[nito]

Originally Posted by memph

The Milton line that serves Erindale and Cooksville GO stations only has peak period train service though, with no service mid-day, late evening and weekend service. During those off-peak periods, they have to use buses instead. This is because the rails are privately owned by Canadian Pacific and that section of railway is used by all of their freight traffic passing through Southern Ontario (both east-west and north-south traffic). As a result they're reluctant to allow much passenger service on their tracks out of concerns it would interfere with their freight operations. Most of the rest of the GO network is controlled by Metrolinx (provincial government agency) so there's fewer issues with service expansions there.

I’m aware of this to a degree when I looked at various North American commuter routes a while back as part of another project and am aware of various upgrades. North American railways tend to see more freight traffic than European railways, but much of the infrastructure already exists to create segregated freight and passenger routes. If high-capacity transit was not an option, it makes developments in areas like Mississauga even more peculiar.

Originally Posted by memph

It's quiet because cul-de-sacs attract no through traffic. You have no reason to drive in there unless you live/work there. It's the arterial roads that get congested because people from hundreds, if not thousands of cul-de-sacs might consider using them. That's why traffic problems (at least in North American cities) are usually regional rather than local issues. It's only in very extreme cases of high densities with limited exit points that you get localized congestion problems, like Liberty Village:

I understand the dynamics around cul-de-sacs, the difference is that I’ve never seen one for high-rises, not even access to surrounding neighbourhoods for pedestrians is a truly rare sight from an urban development perspective. Compounding the problems of cul-de-sacs in high-rise format ought to be discouraged; the consequence is the creation of disconnected nodes rather than integrated neighbourhoods.