Publish Day - Ink Blog - On roads

Today's Ink Blog column focuses on my general distaste for unmitigated development. To put this position in its proper context, I am not opposed to growth or progress. Rather, I am opposed to growth or progress that is not intelligently managed and, as a result, leaves us in an imbalanced state.

This is where I fear today's cities are going. Which explains why I wrote today's column. It's a theme that touches readers precisely where they live. Which is why I chose it in the first place.

Click on the image to the left for a full-res view. Here's the text:

Faster, wider roads getting us nowhere

Published Wednesday, September 7, 2005

The London Free Press

I’m having a difficult time understanding why Fanshawe Park Road, just west of Wonderland Road, is being expanded to four lanes.

I don’t ever recall being stuck in traffic while heading to or from the Hyde Park area.

I guess the newly-widened road will allow bargain-hunters to get to the new mega-stores, just west of there, a few seconds sooner. It’ll also support increased traffic expected as low-density residential development gradually replaces the area’s farmland.

It may seem logical from a neighborhood perspective. But London’s pattern of building bigger roads to support single-family homes on the city’s periphery shows no signs of abating.

Is City Hall aware of other cities’ Smart Growth initiatives that encourage people-friendly neighborhoods closer to the centre of town?

No amount of cheerleading for downtown disguises the fact that our leaders’ mindless sign-offs on edge-of-town development will only continue to gut our core.

I’m sure we’d all like to hear their thoughts on this issue. Otherwise, the road to nowhere will keep getting wider and faster.

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