The study, written by professors Andre Sorensen and Paul Hess, assesses the subway extension, as well as the other transit options of the Sheppard LRT, the Eglinton-Morningside LRT, the Malvern LRT and SmartTrack, in terms of how each of them stack up on factors such as where people live, where jobs are, pedestrian access to transit stops and what the opportunities are for redevelopment. Their careful analysis shows that a combination of three LRT lines along Scarborough’s east-west arterials would not only be less expensive to build than a subway, but offers the best potential for attracting ridership and triggering much-needed investment in the area.
The study begins with a vision of Scarborough as a vibrant community where people can live, work, visit and move around easily. It notes that ”(T)ransit investment serves a dual purpose: that of providing better mobility options for existing residents and employers, and of encouraging new local investment and intensification that will lead to improved services, walkability, and livability in urban areas”.
The study assesses each of the transit options in combination and finds that the combination of the three proposed LRTs and SmartTrack perform the best. But the authors conclude that because options such as the subway and SmartTrack "face years of planning, engineering study, and approvals before they can break ground, construction on the fully funded Sheppard LRT should start immediately. Sheppard LRT performs best of all the potential lines in terms of the number of residents and jobs and pedestrian network per kilometer of line, and is already approved, with completed environmental assessments. It could be carrying passengers before construction starts on either of the other two proposals".
In Part 2, we'll discuss more details about why the Sheppard LRT works best for transit riders and what we intend to do in support of this project.