Categories
Brampton Transit Urban Planning

What’s going on in Downtown Brampton?

Two years ago, Metrolinx started buying up properties in Downtown Brampton in order to build a new surface parking lot for GO Transit commuters. Now more houses are boarded up, and there are plans for a new university campus.

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Brampton History Maps Transit

Brampton Transit’s evolution from a laggard to a leader

For TVO this week, I discuss Brampton Transit’s impressive ridership growth. In the last five years, Brampton Transit has bucked the trend of stagnant ridership numbers encountered elsewhere in the Greater Toronto Area and North America in general. I argue that Brampton’s success in improving transit ridership comes from sustained investment over many years, the […]

Categories
Infrastructure Transit

Some answered questions about Toronto’s next subway extension (updated)

York University Station, August 2017 Updated October 10, 2017 Ten months ago, I wrote about some of the unanswered questions about the Toronto Transit Commission’s Line 1 subway extension to York University and Vaughan. At the time, I was concerned about fare integration once the subway opened, especially if suburban GO, YRT, or Brampton Transit […]

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Brampton Transit Urban Planning

Mount Pleasant: New Urbanism that almost works

Mount Pleasant Square, Brampton A few weeks ago, I visited Cathedraltown, a subdivision in north Markham built in the new urbanist style. Cathedraltown made the news thanks to a controversial metallic sculpture of a cow installed in a parkette. (Last week, Markham City Council voted to move the sculpture.) I came away disappointed by Cathedraltown. […]

Categories
Infrastructure Urban Planning

Greenfield infrastructure: not so green

I recently visited two Ontario cities, St. Catharines and Orillia, to illustrate the problems of building new medical and educational institutions on isolated greenfield sites. Large greenfield lands have several advantages: they’re easy and inexpensive to build on, they can accommodate large parking lots, and offer room for future expansion. But by the nature of […]

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Brampton Cycling Infrastructure Roads Transit

A better Hurontario Street – an LRT update

When the LRT is opened on Hurontario Street, it will be safer and more pleasant for pedestrians and cyclists.

Categories
Infrastructure Roads Urban Planning Walking

Rethinking Downtown Brampton’s streetscape

The City of Brampton is looking to improve Main and Queen Streets downtown.

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Brampton Cycling Toronto

Suburban cycling infrastructure: the 416 versus the 905

Riding along the McNicoll hydro corridor in northern Scarborough Earlier this summer, I took two rides from my downtown apartment to suburban locations. On one ride, I biked northeast to Agincourt, on another trip, I biked to Downtown Brampton on a route that took me past the Humber River and Etobicoke Creek. I experienced different standards […]

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Brampton Transit Urban Planning

Shortsighted short-turns at Bramalea GO

Bramalea GO Station Earlier this week, I took a train from Union Station to Bramalea, as I was preparing for a walk that I will hosting on Sunday exploring Canada’s first satellite city. Bramalea Station opened in 1973 when the Georgetown GO train service — GO Transit’s second commuter rail line — was inaugurated. The station is located at the […]

Categories
Brampton Walking

Brampton’s Etobicoke Creek: floods, concrete, and new public spaces

Over at Spacing, I wrote about a recent Jane’s Walk that I led on Downtown Brampton and Etobicoke Creek. Until a concrete diversion channel was built in the 1950s, Downtown Brampton would regularly flood as it was built right on top of the creek. The concrete diversion, fenced off and cut off from both the downtown core […]