Category Archives: TriTAG

Rally for Rails Roundup

Light Rail, News, Transit, TriTAG December 5, 2010 Tim Mollison 1 Comment

Resounding success at Rally for Rails! At least 200 of you braved the freezing cold for an hour to support the Region of Waterloo’s LRT project. The Rally was covered on CTV, and in The Record.

Remember, the train doesn’t stop here – your friends, neighbours, relatives and local businesses need to know the truth about LRT, and we need your help. If you have run out of double-sided information pamphlets, you can download more for printing at the (PDF) links below:

LRT Info Pamphlet – Greyscale

LRT Info Pamphlet – Colour

Finally, thank you all for coming out today. Each and every one of you who attended helped make this a resounding success!

Rally for Rails Resources

Light Rail, News, Transit, TriTAG November 28, 2010 Taylor Byrnes

On December 5th TriTAG will be hosting the Rally for Rails in partnership with Wonderful Waterloo and Waterloo Students Planning Advisory. It runs from 12pm to 1pm in Waterloo Public Square, at the corner of King St S and Willis Way. You can take a look at the Rally for Rails event on Facebook.

For those of you that want to help us advertise the rally we have created “ticket” leaflets that you can distribute and posters than you can put up. All of these are PDFs which should be printed with Page Scaling set to None on the Print Options dialog. The posters will look best if trimmed to size, as they are shorter than standard letter paper.

	Colour Version	Greyscale Version
Rally Tickets These print 4 to a page. Cut them up and distribute them to friends and family, or set them out at work, school, or anywhere else people will see them.
Rally Posters These print 1 per page. Trim them after printing for best results. Put them up at work, school, or anywhere else people will see them.

Candidates Unsure About LRT But Support Transportation Change

Cycling, News, Transit, TriTAG, Walking October 18, 2010 Michael Druker 2 Comments

Our website features the responses to our transportation survey of nearly 90 candidates for City Councils and Regional Council in the Region of Waterloo (including Mayors). The election will be next Monday, October 25. We asked candidates for their stances on dealing with growth-related traffic, light rail transit, sidewalks, segregated bicycle infrastructure, parking, and mixed-use zoning. In a “why we’re asking” section, we explained TriTAG’s stance and provided links for further information.

A number of themes were shared in many responses, including views on parking and cycling. There is near consensus that it is inappropriate for municipal staff to be provided with transportation subsidies exclusively in the form of parking. There was support for a bike-sharing system like Montreal’s BIXI, and there was widespread enthusiasm for segregated cycling infrastructure. To make cycling feel safer and be a more viable transportation choice, we believe on-street bicycle infrastructure must be physically separated from motor vehicle traffic and prioritized at intersections.

Candidates expressed support for mixed-use zoning along arterial roads, and many candidates agreed that minimum parking requirements in municipal zoning should be reduced or eliminated.

Regional Council candidates expressed a wide range of views on the light rail transit (LRT) project, with some suggesting it should be scrapped, others suggesting that they prefer bus rapid transit (BRT), and many indicating that they would support it if modifications take into account the funding situation. Overwhelmingly, candidates believe that transit should be improved to be a choice for everyone and not only a social service, and that transit should be a primary means of dealing with continued growth.

The responses are posted at our 2010 election page. Candidates who have not responded may still contact us to do so.

Questions for Municipal Candidates

TriTAG September 13, 2010 Michael Druker 6 Comments

Municipal election season is starting up. Later this week we will be sending out questionnaires on transportation issues to candidates for Regional Council and the three City Councils. We’d like to hear your ideas for questions! Let us know in comments below, or by email, Twitter, or Facebook.

RELEASE: TriTAG Campaign Urges Ottawa to Match Provincial Light Rail Funding

Light Rail, News, Transit, TriTAG July 16, 2010 Tim Mollison

KITCHENER – The Tri-Cities Transport Action Group (TriTAG) has launched a public campaign aimed at encouraging citizens of Waterloo Region to ask the Federal Government to match the Province of Ontario’s $300 million commitment for the Region’s Rapid Transit Project.

“The Province’s commitment has, unfortunately, fallen short of the Region’s request made last year and the repeated hints at two-thirds funding,” said Tim Mollison, a TriTAG founding member. “In falling short of the two-thirds funding convention provided to similar projects in the City of Toronto, the McGuinty Government has added much fuel to local controversy about whether this project has enough funding to move forward.”

TriTAG is inviting citizens of Waterloo Region to use its website to contact their representatives in Ottawa in support of the Region’s initiative. “We believe it is important to facilitate communication between people and their government, especially on issues of such importance,” said TriTAG founding member Taylor Byrnes.

“Despite the gap left by the province, we hope that the Federal Government can step up to bat and match the Province‘s contribution, as was done in the City of Ottawa,” said Mollison. “The Federal Minister of Transport’s office has said the Region will get its ‘fair share’ — it’s time to find out what that means to the Government of Canada.”

The Tri-Cities Transport Action Group is a citizens’ group dedicated to making Waterloo Region a more livable place through better transit and active transportation. For more information, please visit their website at http://tritag.ca

For media inquiries, please contact Tim Mollison at (226) 476-1313 x 801.

TriTAG Urges Region of Waterloo to Cut the Gas Tax Budget for Sprawl

Buses, Cycling, Light Rail, News, Transit, TriTAG, Walking December 8, 2009 Tim Mollison 2 Comments

Investigation by the Tri-Cities Transport Action Group (TriTAG) reveals that the planned 2010 budget for the Region of Waterloo is heavily skewed towards road expansion and makes minimal investments in transit, cycling, and pedestrian infrastructure.

“While the Region is budgeting $100 million for road infrastructure in 2010, little of that money is for sidewalks and bicycle lanes — and most of that expenditure is almost incidental”, said Tim Mollison, a TriTAG founding member. “Major Regional roads such as Franklin Boulevard, Ottawa Street, Fischer-Hallman Road, Coronation Boulevard, Westmount Road, King Street, and Hespeler Road are all still missing sidewalks. Of the Region’s proposed $100 million transportation budget, less than $1 million is planned for sidewalks, and out of a total expenditure of $2.2 million for sidewalks and bike lanes, only $300,000 is not part of an existing road project.”
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TriTAG’s presentation to the Regional budget committee

Buses, Cycling, News, Transit, TriTAG, Walking November 26, 2009 Sylvan Mably

At last night’s Regional budget committee public input meeting, TriTAG spoke in support of more funding for transit, pedestrian, and cycling infrastructure. The 2010 Regional transportation budget includes $71 million set aside for growth-related road expansion, but only $2.1 million for improved sidewalks and bike lanes. The entirety of the Federal Gas Tax Fund, intended to be used for environmentally sustainable municipal infrastructure projects, will be spent on roads. If even half of the Federal Gas Tax Fund were diverted from road spending, the budget for sidewalks and bike lanes could be increased threefold. TriTAG also advocated for transit funding to alleviate the overcrowding crisis on many routes.

The full text of TriTAG’s speech is included below.

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TriTAG Website Live!

News, TriTAG October 26, 2009 Michael Druker

After countless hours of work from numerous volunteers, the website has finally gone live! Some portions may take a few days to make it to the site, so be patient. Please let us know if something’s amiss.