Halifax could still have a city that prioritizes moving people instead of cars—but only if it gets serious about it.

The Grand Parade podcast: Here lies the Integrated Mobility Plan. It was nice while it lasted.

A Dutch transportation engineer reviews Halifax’s active transportation plans—and the results aren’t favourable.

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Remember the Integrated Mobility Plan—that vaunted guide that was meant to usher Halifax into a new era of transportation? The one where people could walk, wheelchair, bike or take the bus from their home and feel safe doing so? The same one that was meant to help the HRM slash its carbon output amid a global—and also worryingly local—climate emergency? That one? It’s sure starting to feel like a whole whack of nothing.

In this week’s episode of The Grand Parade, Coast reporter Matt Stickland convinces fellow reporter and co-host Martin Bauman that the IMP is dead. Why? Because of the way the HRM sets its budget. Plus, the two detour onto the subjects of roads, and whether the provincial government’s plans to spend more than $1 billion to expand its highways* should qualify as an investment. (It shouldn’t. And it’s making Nova Scotia poorer.) Three cheers for the sunk-cost fallacy!

*Yes, the money is also earmarked for bridges and ferry services. But mostly roads.

About The Authors

Martin Bauman

Martin Bauman on Twitter

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Martin Bauman, The Coast's News & Business Reporter, is an award-winning journalist and interviewer, whose work has appeared in the Globe and Mail, Calgary Herald, Capital Daily, and Waterloo Region Record, among other places. In 2020, he was named one of five “emergent” nonfiction writers by the RBC Taylor Prize...

Matt Stickland

Matt Stickland on Twitter

Email Matt Stickland

Matt spent 10 years in the Navy where he deployed to Libya with HMCS Charlottetown and then became a submariner until ‘retiring’ in 2018. In 2019 he completed his Bachelor of Journalism from the University of King’s College. Matt is an almost award winning opinion writer.