Pan Am congestion could pay off for Toronto

Traffic chaos during Pan Am Games this summer could benefit city.


Thestar.com
March 29, 2015
By Christopher Hume

What if we approached the upcoming Pan Am/Parapan Games as a dress rehearsal for the future rather than a giant pain in the butt?

Within a decade, experts tell us, another million people will have moved to Toronto. At the same time, the population of the Greater Toronto Area will have swelled to 7 million.

In other words, traffic conditions during this summer’s blowout will give local drivers a glimpse of the nightmarish congestion that awaits them. The games are expected to draw 250,000 visitors and participants. With venues spread out from Scarborough and Hamilton to downtown Toronto, the number crunchers warn us to expect delays of up to 20 minutes on a one-way commute.

The only solution, we are told, is to reduce traffic by 20 per cent. So far, the plan is to fiddle with HOV lanes and beg people to stay off the roads. If that were enough, GTA streets would already be humming with happy drivers.

Interestingly, that 20 per cent figure is within the range of traffic decreases that followed the implementation of congestion fees in Stockholm, London and Singapore, where traffic has been reduced between 10 and 30 per cent.

Also interesting is the fact that Stockholm introduced its congestion fees as a seven-month experiment. At the start, a majority opposed the charges. By the end, positions were reversed and most were in favour.

The games won’t last as long, but the event would be a good time to begin, if not complete, a test run. Before that can happen, however, the city (and province) needs a plan, not just a wish list. Even without road tolls, the sudden influx of so many people will be an occasion to study how GTA traffic will be in years ahead.

For example, will there be an increase in transit use? Will commuters switch to GO and/or the TTC, and in what sort of numbers? And for how long?

Perhaps GO could add more trains and the TTC enhance service. Pan Am congestion might well provide the motivation for drivers to test the transit alternatives and, liking what they find, convert.

Researchers have also found that a certain amount of traffic “disappears” at times like this. That means drivers find other routes to get from A to B, or that they consolidate their trips to reduce the amount of travelling. Instead of, say, three or four trips a week, they make one or two.

So far, the emphasis has been on staggered office hours and encouraging businesses to let employees work at home. Nothing wrong with either strategy, but the bigger opportunity is to see not just how the infrastructure functions, but how it could.

At the same time, Toronto has to make a big decision this year about the Gardiner Expressway. City staff has recommended it be taken down east of Jarvis St., but that won’t go down well here in Car Town.

The beauty of the games is that we don’t have a choice. To make things worse, the proposed Queens Quay East LRT, which was to have extended from Union Station to the Pan Am Athletes Village in the West Don Lands, isn’t built. The only way to reach the village, other than a spur line running from the King St. E. streetcar line, will be by car or bus.

Both London and Stockholm beefed up public transit before introducing congestion fees. At this point, it’s too late to do much more than treat this like just another transit crisis of the sort riders face daily. And any chance of introducing road tolls is long gone. That will make drivers happy, at least until the games begin.