Pan Am Games transit plan requires 20-per-cent traffic reduction

Transportation Minister Steve Del Duca says he has faith GTA commuters will take public transit and carpool in groups of three during the Pan Am Games.

Thestar.com
March 24, 2015
By Richard J. Brennan

The province’s plan for avoiding traffic chaos during the Pan Am Games is based on little more than a hope and a prayer, critics say.

Transportation Minister Steven Del Duca announced Tuesday the province’s $61-million transportation plan for the summer games is contingent upon a 20-per-cent reduction in regular traffic.

“I am confident we will make it happen here,” Del Duca told reporters, but added motorists are going to have to plan ahead if it is to work.

“That is unrealistic,” Tory MPP Michael Harris (Kitchener-Conestoga) said, given that so many people in the GTA work in downtown Toronto. “That’s not a plan, that’s an ask of people. It’s a hope.

“To ask for one in five people to stay at home is not a plan,” he said following a Del Duca news conference and a lengthy backgrounder by bureaucrats on the state of the game.

The massive month-long event is expected to draw 250,000 visitors to Toronto and area.

Del Duca said he has “faith” that Ontarians will get out of their cars and take public transit, carpool, check the special games traffic app before leaving home or use the 770 kilometres of temporary high occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes made available during the games or stagger their work hours.

“I’ve not talked to one company or heard of one company that is actually been speaking with the government to make modification (to work hours),” Harris, the Progressive Conservative’s transportation critic.

He noted there’s not even a plan for provincial employees - thousands of whom work downtown Toronto - to stagger their hours.

The target for reducing non-Games-related traffic, Del Duca said, is based upon the experiences of multi-sport games elsewhere including the London and Vancouver Olympics. The plan relies largely on public awareness, but also things like the co-ordination of construction projects.

However, Tory MPP Michael Harris said the government’s plan for dealing with traffic congestion is based on a “hope” and that is “unrealistic.”

Del Duca said ultimately a plan can only do so much.

“We are encouraging everyone to plan ahead and to consider options that will work for them by carpooling, taking public transit or working flexible hours,” he said.

When Del Duca was asked about what commuters to Toronto can expect, he said “I am not in a position today to talk about specific routes per se at any particular given times,” but pointed to traffic modelling shown to reporters earlier that commutes may be only a few minutes longer.

“There is no doubt there will be an impact but we do have a plan in place working with all of our partners making sure that we get the information out to the public as aggressively as we can,” he said.

A road map handed out at the technical briefing shows motorists using the HOV lane on the Don Valley Parkway, for example, should be able to clip along at an average speed of 70 km/h between 5 p.m. and 6 p.m., compared to 50 km/h any other time. Officials also predict that northbound traffic on Highway 427 during the same period could reach an average speed of 95 km/h compared to 80 km/h during non-Games times.

NDP critic MPP Paul Miller (Hamilton-Stoney Creek) wondered out loud how the HOV lanes are going to be enforced, but deputy OPP commissioner Brad Blair assured reporters there would be increased enforcement.

But Miller said, “They don’t enforce it now ... there are a lot of cars going along those lanes that ... have one (person).”

Del Duca said there will be a series of high-occupancy vehicle lanes on Highways 401 and 427, the Queen Elizabeth Way/Gardiner Expressway and the Don Valley Parkway/Highway 404 during the Pan Am Games and Parapan Am Games.

During the Pan Am Games, being held July 10 to 26, a vehicle will have to have three or more occupants to use the HOV lanes but will drop to two or more occupants during the Parapan Am Games, taking place August 7 to 15.

Del Duca said there is an effort to co-ordinate road and highway construction during the games, “and that will help us achieve our targets as well.”

By the Numbers:

1. Seven hundred and seventy kilometres of temporary high occupancy lanes in and around Toronto during the Pan Am/Parapan Am Games will operate between June 29 and Aug. 19.
2. Two hundred and fifty thousand visitors and 10,000 athletes and officials at 31 competition venues in a 10,000 square kilometre area around southern Ontario.
3. Twenty minutes longer to travel along the Gardiner Expressway from the Don Valley Parkway to Highway 427 if the province’s goal of a 20-per-cent reduction in traffic is not realized.
4. Thirty-five per cent of regular travellers during the summer Olympics in other cities changed their travel in way or another, Ontario bureaucrats say.
5. Three or more people must ride in vehicles travelling on HOV lanes during the Pan Am Games and two or more during the Parapan Am Games.