In northern Canada, it gets so cold that bikes aren’t viable. Try biking a couple miles in -20C and black ice on the road before you make blanket statements like this.

In northern Canada, it gets so cold that bikes aren’t viable. Try biking a couple miles in -20C and black ice on the road before you make blanket statements like this.

And very fast trains.

Very convenient, for you, to ignore that there’s more than a single solution to the issue.

If you build the infrastructure, make it safe, reliable, and more importantly useful, people will come.

Distance also becomes much easier to deal with when you build usable neighbourhoods with working transit solutions mixed use neighbourhoods reduce car use because the cornerstone, now created and only a block or two away from you, sells your food, the train/tram/subway is just a bit further, that takes you elsewhere in your town or city.

This isn’t rocket science, the reason Canada is so car dependant is that we cater our business to large stores with larger parking lits to satisfy car based businesses rather than anything else.

You don’t need density to create viable transit infrastructure, you need a will to move beyond cars as the default and only perspective. You don’t need a universal, one size fits all solution (this is what cars are touted as), you need a solution that suits the environment that its created within.

We don’t really have places to put them domestically, until we do a buttload of complicated and expensive land acquisition, and I wouldn’t want to try and sell HSR abroad built in a country that doesn’t really have much.

In northern Canada, it gets so cold that bikes aren’t viable. Try biking a couple miles in -20C and black ice on the road before you make blanket statements like this.

That said, with a changing global market in mind, countries have been more willing to get involved in the planning and development of national automotive companies. Mexico’s “Olinia”, for instance, is a planned EV line set to be led by a new federal ministry, with a focus on affordability. As noted in its initial press release, the target demographic is families and young people, with three models expected to cost between US $4,400 to US $7,400—significantly lower than other EVs sold in the country.

The idea is that a nationally led framework will aid in the project’s coordination, with production intended to take place across several regions to keep costs down. Government ownership will also ensure a reliable stream of investment and that the end product is something attainable by the average Mexican family.

Turkey is pursuing a similar project through its Automobile Joint Venture Group (TOGG), a consortium of companies with the support and financial backing of the government. The goal is to create a national brand of EVs, with some models already being available for purchase.

With Mexico and Turkey offering prospective templates, Canada need not reinvent the wheel in pursuing its own, publicly owned automaker. Only the federal government has the ability to operate a program of this magnitude by bringing together our natural resources, skilled workforce, and industrial capacity to create a sustainable and affordable Canadian brand.

There are a lot of fine options indeed, but nowhere near the affordability they could achieve today IMHO. EVs can be made very cheaply and every month the price of LiFePo4 (the cheaper and more robust, slightly less dense type) batteries is going down. Very few small cheap BEV cars are available. A Citroen Ami is like ~8-10k€; that (very cute) thing should cost maybe half of that.

I’m sorry but I just don’t buy that. Canada built its original rail system coast to coast in the 19th century with a population of 4 million and a highway coast to coast in the 60’s with a population of 20 million. We can make HSR happen today with a population of 40 million. We just need some vision.

We don’t really have places to put them domestically, until we do a buttload of complicated and expensive land acquisition, and I wouldn’t want to try and sell HSR abroad built in a country that doesn’t really have much.

We could build two right now - one in Ontario and one in Alberta (parallel to QEII) - on existing land grants. Instead, we just keep making the highways wider.

In northern Canada, it gets so cold that bikes aren’t viable. Try biking a couple miles in -20C and black ice on the road before you make blanket statements like this.

That said, with a changing global market in mind, countries have been more willing to get involved in the planning and development of national automotive companies. Mexico’s “Olinia”, for instance, is a planned EV line set to be led by a new federal ministry, with a focus on affordability. As noted in its initial press release, the target demographic is families and young people, with three models expected to cost between US $4,400 to US $7,400—significantly lower than other EVs sold in the country.

The idea is that a nationally led framework will aid in the project’s coordination, with production intended to take place across several regions to keep costs down. Government ownership will also ensure a reliable stream of investment and that the end product is something attainable by the average Mexican family.

Turkey is pursuing a similar project through its Automobile Joint Venture Group (TOGG), a consortium of companies with the support and financial backing of the government. The goal is to create a national brand of EVs, with some models already being available for purchase.

With Mexico and Turkey offering prospective templates, Canada need not reinvent the wheel in pursuing its own, publicly owned automaker. Only the federal government has the ability to operate a program of this magnitude by bringing together our natural resources, skilled workforce, and industrial capacity to create a sustainable and affordable Canadian brand.

I don’t think we’re that far apart in views but we are very different in terms of who we think needs to lead the change.

I’m putting the onus on societal level changes in the built environment and acceptance of children and persons with disabilities.

You seem to be putting the onus on individuals to drive the change by personally overcoming barriers.

You are proudly talking about how you personally have overcome barriers but not everyone can. With 30% or the adult population identifying with at least one disability, it’s not a small or isolated issue.

As is said in the disability community, not everyone has the spoons and certainly not every day. Don’t shame others for what they may not be able to accomplish that you can.

The 15 minute journey problem is primarily evidence of a problem with where stores and services are located in relation to residences.

Affordability notwithstanding, bike and public transit as a person with visual, hearing or mobility limitations remain deeply challenging in most communities.

Wonderful that your children and grandchildren have been able to meet expectations or haven’t faced needs that couldn’t be accommodated. Most persons or families experiencing disabilities wouldn’t have your experience or might put their limited spoons to other priorities.

I’m surprised there’s no mention in this report of the possibility of electrifying and developing public transit across Canada. There is still too much emphasis on individual vehicles, which are very wasteful regardless of the energy source.

Do I really need to mention who was in the path of the original railway? That being said, a single, coast-to-coast line actually does make sense, and is one of those projects under serious consideration at the federal level. But, it’s going to compete with airlines, not cars. If you want to go from Regina to Saskatoon or Calgary to Drumheller neither that nor an ebike are going to help.

Have a look at just about any public works project around and how they go, if you actually interested in or care about this. You’re going to have to demolish homes and restructure communities along the way. It can be done, and it has, but it’s slow and terrible, and a lot of people will hate it. I would assume the trans-Canada highway reused a lot of existing road and still was like that.

Yes, it still is a good idea to do some. The QEII plan looks like it would be crammed in there pretty tight, but it’s worth it; then again, our current government is crazy and likes to blow up projects already underway because their cousin would have a view ruined, or whatever.

Switching overnight from building cars to rail stock is quite something else.

That said, with a changing global market in mind, countries have been more willing to get involved in the planning and development of national automotive companies. Mexico’s “Olinia”, for instance, is a planned EV line set to be led by a new federal ministry, with a focus on affordability. As noted in its initial press release, the target demographic is families and young people, with three models expected to cost between US $4,400 to US $7,400—significantly lower than other EVs sold in the country.

The idea is that a nationally led framework will aid in the project’s coordination, with production intended to take place across several regions to keep costs down. Government ownership will also ensure a reliable stream of investment and that the end product is something attainable by the average Mexican family.

Turkey is pursuing a similar project through its Automobile Joint Venture Group (TOGG), a consortium of companies with the support and financial backing of the government. The goal is to create a national brand of EVs, with some models already being available for purchase.

With Mexico and Turkey offering prospective templates, Canada need not reinvent the wheel in pursuing its own, publicly owned automaker. Only the federal government has the ability to operate a program of this magnitude by bringing together our natural resources, skilled workforce, and industrial capacity to create a sustainable and affordable Canadian brand.

In northern Canada, it gets so cold that bikes aren’t viable. Try biking a couple miles in -20C and black ice on the road before you make blanket statements like this.