[All] Prosperity, Trails and LRT

Mon May 14 15:30:05 EDT 2012

Good day!

Over the past few weeks I have been lucky to be able to travel to a number of great cities across Asia and Europe with my girlfriend.  In several places we were able take the time to study how these rapidly growing cities are innovatively working to address urban sprawl, environmental issues, global warming, energy challenges and provide the highest quality of life to their citizens.  

One city in particular - Strasbourg, France we travelled to specifically to see how a city in steep decline in the 1970's has been transformed into one of the most progressive and desirable cities in the world.  Their transformation has taken place by converting more than two dozen streets to pedestrian priority zones - limiting vehicular traffic and prioritizing for pedestrians, bicycles and LRT's - thus ensuring their city is dominated by people, not cars.  They have built five LRT lines over the past 17 years that cover their core and branch out far into the suburbs (and even countryside in some places), they have built an amazing 500 kilometres of bicycle trails with dedicated lanes and encouraged people to bring their bikes and strollers on the LRT.  

Strasbourg is also working to ensure desirable destinations converting former roadways and parking lots into town squares, wider sidewalks for cafes, encouraging shoppes and tourism.  Even little details such as ensuring citizens could buy high quality little wheeled carts to wheel home groceries easily on low floor transit (also highly handicapped accessible) and ensuring lots of easy to find public washrooms has been integral to their success.

The result has been an incredible transformation from a city in decline, challenged by dramatically increasing crime rates and an exodus of citizens, to a thriving community of 650,000 people (just a bit bigger than Waterloo Region) that is now the location of the EU Parliament, a booming economy, one of the highest qualities of life in the world, and a city that has one of the lowest carbon footprints and rates of energy use despite a winter climate equivalent to that here in Waterloo Region.  

You can see from the photos below the resulting city is fantastic, every LRT is full of riders, their suburbs and most places in the city (even neighbouring Germany) is easily reached in just a few minutes on any LRT and transit route.  

Strasbourg also focused on creating strong railway connections to neighbouring cities and despite being more than 500km and almost the full width of France distant, Paris is only two hours away on their high speed rail line with more than 10 trains each direction daily.  Few people feel the need for an automobile and bike-sharing and car sharing programs are widely available throughout the city.

More than 60% of their LRT lines run on grass and most are lined with trees - creating wide strips of green through the city - replacing vast stretches of concrete and even further reducing the quiet noise and vibrations of the passing LRTs.

It is so important to the future of our community here in Waterloo that Kitchener Council vote tonight in favour of the investment to improve our local trail networks.  It was wonderful to see the recent City of Waterloo trails endorsement and the ongoing progress of our own LRT system.  One can hope that in the coming years we can be as successful and create as great of a quality of life in our community as Strasbourg.

Please let me know any questions and lets see how we can make our community one of the leading communities with the highest quality of life in North America in the coming years.

Kevin Thomason.

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A sleek, modern ground level LRT in the central station in Strasbourg, France

One of the dozens of streets closed to cars and instead enjoyed by pedestrians, bicycles and cafes.  In the foreground this gate/post system still allows delivery and other vehicles in as needed.

Bicycles are encouraged on the LRT and plentiful bike racks throughout the city make it extremely easy to get around.

This parking lot has been moved underground and the area turned into a thriving square, plaza and fountain area in the core of the city.

An LRT coming into a station in the Eastern city suburbs.  Note the grass and trees - just budding into leaves the same as Canada at this time of year - used wherever possible.

Clear signage makes the system easy for everyone to use.

And an electronic payment system makes it convenient and affordable.  A ride anywhere in the city costs about $1.80 Cdn, an all day unlimited pass costs about $5.00 Canadian.

An LRT coming into a suburban station.  Note the use of grass right up to the station and the people waiting for the train with bicycles, buggies, etc.

The view from the cockpit of the LRT as the train goes through an intersection onto the grassy and tree-lined median in a northern suburb of Strasbourg.

The broad mix of transportation choices that have been so integral to Strasbourg's success are shown here - the two lane paved bike road on the left, the LRTs in the centre, the road on the right and the sidewalk for pedestrians on the far right with lots of greenery between them all.

Some LRT medians are so green and tree-lined it is like creating a park the length of the city!  If they can do this in compact, space-challenged Europe amongst 600 year old buildings surely we can do this in vast, spacious Canada.

LRT's, pedestrians, bicycles and cars mingle together in the core quite successfully.  Notice the clearly labelled public washrooms on the left.

The dedicated bike lanes and trails are well marked, segregated and signed too - lit here even at night.

The LRT's are still busy at night too.  The huge windows and flat floor on these models of LRT trains are wonderful.  Each train can hold up to 300 riders and is far more efficient than buses.

Another example in a Western suburb of a road on the left, a paved two lane cycling path, and then the LRT lines running on a natural grass surface.

A final photo of central Strasbourg showing the road on the left (and some of their buses including one at the LRT station), an LRT train, a well marked dedicated cycling lane on the right, bike racks, trees, and the pedestrian sidewalks on the farthest sides of everything.

Please be bold, innovative, and help ensure that Waterloo Region will be as globally successful as this thriving city in the future!

-------------------------------------

Kevin Thomason

1115 Cedar Grove Road
Waterloo, Ontario Canada  N2J 3Z4

Phone: (519) 888-0519
Mobile Phone: (519) 240-1648
Twitter: @kthomason
E-mail: kevinthomason at mac.com

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