Afternoon rush hour times worsen in York Region: study

Yorkregion.com
Jan. 21, 2016
By Lisa Queen

As if anyone had to tell you, your commute times are getting longer, according to the latest Ministry of Transportation travel time study.

In particular, you’re spending more time in your car during the afternoon rush hour trying to get where you’re going, the study said.

“Focusing on the a.m. peak period, it’s no wonder our corridors down in the southern municipalities are congested. We know that they’re congested and that is reflected in the incremental travel time it’s taking to go through these areas,” Stephen Collins, York Region’s director of infrastructure management and the project management office, told a committee meeting.

“The p.m. period is actually worse than the a.m. period. The (road) network is more congested and there is more delay during that p.m. peak period.”

The study details commuter travel times on roads and highways in the Greater Toronto Area in 2014.

Although the study is conducted every two years, York didn’t participate in the 2012 evaluation because the region believed significant road construction, especially in the Hwy. 7 and Yonge Street corridors, would unfairly skew the results, Collins said.

York’s 2014 results show travel times are getting longer compared to the 2010 results.

During the morning rush, it is now taking commuters on many regional roads and highways in the region twice as long to get to work or other destinations compared to off-peak times.

Vehicles are travelling at about 30 km/h rather than the posted 60 km/h speed limit on those congested roads, the study said.

In the afternoon peak period, travel speed was reduced by almost 70 per cent, with many commuters inching homewards at about 20 km/h.

There is more congestion during the afternoon rush hour as commuters make more discretionary trips, such as picking up groceries or taking their children to activities, Collins said.

Anyone heading up and down Hwy. 404 on a regular basis knows how snarled the highway is consistently.

It’s important to note the section of Hwy. 404 between 16th Avenue and Hwy. 401 is the most congested and slowest operating section of the provincial freeway network in both the morning and afternoon peak period, Collins said.

York’s slowest moving roads during the morning commute are:

• Keele Street southbound from Langstaff Road to Hwy. 7
• Centre Street westbound from Dufferin Street to Hwy. 7
• Keele Street southbound from Major Mackenzie Drive to Rutherford Road
• Yonge Street southbound from Hwy. 7 to Steeles Avenue
• Hwy. 7 westbound from Woodbine Avenue to Leslie Street
• Davis Drive eastbound from Yonge to Leslie (which was under extensive construction for the vivaNext bus rapidway)
• Donald Cousens Parkway southbound from Hwy. 7 to Steeles
• Hwy. 7 eastbound from Leslie to Woodbine
• Davis Drive westbound from Leslie to Yonge
• 16th Avenue from Woodbine to Leslie

The slowest moving roads during the p.m. peak period are:

• Leslie northbound from Hwy. 407 to 16th
• Rutherford westbound from Keele to Weston Road
• Woodbine northbound from Steeles to Hwy. 7
• Hwy. 7 westbound from Woodbine to Leslie
• Keele southbound from Langstaff to Hwy. 7
• Davis Drive westbound from Leslie to Yonge
• Rutherford eastbound from Weston to Keele
• Hwy. 7 eastbound from Woodbine to Kennedy Road
• Hwy. 7 westbound from Keele to Weston
• 16th eastbound from Leslie to Woodbine

Traffic congestion ranks as the No. 1 concern of York residents, Collins said.

Different levels of government are addressing the problem, he said.

Collins pointed to the province completing the extension of Hwy. 404 to Ravenshoe Road in 2014 and its plans to widen Hwys. 404 and 400 and the region’s significant efforts to upgrade traffic signal controllers and optimize traffic signal co-ordination.