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Help the Coalition Stop the Senseless Widening of the
Queensway
Here's what you can do. The
first item below is the most important. The others would be nice but are
not essential:
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Support
the bump-up request that has already
been submitted by writing the provincial Minister of the Environment:
The Honourable John
Gerretsen
135 St. Clair Ave W, 15th Flr
Toronto ON M4V 1P5
E-mail: jgerretsen.mpp@liberal.ola.org
Tel: 416-314-6790
Let the minister know you
agree the bump-up submitted by the City Centre Coalition, Transport
2000 and Ottawa Group of the Sierra Club of Canada.
- Talk to people
The purpose is to make
them aware of the consequences of Queensway expansion. Some people
in outlying areas may be in favour of expanding the Queensway in
the core because they hope it will reduce congestion. Here are some
points worth raising:
- Congestion will not
be reduced in lasting manner.
- Widening the Queensway
will not increase capacity on downtown streets.
- The traffic forecasting
done to look at road options underestimates induced
traffic which results from road expansion projects. Ignoring
induced traffic leads to over estimating road benefits (congestion
reduction) and underestimating road consequences (pollution).
- Widening the Queensway
will be very expensive (well over $ 100 million). The same tax dollars
could move more people and reduce air pollution by being spent on
an east-west light rail. A single track of light rail can carry
the equivalent of 7 lanes of highway. By comparison this Queensway
widening will only add 1 lane in each direction from Island Park
west and 1 lane in each direction from Metcalfe east, which isn't
very much for the expense.
- On the question of safety,
accidents on the Queensway are most severe (i.e. personal injury
or death) outside the core where it is wider and faster.
- Transit, walking and
cycling are complementary to each other. The Queensway expansion
proposals do not contribute to any of these alternative modes of
travel.
- The concept that air
quality will somehow better with a widened Queensway is pure science
fiction. If this were possible the cities with the most roads would
have the better air but they don't.
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E-mail
your support
Click
here to e-mail your support for Smart Growth alternatives and your opposition
to Queensway Widening and Smog Growth.
Your name and e-mail address
will be kept private and will only be used by the coalition to notify
you of any upcoming events relating to the Queensway study. If you wish
to only give your support but do not want to receive e-mail notification
just let us know in your e-mail. If you'd like to volunteer with other
types of help, just let us know in your e-mail.
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About
the Coalition
The Coalition Against Queensway
Widening is a group of community associations and individuals who joined
together to fight for Smart Growth alternatives, such as rapid transit,
cycling and walking, instead of highway expansion through the heart of
Ottawa.
The following community groups
are part of the coalition:
In addition, over 200 individuals
have signed on or e-mailed their support and we are still growing.
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Along
with the Sierra Club we were also part of a Smog
Breakfast in June 2003.
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