Toronto Airports

[quote="rob in angus"] Another airport in Toronto area is somewhat needed.

Are there any neutral studies showing this? The GTAA master proposal is based on forecasted passenger levels from 1999. Given that's pre-9.11, I imagine things have changed (see here).

[quote]would reduce congestion around Pearson. Congestion means increased CO2 emmisions from idling traffic[/quote]

1) Presumably opening a new airport would shift the traffic volume to the new airport.
2) people should turn their engines off instead of idling - as the City bylaw requests
3) Congestion around YYZ is not driven by the airport's presence. YYZ is immediately adjacent to the 401/427/27/409/Eglinton interchange as well just west of the 401/400/Black Creek Drive interchange. That particular section of the 401 is among the highest volume arteries in the world, averaging average annual daily traffic of 607,800 cars. Pointing to the airport as the sole cause, or establishing a new airport won't help. Reducing congestion driven by visits to YYZ requires a mass transit link to the airport. One effort to do just that was Blue 22 (about which see here and here, but but it appeared to be killed by the McGuinty's pre-election MoveOntario 2020 announcement. If you're interested in reading about efforts to incorporate mass transit access to YYZ, try Steve Munro's website, especially this post.

[quote]If not Pickering then where? Is there a better spot to build?[/quote]

How about improving trains? That might move a high % of the short-haul flights to a different mode of transport, which concomitant environmental benefits. One of the most striking parts of Monbiot's book Heat was on the impact of flying. His blog has some analysis on it here, here and the UK government's Royal Commission here. Short recap for the 99% of people who don't wish to read all of that - aviation is a remarkably awful contributor to global warming, not just from the physics of flying (burning a lot of extremely high octane gas to keep aloft) but also from impact of contrails, etc.
Anyway, I would be extremely curious to find out what % of YYZ and YTZ's flights are w/in the Windsor/Quebec City corridor. I would prefer to use better (read: faster & more reliable) train service as in France to visit my Montreal/Ottawa-based clients - especially b/c it cuts out the commute, boarding & security hassles on both ends.