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:
“What if we fail to stop the erosion of cities by automobiles?... In that case America will hardly need to ponder a mystery that has troubled men for millennia: What is the purpose of life? For us, the answer will be clear, established and for all practical purposes indisputable: The purpose of life is to produce and consume automobiles.”
—Jane Jacobs (b. 1916)
“With the breakdown of the traditional institutions which convey values, more of the burdens and responsibility for transmitting values fall upon parental shoulders, and it is getting harder all the time both to embody the virtues we hope to teach our children and to find for ourselves the ideals and values that will give our own lives purpose and direction.”
—Neil Kurshan (20th century)
“A major misunderstanding of child rearing has been the idea that meeting a child’s needs is an end in itself, for the purpose of the child’s mental health. Mothers have not understood that this is but one step in social development, the goal of which is to help a child begin to consider others. As a result, they often have not considered their children but have instead allowed their children’s reality to take precedence, out of a fear of damaging them emotionally.”
—Elaine Heffner (20th century)