Chow says Toronto’s traffic congestion plan is working, acknowledges more could have been done sooner

Mayor Olivia Chow said Thursday that new data show Toronto’s congestion management plan is working to reduce gridlock, with recent travel times for drivers and transit riders showing improvement in some of the most congested parts of the downtown core.

“We do know that the economic impact of congestion – $11 billion a year – is severe, which is why we've been working relentlessly and tirelessly to improve the traffic and find ways to get people moving faster,” Chow said at a news conference at the busy intersection of Front Street and Spadina Avenue Thursday.

Trumpeting faster recent travel times on Spadina Avenue, the Gardiner Expressway and King Street – all routes which have sparked the ire of transit riders and motorists recently – Chow said the city’s efforts to manage congestion “are working.”

She said the “secret weapon” has been traffic agents and the city is looking to hire more of them.

“They are miracle workers,” Chow said. “The streetcar on King Street is now moving three times faster.”

In a news release, the city lauded traffic agents for eliminating instances of vehicles blocking intersections 96 per cent of the time, reducing travel times by up to 33 per cent, and decreasing the risk of collisions or near misses between vehicles, cyclists and pedestrians.

Chow acknowledged that some of the improvements that have been rolled out recently could have been implemented pre-emptively in areas where it should have been clear that construction and detours would cause major problems.

“I know we should have done it before. We should have predicted the problem, and we didn't do that,” Chow said. “We apologize for the first couple of hiccups. It should not take that time before we came up with it. In hindsight, yeah – it's obvious.”

She pointed to coordination between city departments as having been a problem.

“I think there was a case of people not communicating better and not getting ahead of the problem and trying to solve it beforehand,” Chow said. “Absolutely we should have done it earlier. But it's not too late to admit that you have a problem and come to a solution.”

Barbara Gray, the general manager of Transportation Services, also spoke at the news conference and said part of the problem is not having “solid processes and touch points” to make sure that proper coordination occurs even after people move on from their jobs.

“We’re bringing a couple of really important reports to Infrastructure Committee at the end of this month, and one of those is on our revamp of our strategic capital coordination, and all of that is tied together,” Gray said. “So all challenges sort of have a good outcome if you use them appropriately and so we've been working very diligently with the TTC on trying to fix all those gaps.”

Here are some of the routes where the city says it has seen big improvements to transit and/or driving times:

Spadina Avenue

Streetcars went out of service at the end of June in order to accommodate streetcar track upgrades. Buses were brought in to replace streetcars, but they were travelling in mixed traffic, causing lengthy delays in travel times. At the end of July, the city implemented a dedicated southbound bus lane between Richmond Street and Lake Shore Boulevard.

The city said Thursday that the median afternoon travel times on the busy route have been cut in half for transit riders – down from 24 to 12 minutes. The most severe delay on the route dropped from 56 minutes to 19 minutes.

The median travel time for the same trip was down to five minutes at other times of the day, a one-minute savings in the morning and two minutes on midday trips.

Meanwhile travel times for other vehicles were either the same or down by as much as a minute.

However the city noted that motorists continue to experience congestion getting onto the Gardiner Expressway from Spadina.

Lake Shore Boulevard and Gardiner Expressway

A recent change to allow drivers to turn left onto Spadina Avenue from Lake Shore Boulevard has allowed some 6,500 vehicles per day to turn onto Spadina from eastbound Lake Shore Boulevard.

The city says that has taken some pressure off the clogged Gardiner Expressway – which is already plagued by severe congestion thanks to major reconstruction work – by allowing some motorists to use Lake Shore Boulevard as an alternative.

Traffic volumes indicated that 55,000 vehicles a day exit the Gardiner at Spadina Avenue, the city says.

The change has reduced travel times on the Gardiner by 5-18 minutes, according to the city, while offering Lake Shore Boulevard an alternative to the Gardiner, an option which saves motorists 7-10 minutes compared to using the highway for the same stretch.

King Street

The city says that dedicated traffic signals, improved signage and deploying traffic agents and police officers to key intersections have significantly improved transit travel times along King Street.

Traffic signal timing has been changed so that streetcars have more time to get through intersections as well.

The city says the measures have meant that streetcar travel times along King Street have remained relatively consistent with improved travel times announced earlier this year, which were 28 to 44 minutes faster than peak travel times in 2023 between university Avenue and Jarvis Street.

The increased presence of traffic agents and officers has also meant that driving violations through intersections have remained 60 per cent lower throughout the year compared with December 2023.

Liberty Village

The city says that a traffic action plan for Liberty Village is working, with watermain and streetcar track replacement on King Street, between Dufferin Street and Strachan Avenue complete 10 weeks ahead of schedule.

The city has also deployed traffic agents and paid duty officers to key intersections during games at BMO field and has installed new cameras at a number of intersections in the area to improve traffic flow.