Steven Farber, an assistant professor in the Department of Human Geography at the University of Toronto Scarborough, points out that the benefits of investing in quality transit are massive. “The bigger piece is not just in land value increase and development. It’s in the billions of dollars saved due to reduction of congestion and increases in people’s health. We will save priceless green space and rural land on the fringe that we will not need to develop,” Farber says.
Prof. Farber argues that the potential increase in density along Eglinton may also end up causing problems. “The increased density may be higher than the LRT can accommodate,” he says, “leading to overcrowding, potential congestion and a situation where building a subway would have been a better option.”