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Overcoming Barriers in a Shift Towards a Sustainable Transportation System

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Date

2018

Authors

Gatien, Alexander

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Abstract

"The three parts of this portfolio provide a critical perspective on public transit infrastructure, primarily in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area (GTHA), but which also strives for wider applicability. The first paper, “The Contradictions of Splintered Network-Building,” proposes that the spate of public transit physical infrastructure projects proposed in The Big Move¸ 2008 regional transportation plan for the GTHA, can be described as a process “splintered network building.” This entails an attempt to build a regional public transit system relying on neoliberal practices that would usually be associated with the fragmentation of networked infrastructures operated by state monopolies. The paper argues that The Big Move represents an infrastructure plan, rather than a comprehensive scheme to improve public transit in the region. The second paper, “Rapid Transit as a Suburban Renewal Project,” uses York Region’s Viva bus rapid transit system as an example of emergent suburban rapid transit. The paper identifies suburban rapid transit as public transit in the form of either light rail or bus rapid transit that connects within suburbs, rather than a more typical form of transit infrastructure that links peripheries to urban centres. The paper demonstrates that while these projects can deliver real improvements in the use value of public transit, they are also entrusted with the task of urbanizing the suburbs by attracting speculative real estate development. The final part of the portfolio is a photo essay documenting the various forms of development that occur next to transit, and which serve to create “places of transit.” It is intended as a visual representation of one of the exchange value orientations of public transit infrastructure."

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Keywords

Planning--Public transit--Ontario

Citation

Major Paper, Master of Environmental Studies, Faculty of Environmental Studies, York University

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