In the GTA, the car is still king

On Saturday night I went with a friend to see The Social Network at the Queensway Cineplex in Etobicoke. We went by car and so did most of other people there. The huge parking lot was packed. I can't imagine too many people would go there by TTC let alone on foot. This part of the Queensway isn't a walking street. It's designed for cars.

I don't go to the movies much so I was surprised by how busy the place was. The theatre we were in was full and the corridor was packed with people going to other movies. While we were walking out of the building, I asked myself how many of the people around me voted for Rob Ford. I would guess a lot, mainly because we were in an area where Ford beat Smitherman.

I was also thinking how hard it would be for me to live in Etobicoke, because I don't have a car. I've always lived near Bloor and Lansdowne and I'm used to walking places. I do use a bike and the TTC but I've never liked driving.

Recently there has been a lot of talk about a so-called war against cars. The Sun, for example, has written on this theme. There was a lot of anger over adding a bike lane to Jarvis. In this neighbourhood there was strong opposition to the narrowing of Lansdowne and to the new bike lanes on Dupont.

I suppose you could say in the part of town that was the old pre-amalgamation City of Toronto the streets are slightly less accommodating of cars than they used to be. Considering how bad traffic in this city is, I can understand why drivers feel frustrated. Still, it's hard to see a war against cars once you leave the old city. The car is still king in Toronto and I would say in most of the GTA it would be hard to live without one. People do, but it often means isolation or very long bus rides.

I said to my friend. I find car culture deplorable, because walking around and running into people I know helps give me a sense of community. I'm not saying community doesn't exist in the suburbs. It does, but it's not the same. At least that's what friends that live there tell me.

This brings me back to Rob Ford. A lot of people who live in the old part of Toronto, including me, were surprised Ford won. In my case, I was surprised because I thought Ford's record as a loose cannon would have sunk his candidacy before it began, but other people were surprised because they couldn't believe people would support his agenda. There's more than one reason people voted for Ford, but the belief that Miller was waging a war against cars was a factor in this election. People in the GTA hate gridlock but still love their cars.

And by the way, I liked the movie even though it play fast and loose with the facts surrounding the creation of Facebook.