Public transit goes far in reducing energy consumption

Karen Herland

Craig Townsend understands that it really is not just about the destination. It’s also about the journey.

“Energy consumption in cities includes not only that used in building and running buildings, but also the energy used to move around,” he said. In other words, it’s not just the way you build it, but where you build it and how easy it is to get there.

Townsend has been studying urban transportation systems, primarily in Southeast Asia. He has been interested in urban planning processes and the “pressing problem of rapidly growing automobile usage around the world.”

His PhD dissertation built on those themes, and was nourished by work at Western Australia’s Planning and Transport Research Centre investigating the costs and benefits of a new commuter railway.

Townsend arrived at our Department of Geography, Planning, and Environment in 2004 and has been balancing theory and practice ever since. Currently he teaches courses on urban transportation and participates in Concordia’s Allégo project.

Allégo is an initiative of Montreal’s Agence metropolitaine de transport which is seeking to reduce the use of single-occupancy vehicles by encouraging the use of public transit, car-pooling, and, ideally, biking and walking.

Townsend said that the results of a survey conducted by the group in 2005 were encouraging. “Only about 15 per cent of our faculty and students rely on cars to get here. And a significant number regularly walk or cycle to work.”

There have been plans for a downtown bicycle lane on De Maisonneuve Blvd. for some time now. Townsend said that there are some transportation experts who fear that bike paths offer a false sense of security for both drivers and cyclists, leading both to be less cautious than they need to be. He added that some European cities are dispensing with bike paths altogether and forcing motorists to be more aware of the cyclists among them: a concept of “shared space.” Nonetheless, Townsend supports plans for widening sidewalks and narrowing De Maisonneuve Blvd in front of Concordia University, ideas proposed as part of the exciting Quartier Concordia plan.

Mayor Gérald Tremblay just called on the federal government to commit funds to improving urban mass transit infrastructures. Currently Canada is the only G8 nation without such a program. Townsend said that even though the City of Montreal is concerned with improving public transit, there is pressure from the car-dependent suburbs to invest in expanding roads and parking facilities downtown. “There is an emerging tension between the central city and the suburbs.”

Townsend’s research demonstrates that public transit has been improved in cities when infrastructure investments are made along with supportive land use policies that rein in suburban sprawl, increase metropolitan densities and mixing of activities, and attract families to the central city.

Townsend argues that Concordia is in many ways contributing to the greater sustainability of Montreal. The new EV building has introduced more activity integrated with public transit without widening roads or providing parking.

Increasingly, he has been investigating this kind of transit-oriented development. Outside the central area, parking lots are being built and planned around metro and commuter train stations in greater Montreal. Townsend said that by offering multi-use spaces and attractions around the stations, people’s dependence on the energy-intensive automobile could be reduced.

In fact, his urban laboratory course encourages students to redesign spaces around metro stops with those very ideas in mind.