Cars and Cities: A Combination Contradictory to Convenience, Community, and Climate Activism 

The climate change strike in uptown Waterloo on Sept. 27 raised awareness and got people talking about climate change, which is a good thing. But what’s a lot more important but a lot more difficult to organize and be a part of is the action that is taken after a strike like this. How can we build off this energy, this unity?

My proposed solution is likely one that will cause many people to roll their eyes or get upset, but I hope once you think it through a bit more and you see the bigger picture you’ll realize it’s not too far-fetched and would improve everyone’s well-being.

I believe the simplest and most important thing individuals can do to fight climate change is give up their cars. If you live within 500 metres of a Grand River Transit stop (which I’m pretty sure the majority of people who live in Kitchener, Waterloo and Cambridge do) and you care about our planet and our community, I think the best possible thing you can do is sell your personal vehicles, or even better, get them demolished and use the parts to build a bicycle or two. 

Gas-powered, solar-powered, hybrid or whatever, the autonomy and universality of personal automobiles not only hurts the natural environment, it also makes it harder for everyone to get around the city at peak times of the day, contributes to social isolation, and wastes so much space in our cities with roads and parking lots that could be used for much more useful purposes.

We have an amazing public transit system and cycling network in Waterloo Region, and we need to start embracing this. The main argument against this solution of getting rid of cars is: why would I give up my car if it’s still the quickest and most convenient way for me to get around? The reality is it’s a paradox: bus routes will only become more convenient and faster, and more cycling infrastructure will only be built, if fewer people drive cars.

So, if I ever became some sort of politician who had enough influence, here is a list of things I would do to try to solve the paradox of automobile convenience:

• Create more bus routes through residential areas and have buses running on all routes at minimum every 15 minutes, 24-7;

• Reduce every road to two lanes, wide enough for one lane of buses or fire trucks travelling in each direction, turning extra lanes into elevated bike lanes and wider sidewalks;

• Create pedestrian-only downtown/uptown cores (for example, downtown Kitchener bordered by Cedar, Duke, Victoria, and Joseph/Church streets) by prohibiting all traffic except for emergency/delivery vehicles, bikes and the ION;

• Provide on-demand shuttle service included with GRT fares to bring people from their homes or their end destination to the nearest GRT stop (like the 903 flex route, or Mobility Plus, but universally throughout region)

• Provide car/van/truck rentals through the region;

• Ban all parking lots/driveways/long-term parking spaces in the cities except for one communal lot at every on-/off-ramp of the highways, which would include a car rental place for those who need to use the highways.

I realize these are all major changes, and although I don’t think any of them are unrealistic, I don’t think the politicians in this region would have the guts to make them at this point (they can try to prove me wrong though).

What it’s going to take in the short term at least is for some of us to simply suck it up and live in a way that is more inconvenient than what we’re used to. It’s going to require us to take longer to get to work or school, and even be late sometimes. 

It also may require us to get off our butts, walk or bike in the heat or cold and even get to work covered in sweat. It will require us to compromise, give up some of our comfort and stand on a crowded bus, or bike through pouring rain every once in a while for the greater good.

What we need now is not more pilot projects but real action because there are simply too many pilots on our roads.