No new roads in Canada, says Guilbeault

Justin Trudeau's climate change minister, Steven Guilbeault, told a transit conference in Montreal on Tuesday that the Trudeau government "has made the decision to stop investing in new road infrastructure."

Guilbeault wants municipalities to stop building roads; urges people to walk | Western Standard | Shaun Polczer:

13 February 13, 2024 - "It’s not enough to ban internal combustion engines, keep oil and gas in the ground and force all Canadians to drive electric vehicles. Now federal [Environment and Climate Change] Minister Steven Guilbeault wants governments at all levels to stop building the roads to drive them on.

"Speaking at a transit conference in Montreal on Tuesday, Guilbeault said money that in the past would be spent on asphalt and concrete should be spent on projects to fight climate change instead. More roads and interchanges inevitably lead to more automobiles which inevitably leads to a self-fulfilling cycle of more road building and more cars — electric or otherwise, he said.

“'Our government has made the decision to stop investing in new road infrastructure. Of course we will continue to be there for cities, provinces and territories to maintain the existing network, but there will be no more envelopes from the federal government to enlarge the road network,' he said.... 'And thanks to a mix of investment in active and public transit and in territorial planning and densification, we can very well achieve our goals of economic, social and human development without more enlargement of the road network.'

"Guilbeault said overestimating the potential for electricity-powered transportation to solve climate change and other environmental issues would be 'an error, a false utopia that will let us down over the long term.' 'We must stop thinking that electric cars will solve all our problems,' he said via live video feed from Ottawa, to public transit advocacy group Trajectoire Québec.

"He said the Trudeau government has put up $30 billion to develop public transit since 2016, and has announced the country’s first annual financing program for public transit projects to allocate $3 billion per year for projects starting in 2026.

"The Liberal government also spent $400 million to encourage walking, cycling and the use of wheelchairs, scooters, e-bikes, roller blades, snowshoes and cross-country skis. Other projects include multi-use pathways, bike lanes, footbridges across roadways, new lighting, signage to encourage so-called ‘active transportation’."

"Guilbeault said municipal governments have to brace for EVs by doing more than simply installing charging stations. 'The solution to mobility will not consist only of electrification. Electrification is a component, but it’s not the only thing. There is the question of urban planning that is hyper important,' he said.... 'All of our planning practices have to be coherent with these mobility objectives, for the reduction of the ecological footprint of transportation and of greenhouse emissions.'”

Read more: https://www.westernstandard.news/alberta/guilbeault-wants-municipalities-to-stop-building-roads-urges-people-to-walk/52366

Environment minister faces backlash over road funding comments | CBC News, The National | February 14, 2023:

Privatized toll highway 407 benefits all Toronto

Why Toronto needs more toll highways like the 407 | The Toronto Star - Peter Shawn Taylor:

November 18, 2019 - "Highway 407 ETR ... Toronto’s east-west toll highway is the road everyone loves to hate. Some critics say it’s robbing taxpayers blind, others accuse it of causing congestion across the GTA. Both views are nonsense. Rather all Torontonians should celebrate its mere existence. Whether you pay the tolls or not – and even if you don’t drive at all − everyone benefits from this freeway that isn’t free.

"A few months ago the road’s owners, which include majority stakeholder Canada Pension Plan, released a report from the Canadian Centre for Economic Analysis (CCEA) totalling up its wide-ranging impact. The highway boasts an average 413,000 trips every weekday, a substantial chunk of daily commuter traffic. (More trips than GO Transit.) And these trips are smooth and fast. During peak hours, 85 per cent of vehicles on the 407 ETR are travelling at or above 100 km/h. By comparison, 85 per cent of drivers on the equivalent portions of the 401, are going below 50 km/h at the same time.

"The toll road is also substantially safer than the alternatives. The 407 ETR’s annual collision rate is less than 0.30 accidents per million vehicle kilometres travelled; on other freeways in Ontario the collision rate is nearly double that. The gap for fatal collisions is wider still.

"Because of its striking lack of congestion and accident delays, the CCEA study estimates Highway 407 ETR users save a cumulative 22.7 million hours every year, as compared to driving on roads as congested as an un-tolled GTA freeway ... equivalent to more than 12,000 full-time jobs. If we add in the effect on businesses of employees travelling during the workday, the time savings grow by another 7.7 million hours per year, or a further 3,700 full-time jobs.

"These effects are real and tangible, and have an immediate impact on families and employers. They cannot be ignored or waved away as part of any ideological crusade. While many transit or cycling advocates either tacitly or explicitly argue in favour of greater road congestion in order to push drivers out of their cars and into more-virtuous modes of transportation, such an argument crumbles on the basis of economic efficiency.

"A Metrolinx estimate once put the cost of congestion in the GTA at $3.3 billion per year in lost time and environmental impacts. The 407 ETR is a practical, on-going response to those costs....

"It is true only drivers willing or able to pay the tolls can reap these direct benefits. But by capturing a significant share of traffic volume, the road has a beneficial spillover impact on all the other public thoroughfares. In the absence of the 407 ETR, congestion everywhere in the GTA would be much worse. Plus, these time savings provide society-wide benefits in terms of lower greenhouse gas emissions and, due to reduced collision rates, lower health care expenses as well. So even folks not using the road should feel thankful.

"And let’s be clear: the benefits arising from this highway are as a direct result of its tolls. Invent a new social obligation for the CPP to provide cheap travel for Torontonians by dramatically reducing fees, as some toll-road detractors do, and these advantages disappear. Plus, this would fatally undermine the pension plan’s higher-level duty to professionally manage its contributors’ money."

Read more: https://www.thestar.com/business/opinion/2019/11/18/why-toronto-needs-more-toll-highways-like-the-407.html
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Medical cannabis may cut traffic deaths: study

States With Medical Marijuana Laws Have Fewer Traffic Fatalities, But Why Isn't Clear - David DiSalvo, Forbes:

December 31, 2016 - "States that passed medical marijuana laws have seen an 11% reduction in traffic fatalities on average, according to a new study published in the American Journal of Public Health. Compared to states without medical marijuana laws, those with them had 26% fewer traffic fatalities overall. Study data was collected between 1985 and 2014.

"The impact was greatest for the 25 to 44 age group, which is also the group with the highest percentage of alcohol-related traffic fatalities. In 2013, about 47% of fatally injured drivers with blood alcohol levels over the legal limit were between 24 and 44, according the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). The impact was also significant for the 15 to 24 age group....

"'This finding suggests that the mechanisms by which medical marijuana laws reduce traffic fatalities mostly operate in those younger adults, a group also frequently involved in alcohol-related traffic fatalities,' said Julian Santaella-Tenorio, a doctoral student in Epidemiology at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, in a press statement.

"But other parts of this study don’t neatly line up behind any single conclusion. For instance, the age group 45 and older didn’t see a decrease in fatalities.... In addition, some states with medical marijuana laws actually saw upticks in traffic fatalities. Both California and New Mexico initially saw traffic fatality reductions (16% and 17.5%, respectively) that gradually became increases.

"So what this study appears to show is at least a plausible correlation between medical marijuana laws and lower traffic fatalities, but it’s not clear why this is true in some states and not others. It’s possible that other factors, like stronger police enforcement and more effective public health programs targeting drunk driving, work in tandem with medical marijuana laws in some states."

Read more: http://www.forbes.com/sites/daviddisalvo/2016/12/31/states-with-medical-marijuana-laws-have-fewer-traffic-fatalities-but-why-isnt-clear/2/#45886caf3644
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Anti-libertarian nonsense: Government roads

Anti-libertarian nonsense: Those government roads | Washington Times Communities - Thomas Mullen:

March 22, 2013 - "Invariably, if a libertarian suggests any reduction in the power of the state, he is regaled with this supposedly devastating rejoinder:

"'So, I suppose I won’t see you driving on any of those government roads'....

"After being forced to purchase a road whether he wishes to or not and being virtually prohibited from building his own, exactly why should the libertarian not use the road he has paid for? Where is the contradiction in pointing out that the government road he was forced to buy would have been cheaper and of higher quality if it were produced by the market? Exactly why is he disingenuous or ungrateful by suggesting that the next road be financed the same way as houses and factories?....

"Of course, if the government didn’t build the roads, they wouldn’t exist, right? The proponents of this farcical idea should read some American history. For much our first century, the chief domestic policy debate was over whether the government should be allowed to subsidize roads, and the government side lost. As Tom Dilorenzo writes in How Capitalism Saved America,

"'But the fact is, most roads and canals were privately financed in the nineteenth century. Moreover, in virtually every instance in which state, local or federal government got involved in building roads and canals, the result was a financial debacle in which little or nothing was actually built and huge sums of taxpayer dollars were squandered or simply stolen.'"

Read more: http://communities.washingtontimes.com/neighborhood/reawakening-liberty/2013/mar/22/anti-libertarian-nonsense-those-government-roads/
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