Civilian traffic agents finally dispatched to Toronto intersections in attempt to reduce gridlock, improve safety

Thestar.com
November 19, 2020
David Rider

Four years after Toronto city staff recommended putting civilian traffic agents at frequently jammed intersections, to keep cars moving and pedestrians safe during rush hour, the program is finally a reality.

In a first for Ontario, traffic agents were deployed to intersections Wednesday morning. The city has hired 16 agents but is launching with the first six to graduate from a training program.

They replace more expensive paid-duty police officers first deployed as part of a 2016 pilot project to see if overseers would get more people to follow the rules and see fewer vehicles stuck mid-intersection, blocking traffic and pedestrians.

Intersections with officers were blocked 90 per cent less at rush hour while fewer pedestrians made risky dashes against the light.

It’s taken years for the city to transition from officers to traffic agents because the Highway Traffic Act allows only police to manage intersections and the province said no to a request to change the act, a city spokesperson said.

The city eventually reached agreement with the Toronto Police Services Board to have the agents trained as special constables. The designation, long used for court and TTC officers, empowers the agents to write tickets for offences such as running a red light or blocking an intersection.

But their main job is to keep traffic moving and pedestrians safe, said Roger Browne, the city’s director of traffic management. They’ll step out to ensure that drivers, pedestrians and cyclists obey walk signals, turn restrictions and the all-important tricoloured lights above the road.

“This is really a case of the traffic agent trying to enforce the operation of the signal as it stands,” Browne said.

“This is not a case of the traffic agents stepping out and controlling traffic on their own. Or overriding what the traffic signals are doing.”

Intersections slated to get agents at morning and afternoon rush hours are:

• Front Street West and Bay Street
• Front Street West and Simcoe Street
• Front Street West and University Avenue/York Street
• Adelaide Street West and University Avenue
• Adelaide Street East and Jarvis Street
• York Street and Gardiner Expressway on-ramp
• Bloor Street West and Bay Street
• Bay Street and Richmond Street West

City staff say more intersections across the city will likely be added later.

The program will have 16 full-time agents, two supervisors and a program manager. Agents underwent police background checks and training.

It is expected to save the city about $500,000 a year -- the difference in employing paid-duty officers at $74 per hour with a three-hour mininum and the new agents receiving base pay between $38.74 and $42.43 an hour.

In 2016, city staff released a report that said: “Police powers should not be a prerequisite for directing traffic. Other persons with appropriate training could fulfil the function safely in a more cost-effective manner.”

Like photo radar introduced at 50 spots across Toronto earlier this year, traffic agent rollout was delayed by years while the city asked the Ontario government for regulatory changes.

Earlier this year, Mayor John Tory told the Star the delays that followed a “fairly straightforward request” to then-premier Kathleen Wynne in 2016 illustrate Toronto’s problem modernizing within a web of provincial laws.

“It is just part of what I believe to be the archaic system we’re operating in, where we have to go and get nine different sets of permissions,” Tory said.

“I believe a city like Toronto should have the responsibility on its own, in conjunction with the police service, to make these decisions … but that’s not the way it is. It’s just another of these byzantine structures that are set up that frustrate our ability to do things quickly.”