Andrew Coyne - Missing the Point Again

Andrew Coyne wants to install chips in your head and track you so the government can tax you for moving.  Well, Almost. What he really wants is to track your cars by GPS and then tax you based on how far you drive.  That's how you reduce congestion when you live in an ivory tower, I guess.

Well, way to miss the point, Andrew!  Ask yourself, why do people drive?  To get where they are going, of course!  People would drive less if they lived closer to where they were going.  The answer isn't new roads or more obstructionist "traffic calming", nor more transit.  The answer is density.  The problem is the cities where people need to get to in order to work don't want the kind of density necessary to house all the people who want to live there.

Vancouver has very little density and an urban plan that basically bans it.  They talk about laneway housing, secondary suites, and basement suites. Where are the plans for 40 story apartment buildings?  Instead of building real density Vancouver calls for "Eco-density" which basically means a non-plan status quo in a city where a 3 bedroom condo can't be had for less than $350,000.  There is just no room for families.

The fact is people drive because they cannot afford a 3 or 4 bedroom house or apartment close to where they work.  Families are forced to move to the suburbs and endure longer and longer commutes because big cities, mostly run by left-leaning councils, will not let land owners profit from development inside "the ring".   The city of Vancouver is stalling an Aquilini development proposal because it does nothing for drug addicts, errr, I mean "poor people".  The city wants the developer to subsidize low cost rentals for unemployed addicts but will not allow high densities which would bring down prices enough for middle class families.  It's all about priorities and the current Vision/COPE council's priorities are social housing, not the breeders in the 'burbs.

When it comes to traffic it's simply NIMBYism.  All the city core dwellers want is for the poor schmucks to stop driving, they don't care how that is done, just so long as the breeders stay out of their hip, trendy neighbourhoods.