About
Reverse Zone, weblog on urban planning, sustainability, and technology.
Martin Laplante
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A few favourite links.
- Planetizen
- Cyburbia
- LookWAYup dictionary
- RES Policy Research Inc.
- Medical Reference
- AI Topics
- Pattern Language
- Scale Down, Windsor
- Raise the Hammer
- Price Tags
- Urban Squares
- NYC Streets
- Grush Hour
- Save Griffintown
- DNS Help
Friends' Blogs - David Wilson
- Viktor Toth
- Michael Geist
Recent posts
- The Delicate Balancing Act of Downtowns and the Death of Griffintown
- Internet Identity Keystone Kops
- LA Transit Plan Aims to Save 725 Metric Tons of GHG Annually by 2030
- New York City's Congestion Pricing Plan Dies Yet Again
- New York Discovers Existing Direct Democracy Zoning Rule
- Driving is Going Down in the US
- The Commuting Turnaround in Canada
- Vancouver Churches Get a Licence to Break the Law
- Carbon Capture and Storage For Canada
- Prince of Wales Promotes Health, Wealth, and Courtesy
- Physical Measures Reduce Trips by How Much?
- Tall Buildings Incompatible with New Urbanism
- Direct Voter Control of Comprehensive Plans Fails
- TOD Mindset Moving Away From Pedestrian-friendly Focus
- Land Use Responsible for Biofuel Carbon Debt
- Places to Grow - Pictures Tell the Story
- How do the New Fuel Efficiency Standards Compare with California and Europe?
- Why We Still Need Separation of Uses
- Wikia Search Launches, Minus the Unique Features
- Malls as Make-believe Town Centres Minus the Wrong Kind of People
- NASA's scrambled data: it's not rocket science
- What Did John Baird Know and When Did He Know It?
- Is the Pope For or Against Urgent Climate Change Action?
- Dense Condos Do Not Revitalize
- Carbon Offsets in Ontario
- Is Carbon Sequestration Completely Useless?
- Hot Air - How to Beat Climate Change By Burning More Coal
- Congestion Pricing, Privacy, and Mesh Wireless Networking
- Cycling Will Kill You, But Not Cycling Will Kill You More
- Sprawl as Linear Population Density
2008/03
2008/02
2008/01
2007/12
2007
2006
2005
Complete List of Posts
Ontario has it wrong - Places to Grow
Ontario's latest version of the Places to Grow plan for the Golden Horseshoe area around Toronto was just released. It has several good points, but it falls down badly when it comes to density, where it relies on dogma rather than actual knowledge.
It gets it generally right when it comes to higher densities for greenfield development, bringing it up to transit-supporting density and creating complete communities with a mix of uses.
When Ontario has it all wrong is in the growth targets for Urban Growth Centres. It is planning to have extremely high residential densities in and near the downtowns of all major cities. This part of the plan will fuel sprawl and increase GHG emissions.
The cities with the densest centres have the greatest sprawl. The highest densities are achieved at the expense of existing heritage neighbourhoods where families live, and these dnesities do a fine job of isolating people and segregating people by demographic and income factors. This fuels a flight to the suburbs.
Statistics are quite clear on this: apartment dwellers do not drive any less by living in higher density. House dwellers do. By replacing the house dwellers near downtown with apartment dwellers, you are taking the segment of the population that drives the least and transforming them into the segment that drives the most.
Too bad, Ontario.
Tags: Urban Planning Smart Growth Toronto Ontario