Traffic Jams Costing Canadian Cities Billions

[rt_0891]

Originally Posted by Gordon Freeman

Vancouver has to have the worst traffic, because it is congested on every street you go every day, vancouver also lacks a major highway system, cities like las vegas, and little rock have better freeways and they are half the size. getting stuck in traffic in vancouver is an everyday occurance, and most of us just get used to it, but whatever just turn up the radio and relax

Try driving in Montreal. It's an even bigger headache, especially with its antiquated autoroute system.

Anyone who has been on Decarie would know what I mean.

[Tuscani01]

Originally Posted by Skybean

Toronto does not have too many major highways.. thus we go with 16-lane monsters, which surprisingly still get traffic jams.

Innercity transport is good. The further away you go, the worse it gets. Buses on certain routes take far too long to arrive as I have said earlier.

GO Trains are pretty good though in terms of getting commuters from the suburbs to downtown. Very high capacity trains. But they do not have frequent service and are rather slow.

Per capita ridership is up there, and the service is OKAY for the most part, but there are many areas for improvement.

GO train is pretty frequent, but only on the lakeshore line and during rush hour. The other stations see no service after rush hour and busses take their place. The bus isnt all that bad though, I find it to be quite fast.

[Skybean]

GO is not frequent outside of rush hour. Even during rush it's like 2 trains 15 minutes apart for the entire day, else 30-45 min and nothing on weekends. Bus service (TTC) is not good on many routes. Depends on your route - is it a heavy use route? If so, you may get decent service. Else, it really is lacking.

20-40 minutes is not considered good IMO.

[Tuscani01]

Originally Posted by Skybean

GO is not frequent outside of rush hour. Even during rush it's like 2 trains 15 minutes apart for the entire day, else 30-45 min and nothing on weekends. Bus service (TTC) is not good on many routes. Depends on your route - is it a heavy use route? If so, you may get decent service. Else, it really is lacking.

20-40 minutes is not considered good IMO.

I said the same thing you just said... maybe you should re-read it? Anyways... GO busses are about 15 minutes apart here in Mississauga, so it is pretty good for going downtown. I have never had to wait long for a bus at all. It would be nice to see the trains running all day, even if it is 40 minutes apart after rush hour.

[CrazyCanuck]

Missing a train by two minutes and then having to wait an hour sucks. If they could just bump it to a train every 40 minutes it would save me a lot of time as I don't use the train during rush hours.

[Skybean]

Originally Posted by Tuscani01

I said the same thing you just said... maybe you should re-read it? Anyways... GO busses are about 15 minutes apart here in Mississauga, so it is pretty good for going downtown. I have never had to wait long for a bus at all. It would be nice to see the trains running all day, even if it is 40 minutes apart after rush hour.

It's unfortunate that you seem to think I'm arguing with you because I really am not.

15 minutes is the most ideal situation for me, usually it's longer than that. The posted time is one thing and the actual time is really different. Sometimes the scheduled bus doesn't come. It's also unfortunate that some inner-city routes have this wait time. Compared to many cities this is quite a long time to wait. Clearly there is room for improvement.

[canuckbanana]

Originally Posted by Nouvellecosse

It's understandable why people would think that, considering the monster highway pic in the beginning of the thread. I'm not aware of any other traditional "transit cities" with highways like that.

My intention is not to pick on anybody, as I'm sure not everyone is completely familiar with the city, but one has to understand that the 401 (in the photo) was built as a 'bypass' for Toronto, meaning that trucks, and cars who do no want to stop in Toronto, did not have to drive through the city centre. For example, GM types travelling between Detroit and Oshawa (not sure if this is a good example).

That being said, the 401 has obviously been gobbled up by all the development that has gone on in the city over the past 30-40 years but in no way can it be considered an 'inner city' expressway. Toronto only has two six-lane (3 lanes each way) higways that reach anywhere near the downtown core. The Don Valley Parkway (or Parking Lot as some call it) from the north and the QEW from the west.

Toronto is by and large still a 'transit city', at least in the downtown core. However, I don't think you can really pigeonhole Toronto to any one developmental model (nor any other city really). North America's love affair with cars and Canada's (not exclusive) tendency for building denser suburbs complete with commercial development and office space, means that commuter patterns do not follow the traditional bedroom community - CBD type. While Toronto's CBD is still very strong, Mississauga, North York, Brampton, etc. are home to many jobs, meaning that someone may live in Richmond Hill and work in Mississauga, live in Brampton and work in Scarborough, etc. It is these people that we need to get out of cars in this city. Those who live in the suburbs and work in downtown are already well served by transit.

York region's Viva is a good start, and if Mississauga is able to establish their rapid busway, it should also help. Beyond that I think that the proposed Greater Toronto Transport Authoruty really needs to be a strong organization with clout if traffic issues are to be resolved. There can no longer be a 416 vs 905 mentality in the region. The two, whether we like it or not are dependent on each other.

[rt_0891]

Beyond that, we would need a regional planning agency that will curb the hideous sprawl we have in the 905. Municipalities are too short-sighted to know what's best for their city.

[Homer J. Simpson]

^A regional board would still fall short on the powers that would be required to make it work.

Municipalities as individuals and as groups cannot make laws, only the province can. Such a board would need the ability to pass legislation of some sort to be effective IMO. This in itself is a strong arguement for the Golden Horse Shoe to become it's own province. Ontario as is has to focus on too large an area to effectively focus and work out issues around the GH.

[hkskyline]

A regional board will not help improve the transit situation unless there is a permanent fund that can maintain and expand the whole network.

[Caliguy2005]

Their will always be traffic as long as their are cars

[InitialD18]

Go train isn't that frequent ...
and if your home is not close to a GO train station ...
which seems to be more common ...
it can take quite a while to get to city centre ...
and once you are there you would need to subway to places ...
i remembered taking a trip to chinatown and kensington area from Missaussaga ... it took me more than 2 hours in all ...

[trainrover]

Creating a new thread strikes me unnecessary ...

03 Dec 2011

Groups push for traffic reduction

Community council plan under review


Environment groups have asked the Montreal Metropolitan Community council to include in its land use and development
plan a target of reducing car traffic in the region by 20 per cent during morning rush hours by 2020.

07 Dec 2011

Traffic woes have become the latest recruiting tool used by
West Island employers

publisher's populating Webpage (still) pending ...

[Suburbanist]

I hope both efforts fail. Governemnt should provide mobility for drivers, in a context where most people drive, not take a subway or a crappy train.

[hkskyline]

Toronto suburbs have city's worst traffic, staff say
CBC News
Posted: Jun 8, 2012 8:30 PM ET

City staff say much of Toronto's worst traffic congestion is in the suburbs — and that they already know the best way to fix the problem.

Coun. Denzil Minnan-Wong, chair of the public works and infrastructure committee, is asking staff to find solutions for the 10 most congested areas, most of which are in the suburbs.

Four are along Sheppard Avenue — a problem that will only get worse in the coming years as the street becomes a construction zone to build Light Rail Transit.

"I think it might take some people back to learn the suburbs are just as bad, if not worse," Minnan-Wong said.

Commuter Frank Dolat said he waits 15 minutes every day to get through the light at Bayview and Sheppard Avenues — the area pinpointed as the very worst in the city. Dolat said he even brings a stack of newspapers and magazines so he has something to read while he waits.
Sensors needed

City staff say they already have the solution.

"We're looking at systems that can adapt to real-time conditions," said Myles Currie, Toronto's director of transportation.

Except for about 200 intersections downtown, Toronto's traffic lights run on timers, taking no account of how many cars are coming from each direction.

Currie wants to install so-called smart traffic lights — with sensors built into the road — that will determine traffic volume.

"If we find one direction heavier than the other, we'll add more green time," he said.

Staff say the lights would cost about $50 million. It's not clear where that money might come from. However, a 2011 Toronto Board of Trade report said gridlock is costing the region $6 billion annually, and rising.