TTC and congestion

rest those weary westbound wings
Originally uploaded by ronestar.

You know, I've been reading a lot about the proposed congestion charge for Toronto and its tie into the public transportation efficiency debate. If you've heard but not read the pros and cons, here's some suggested reading:

• Transit in Toronto: Social Media and the Politics of Transit Funding (remarkk!)
  
• Torontoist vs. Torontoist in: Congestion Charges!
  
• Subway into York Region a (Pretty Much) Done Deal
  
• Who Will Ride the York University Subway? (actually, all of Steve Munro's web site is very indepth on the TTC issues)
  

I thought that I had an opinion about all of this. Reading some of these guys, I'm starting to change my mind.

I thought for sure that congestion charging was the way to go. But the Torontoist article made me think about it differently. Maybe we're not ready for charging like that. I think he's right -- there are a lot of other things that we may have to fix before we go down that road.

We should be focusing on the LRT system plan that just came out instead of focussing on charging for downtown congestion? I absolutely agree that we need to get cars out of downtown. But I didn't think about all of the factors that go into actually making that happen.

Yes, we have the technology and, OK, it will take some bureaucracy money to make it happen. And that's fine. But I never thought about how the suburbs' policies affect us in the downtown.

It's a complicated situation. And I really want to know more about it - I think we should ALL become more educated about it.

I'm more glad than ever that I live pretty close to where I work. I really believe that this is the way to go, and I'm sorry if this isn't the case for you, it's just what I believe in right now.

But maybe there will come a time when this isn't possible. I wonder how I will feel then.

Side Note:
I'm thinking that Contested Streets might be another of those documentaries about environmental/social issues that I love so much. (Like "Who Killed the Electric Car?" and "An Inconvenient Truth").