Raise the Hammer

Sorry I haven’t been able to write for a while. I’m sure you missed your dose of realism.
You wrote ” It's not anti-car to believe that cars should not travel fast enough to kill pedestrians when they're driving through downtown urban neighbourhoods or that our roads should be dedicated first to serving the people who live and work on them.” The cold hard reality is that a vehicle at any speed can kill a pedestrian. Look at the recent fatality downtown, how fast was that truck going around the corner? Not very, and yet, we had the most tragic of outcomes. We have everything in place for cars and pedestrians to co-exist, the laws, the roads, the sidewalks, the crossings, the lights, all people have to do is use them. I do and I taught my kids to by age 8 or 10, so it’s not that difficult. Nobody lives on the road we live beside the road, the roads are for cars the sidewalks are for people. The whole purpose of roads is to move traffic that’s why we have them. Why do you find it so difficult to accept this? Because it’s reality and not, pie in the sky wishful thinking, that’s the way it should be nonsense. If people don’t want live on Main Street then they are welcome to live elsewhere. When we moved we took into account the traffic on our street most reasonable people do. There is much more to downtown then Main Street and King Street. Crossing these thoroughfares is very safe and very easy, walk to the nearest traffic light wait for the light to illuminate the little walking figure and away you go. Thousands of people do it every day, just go downtown and look. Why do you find this to be such an onerous task? Is it foolproof? No, of course not, accidents can and do happen, but they happen very seldom.

You wrote “Making transit free would starve the transit budget and lead directly to reduced service. There's also evidence from cities that have tried it that people don't have as much respect for free transit - there's more violence, more vandalism, etc.” and then you continued “I do support reducing transit fares in general, but that requires the political will to increase the transit tax levy.” So you wish to increase taxes and reduce transit fares, which will increase violence and vandalism? Wow! you are complicated. Most of us are happy reducing vandalism and violence. But then you want to spend over a $billion to build something that loses money every day of the year.

You wrote “However, since the per-passenger operating costs for LRT are so much lower than for buses, it's possible to reduce individual fares without starving the operating budget.” At a cost of (using my more realistic figures) $1.6 Billion for the Eastgate – University Plaza east –west line, that would pay Hamilton’s entire existing transit budget for over 20 years. People won’t use free transit, they won’t use transit when the fare is raised, maybe the truth is that most people don’t want to use transit! (look at the congested hiways competing with transit every day.)
The next transit system in Canada that pays for itself will be the First transit system that pays for itself. They are all subsidized. It’s that old population to area ratio you keep ignoring because it is the big problem you and everybody else have no answer for.
Highways and roads are paid for by general tax revenues and where do these revenues come from? How much of these revenues come from the automotive area. The income tax from miners bringing up the ore, the steel company to make the steel, workers making parts, the workers building cars, the sales tax on buying and re-buying the same car? How about all the revenues the governments get from the production, distribution and sale of gas? How about just the taxes on the insurance drivers have to have? Then there are the obvious fees for plates and licenses. After all these you have the audacity to say ” Highways and roads are paid out of general tax revenues. If motorists had to pay the full cost of building and operating roads, the taxes on car ownership and operation would be far higher than they are.” Where do you think these general tax revenues come from? Bill Gates?
If all the taxes and fees on cars and associated items were somehow eliminated along with all the costs of road construction and maintenance all our governments would be broke in a heartbeat.
We do not need, nor can we afford to dump millions and millions into an ill advised money losing rail system in our city.