UTTRI associated faculty Professor Shoshanna Saxe talks about quick and inexpensive ways to increase the capacity of our transportation system for our growing population while we wait for large infrastructure projects to be completed.
In “Three ingredients for the future of urban transportation,” Saxe says she is not complaining about how long large projects take:
Infrastructure is slow in Canada because building big, without killing people, without shutting down major roads for years, and while protecting access to local businesses, just takes time.
Rather, she offers three tips that can transform urban transportation this decade:
- Interconnected networks for both dedicated bus lanes and cycling lanes
- More buses, and more public support for bicycle purchase or rental
- Expansion of public transit planning and operational teams
Transport infrastructure defines how we move, where we live, our opportunities and our impact on the planet. We need to make slow, expensive, ambitious investments for the future, and fast, cheap transformative changes right now.