair shows how effective it can be.”

Of course, I don’t live in that part of Toronto West, but the weeping, wailing and gnashing of teeth sounded like the same uproar when Chinatown was going to be “destroyed” by the dedicated link from Union station, up Spadina and all the way to Bloor. See for yourself. Business is booming. Cars and trolleys are no longer in conflict.

On the bandwagon too is the Toronto Star. “Transit City light-rail lines would deliver more than twice as much service for every dollar invested than would the subway expansions proposed by Mayor Rob Ford. That’s according to a study by the Pembina Institute, a green energy think-tank. Light-rail lines would put rapid transit within a six-minute walk for about 290,000 residents; new subways would similarly serve just 60,000. Low-income people, in particular, would benefit from the proposed light-rail routes.

Opposition to these changes helped get Ford elected. Now that part is over.I believe that Rob Ford will be listening. He can get what he wants without putting the city back 50 years into the heyday of the car and the ensuing gridlock. I think there will be a compromise. I believe that Ford really, underneath all the populist bombast, wants everyone to have a better city, and above all, doesn’t want to spend money on high ticket extravagances.

I go back to the other reality: what is happening in other parts of the world. Perhaps the most savvy country when it comes to transit – is France. Witness the world’s best subway system. But now, Paris and many major French cities, are in the process of building dedicated surface light rail urban transit. Do they know something we don’t? I think we may be on a different learning curve, but I think the good sense will prevail.