Purpose
| Forecasted trends in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area* | ||
|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 2031 | |
| Population | 6 million | 8.6 million |
| Automobile trips | 2 million | 3 million |
| Congestion costs to residents | $3.3 billion†| $7.8 billion |
| Congestion costs to economy | $2.7 billion†| $7.2 billion |
The GTHA is Canada's largest and fastest growing urban region, with a population forecast to grow by 2.6 million people by 2031. The region is becoming increasingly dependent and designed for automobiles, and traffic congestion is already costing commuters and the economy billions of dollars every year. Nine individual local transit agencies and one regional transit agency exist, and are poorly integrated when one out of four trips crosses a regional boundary, making transit unattractive. Investment in transit has been relatively stagnant, causing roads, highways and transit vehicles to be crowded and pushed to the limit. In the face of climate change, increasing energy costs, peak oil, increasing urbanization, and an aging population, the RTP exists to alleviate these problems.
Read more about this topic: The Big Move
Famous quotes containing the word purpose:
“Natural selection, the blind, unconscious, automatic process which Darwin discovered, and which we now know is the explanation for the existence and apparently purposeful form of all life, has no purpose in mind. It has no mind and no mind’s eye. It does not plan for the future. It has no vision, no foresight, no sight at all. If it can be said to play the role of the watchmaker in nature, it is the blind watchmaker.”
—Richard Dawkins (b. 1941)
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Do cream and mantle like a standing pond,
And do a willful stillness entertain,
With purpose to be dressed in an opinion
Of wisdom, gravity, profound conceit,
As who should say, “I am Sir Oracle,
And when I ope my lips let no dog bark!””
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“Happiness serves hardly any other purpose than to make unhappiness possible.”
—Marcel Proust (1871–1922)