Vision 2040: Canadian Urban Transit Assoc.

Do we need a national vision for transit? Of course. The good news is it’s ready to go, courtesy of the Canadian Urban Transit Association (CUTA) – a national transit association that advocates federally and provincially for improved transit. (The City maintains a membership through ETS.)

Yesterday at Council’s Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Michael Roschlau (President of CUTA) presented the bold vision and a wonderful video explaining the vision.

The purpose of the discussion was to seek the committee’s recommendation to Council (the committee reports are here) that the vision be endorsed by the City of Edmonton. It was an easy call for the Committee to pass the recommendation, so Council will consider the motion next week.

The endorsement of the vision is largely symbolic but it is important to join other major canadian cities in articulating a unified set of aspirations for transit in Canada.

Here are some of my thoughts from yesterday from my notes:

I think endorsing Vision 2040 is a no brainer for us. It’s resonant, and I don’t mean to speak on their behalf, resonant with the views of our Youth Council as I understand them, and our Next Gen group as I understand it, and resonant with my own vision for Transit and for Edmonton.

And it’s resonant with the Capital Region Transit Committee and Capital Region Board’s 30 year vision for transit in our region…

But more importantly, it’s critical that Canadian cities assert a consistent position to the Federal Government in particular: nation building was done with railroads in the 19th Century, with highways in the 20th Century; but I believe nation building will be via transit as we build cities that can compete globally in the 21st Century.