Snippets:

Residents of west Milton who flooded the e-mail inboxes of regional councillors earlier this year asking for Halton Region to speed up construction of an underpass on Derry Road might be getting what they asked for.

and

“I am relieved and delighted to hear that,” said Milton resident Zeeshan Hamid, who began a petition asking for the underpass in August. “The underpass cannot happen too soon. I hope the council will continue to consider this need a priority.”

but

Wanting to make sure Regional staff weren’t recommending the project be pushed up due to public pressure, Dennison asked Zamojc if the underpass would come at the expense of other higher priority projects

finally

The proposed 10-year capital budget forecast envisions construction beginning in 2012, subject to council’s approval.

So keep up the pressure by signing the petition until the budget is approved!

• Milton’s Main Street is a charming downtown suitable for a town of 30,000 people. However, not much can be done in that historic downtown without destroying its character.  Why not extend the ‘new’ downtown East towards James Snow Parkway? 
• Many streets in Milton could just be rotated slightly to give them breathtaking views of the Escarpment! I am still angry that HVE is not aligned to optimized escarpment views. Why not? Because no one thought of it!
• Milton has nearly 80,000 people. It desperately needs to finish an integrated network of biking and walking trails that do not always run next to major roads.
• New subdivisions should be planned to ensure that they integrate well with Milton’s complete transportation network (read: walking, biking, transit etc. Not just driving)
• Why are trails not developed when neighbourhoods are approved (and roads are constructed)?  Once people are forced to start driving, it’s hard to make them stop.
• Milton is situated at the edge of the escarpment. Does it look like an Escarpment Community? Should the Town Standard require more trees than it does today to make its neighbourhoods just an extension of the escarpment?
• What is Milton doing, or what should it be doing, to protect its neighbourhoods and retail plazas from looking like a concrete park?
• Should Milton put taller buildings at major intersections (nodes) to promote efficient transit use or should Milton prefer a more aesthetic approach of achieving same population density without any high-rises?  The former is a patch-work solution, the latter requires planning.

I think you got the idea. Milton is changing. It is at the verge of turning into a mid-size city. My assertion is that this is a great opportunity for Milton to achieve a unique character that makes it the most liveable community in the GTA. And that cannot be done without a well thought-out urban plan. 

We need to sit and figure out steps to take that enhance this area for future generations. 

• Transit should be a big part of the urban design.  Drive along Derry, houses facing Derry should’ve been medium density, 3-4 storey condos and townhomes.  More people next to major arterial roads –> more transit customers.  That’s a missed opportunity, but lets fix it for future surveys.
• Will it help if people with monthly passes had an option to use a taxi in case of emergencies (eg. Go train came in late and the last Milton bus left). Basically if the transit could guarantee that you’d never be stranded, perhaps more people would be open to it?
• Go to large employers, offer them a discount and give their employees monthly passes.  Promise them good bus service.  Wait, isn’t town of Milton itself a “big employer” in town :)? Hint, hint! 
• Investigate vanpool (I used to commute from the Snohomish County to the King County in WA. King County has 1,031 vanpool vans that provided 2.7 million rides at a cost of $0 to the municipality.  Snohomish County’s website explains the program.
• Consider charging for parking along the Main Street and Go station after a majority of residents have access to a reliable transit service.
• Consider limiting the number of parking spaces an employer can provide within the urban part of town (I personally don’t like it and if I were asked, would vote against it, but it worked for the City of  Redmond). 
• Another extreme opinion, that I am against, is to increase the subsidy up to 100%.  The town runs buses and people can ride them for free.  Nothing beats free.
• Plan new subdivisions with transit in mind.  I have written more about this in my “urban plan” series. 
• I wonder if, on routes with low ridership, running a couple of hybrid minivans is cheaper than running a large bus that costs not much less than half a million dollars to purchase. 
• EDIT: Should Milton think about running dynamic routes?  If you need a bus, you call a number, enter the stop # and go to the stop.  Based on demand, routes automatically adjust themselves to move people as optimally as possible.

Overall, I think transit ridership will naturally go up as the Derry Green Business Park comes online, Milton Education Village gets started and generally more people and jobs move to Milton.

So here are some of my ideas.  What are yours? 

Urban planning, in its essence, is nothing more than the integration of land-use planning, transportation planning, parks and recreations planning, trails and everything else a municipality has control over to create a detailed plan that defines a wide range of social and urban environment of a municipality (including landscape, architecture and transportation). 

Milton has done a fair job being practical. But is it doing a fair job in actively crafting a character as it grows into a mid-size city? In older non-residential parts (Steeles Ave, Bronte North of Main) aesthetics seem non-existent.

Think of most beautiful historic cities you have visited. They were are a result of careful urban planning that gave creative freedom while still enforced style, sizes, uses and features. 

Where does Milton stack up?