Raise the Hammer

The question has always been, do they pay enough? The answer, it would appear, is yes, they do--in Hamilton.

No, that is not the answer. First of all, it discusses GHTA - not Hamilton alone which, without lumping with Toronto has nowhere near the density figures. Secondly, all it answers is that in the most densely populated part of the province, the people:infrastructre ratio is much higher and thereforer more efficient - something we already know.

In fact, what this study tells us is that we should be doing everything in our power in Hamilton to max out our population density to get the most bang for our buck in terms of our roads budget - something that I have been harping on for YEARS. Building more lanes for less people is not the answer. Reducing our lanes:drivers ratio is. We can do this in two ways... reducing lanes and keeping the same number of people, or attracting more people. In my opinion we need to do both.

I really don't know why you have a problem with this report, when at the very least, it could lend itself for getting more gas-tax kickback.

Because it draws impossible conclusions from insufficient data. Why do you you think that the kickback is not high enough? Are they just sitting on all that cash because they don't like us? No, they are spending it elsewhere. Where is that money going instead?

Well, part of it is going towards costs that are incurred by our car-centric infrastructure that are not accounted for in the study. Health care, subsidies to industries... things that are almost impossible to account for directly, so this study glosses over them. Of course it also goes to other things such as government inefficiencies, fancy dinners, social programs, etc. But by ignoring all of the externalities, the conclusions of this study become quite useless.

Sure, we can ask for more money but it has to come from somewhere!

Comment edited by seancb on 2013-10-30 13:45:06