GuelphToday received the following letter from Mike Darmon of the Guelph Coalition for Active Transportation regarding Adam A Donaldson’s recent column.
Dear Editor
“Guelph is a car city, and I dare city council to admit it” is written to provoke a response from city councillors. Since he also mentions us at Guelph Coalition for Active Transportation (GCAT) we are happy to provide our opinion.
“Guelph is a car town” – we fully agree!
We are not anti car, but do advocate for a much more equitable, sustainable and safer alternative active transportation infrastructure means of mobility, by walking, rolling and biking. Our advocacy includes using transit. For example, using local or regional transit could be a combination of a bicycle trip and the bus bike racks for a part of a longer destination trip.
Fortunately, or unfortunately, we have designed our city’s transportation system with the car at the highest priority so that it is now easy to get anywhere quickly –and many times too quickly for the safety and choice for the most vulnerable street users.
Sadly we have not kept pace with our neighbours in KW region on building better transit and active transportation and they appear to be reaping the benefits of implementing their vision and goals by building transit and creating a minimum grid of protected bike infrastructure into their downtown.
We need to follow suit, invest in and accelerate our plans for similar improvements to our AT and transit systems if we are to achieve our climate action goals.
Growth pressures and our climate crisis have and should continue to pressure our City to provide more choices and move much more quickly on how to live more sustainably with less car use.
We delegated and supported the motion for no parking minimums as a means to create more demand for transit and Active Transportation because of the slow pace of active transportation infrastructure implementation .We do not have even a minimum grid of protected and separated biking infrastructure into and out of our downtown which is required if we are ever to entice the majority of those riders who feel unsafe biking on our current infrastructure.
We do not have a parking crisis. We do have a housing affordability and availability crisis. And we do have a climate crisis.
Do we really want the city we all say we want and urban planning experts we have hired say we can have, with more density and a car free lifestyle living downtown?
Adams' comment “But it’s not easy being green ...” is partially true, but the trade off will be a far more livable downtown. It could be a real destination and not just a way to get somewhere else quickly.
I am hopeful that if we give staff the resources they need to build the active transportation projects and transit they and we are advocating for, that there is hope.
Our current main focus project is advocating for a protected minimum grid connecting our downtown to existing and future developments. An extension of our existing north of the downtown section of the Trans Canada Rail Trail would ideally continue to Victoria Road near York Road.
Along with other protected network connections we could connect it to the future Fusion Homes GID development opposite the University of Guelph Arboretum.
This will be the home of up to 6,000 people living in “a walkable” “city within a city." Just imagine living this close to nature and our vibrant downtown -all within an easy bike ride away.
This development could be a shining, inspiring example for the rest of Canada on how we can grow sustainably.
The real test for this current council on our commitment to our climate goals will be at budget deliberation time in November. However, we citizens of Guelph have our part to play by voicing our support to meeting our goals.
To quote city planner Brent Toderian: “Remember, the truth about a city’s aspirations isn’t found in its vision. It's found in its budget.”
Mike Darmon, a director of GCAT advocacy committee
