Transportation: Canada’s circulatory system

Including a discussion on the current transit strike

Cities as living organisms

Transportation systems as the circulation system.

Heart attacks come from blockages, hardening of arteries and shocks to the system.

Canada could die with a poor circulatory system

The Arc de Triumph, Paris, France

All traffic radiates from this central node

Road Systems

Residential (Moria Court) Arterial (Merivale road) Highway (#32 Hunt Club) Expressway (400 series in Canada)

Examples

Try drawing a map, from memory, of all the roads you take to get to school

Movement of people

You must decide on a few factors when moving people:

Distance to cover The costs Duration of the trip The alternatives

Road travel Canada spends $7 billion in construction,

maintenance and administration of our 900,000 km of roads.

Automobiles:– Canada travels more by car (and small trucks)

than any other means (13.5 million cars on the road)

– High mobility and flexibility.

Bus:– Used for trips less than 1000km– Each year 1 billion people travel on intercity

buses.– Inexpensive and comfortable.– Bus drivers can divert if needs be– Used in every city and most towns.

Ottawa’s Transit strike

Effects of the transit strike: Students having difficulty getting to school People having difficulty getting to work Mass congestion of traffic Loss of revenue for businesses Inability for many to move through the city Disruption of peoples’ lives.

Why are the drivers on strike?

City of Ottawa Agreed to much of the

drivers requests Unwilling to continue to

allow control over scheduling.

Drivers Higher wages (2% hike) Benefits Control over

scheduling.** Don’t forget, they are

receiving $50 a week of strike pay