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Does York Region's new tax to speed up road widenings make sense?

'Build it and they will come,' opponent of adding road lanes complains

Yorkregion.com
March 18, 2019
Lisa Queen

The most striking part of York Region’s budget this year is a bold step to boost taxes an extra one per cent to speed up road-widening projects as a way to tackle gridlock.

Of the $95 added to the average tax bill in 2019, $24 will advance widenings that otherwise would take more than 10 years to reach.
Council has indicated it will also add one per cent to the tax bill in each of 2020, 2021 and 2022.

The 13 projects are in addition to regional road construction work already in the queue for the growing region, which will see its population balloon by 700,000 by 2041 under growth rules dictated by the provincial government.

Although the accelerated projects are in Richmond Hill, Vaughan and Markham, East Gwillimbury Mayor Virginia Hackson pointed out they are streets that commuters from her community, as well as from Georgina, Newmarket, Aurora, King and Whitchurch-Stouffville, rely on as they make their way to work or other destinations.

Still, the region’s decision to bankroll faster road widenings is controversial.

Markham resident Peter Miasek, president of advocacy group Transport Action Ontario and co-founder of Keep York Moving, favours widening roads as long as the new lanes are dedicated to public transit buses and HOV lanes.

But others strongly oppose that view.

“In fact, the vast majority of residents I have talked with who have studied road widening strongly oppose the concept, as all evidence concludes it simply does not reduce traffic congestion and the cost, disruption and negative effects on health, the environment and the community are massive,” Unionville resident Roy O’Neill said in an email.

Elisabeth Tan, a member of Markham’s Cycling and Pedestrian Advisory Committee (CPAC), and Unionville resident and ratepayer association member Nesta Morris, a retired transportation research planner, also both adamantly oppose widening roads.

Pointing to studies that show adding lanes can make traffic congestion worse, Tan argues that wider streets are more dangerous for pedestrians, especially children and the elderly, and that they encourage driving, increase speeding in off-peak hours, reduce a sense of community, add to pollution and boost maintenance costs.

Worried about the practicality of enforcing rules for HOV lanes, she believes the answer to fighting traffic congestion lies in studying other jurisdictions that have implemented such measures as free or cheap transit and toll roads during peak hours.

Upset with never-ending development being forced on residents, Morris agrees there are many studies proving adding lanes only encourages more traffic.
“Build it and they will come,” she said.

There is a long history of research showing that expanding roads only leads to short-term improvements in traffic congestion, said Jonathan Hall, an assistant professor with the University of Toronto’s economics department and the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy.

Not only do additional lanes contribute to a community’s growth, but they encourage existing residents to make more trips on the roads, he said.
“In the end, if we want to reduce traffic congestion, we need to raise the cost of driving,” Hall said in an email.

“This is best done through road tolls, so that the toll can be low in the middle of the night and high during rush hour, but higher gas taxes and vehicle registration fees are other ways of accomplishing this.”

Judy Farvolden is the executive director of the University of Toronto’s Transportation Research Institute.

She sympathizes with well-meaning politicians grappling with the very complex headache of traffic congestion, especially in high-growth areas like York Region that are working to change their history as bedroom communities based around the car.

“The automotive age was a great thing. Until it wasn’t,” she said.

“One could add that congestion is part and parcel of living in a booming region. We wouldn’t want the alternative, which would be to have less economic opportunity.”

Widening roads is not a long-term solution because additional capacity will be consumed, Farvolden said.

Unfortunately, there are no easy answers but devising solutions must involve residents acknowledging that the status quo is not sustainable and being part of a bigger conversation about alternatives, she said.

But Vaughan Coun. Linda Jackson said it’s time to “bite the bullet” and approve the tax, arguing that growing traffic congestion will chase new residents and businesses from York Region.

Addressing gridlock is “mission critical,” and failure to do so would be an injustice to “frustrated-as-hell” commuters and first responders reacting to emergencies, Markham Mayor Frank Scarpitti said.

But the region has no evidence that homeowners, especially seniors on fixed incomes, are willing or able to pay the additional tax, Newmarket Mayor John Taylor said.

The region could remove the additional burden on taxpayers by borrowing the funds for the 13 projects from a reserve account instead, he said.

The region is already investing more than $1.6 billion on roads between 2015 and 2022, so it’s wrong to suggest roads aren’t a priority, Taylor argued.

SIDEBAR

York Region has approved an additional one per cent tax increase to speed up the following road projects from their current status of beyond 10 years: