Hospital site undercuts transit

Re: City remains public-transit backwater, opinion column by Gord Henderson, Oct. 28.

Compact urban design and population density are essential for transit systems to flourish.

Windsor city council knows this, but it’s not reflected in their actions.

An adult transit pass costs $95.70. Monthly parking at a municipal parking lot starts at $45.20. This pricing structure is a clear disincentive to taking the bus to work. There’s also no strategy to encourage people who already have a car to sometimes take the bus.

Gord Henderson writes about a “lone catalyst,” but doesn’t mention the giant inhibitor of transit success if our hospital health care is moved four kilometres beyond the airport.

The County Road 42 location will distribute housing and transit resources over a greater area at a time when our population has little growth. That means even less population density than we have today.

More urban sprawl makes transit less financially viable and for its users, less convenient. Instead of reminding provincial health-care decision-makers that constituents will be best served by a hospital within an established neighbourhood that already has transit, council hides behind the implausible excuse that they have no say in the decision of the hospital location. Philippa von Ziegenweidt, Windsor