No more Ministry of Cars and Trucks

Posted by Magda
At my first reporting job, in Elmira, I wrote a fair bit about proposed improvements to Highway 7. A local activist was fond of saying the proposal -- which has since been approved by the province, about a year ago -- showed the Ministry of Transportation was really the Ministry of Cars and Trucks.

That's no longer the case, ministry staff told those at a Hanlon meeting tonight. The ministry is throwing the door open to concerned residents to redesign the expressway in the way that satisfies them.

"The provincial direction is changing. We have made a commitment to looking at transit," Brian Goudeseune, from the ministry, said at the meeting.

Part of that is recognizing the bicycle as a mode of transportation -- which didn't happen until 1992 -- a consultant told the group.