Road congestion, challenges topic of York roundtable discussion 'We need to move on something soon,' expert says

Yorkregion.com
March 21, 2014
By Sean Pearce

Most York Region residents rate road congestion the No. 1 issue facing the region, experts agreed at a roundtable discussion Friday to talk about what needs to be done.

The ratio of people who believe congestion has reached a crisis point is about three to one, Metrolinx's vice-president of strategic communications Judy Pfeiffer said, noting that many of those same folks aren't familiar with what projects are planned and underway or even what the role of her agency is.

"Everyone agrees it must be fixed," she said, adding the debate comes down to individual interpretations of what "it" is and what "fixed" entails.

The challenges of transit and transportation infrastructure improvements for the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area was the topic Friday morning at an event organized by the Canadian Automobile Association and presented by the Vaughan Chamber of Commerce.

One speaker was CAA South Central Ontario's director of government and community relations and transit investment strategy advisory panel member Teresa Di Felice who told the small crowd gathered at the Country Club in Vaughan that, despite recent developments (http://bit.ly/1oGzFlQ) the conversation on transit and transportation infrastructure had to keep going in a positive direction.

"The core issue is that we need to move on something soon," she said.

"We're behind and it's going to start affecting us."

If nothing else, the public seems to agree investing in roads and transit is an important priority, Ms Di Felice said, although the understanding of what's needed and how to pay for it may be lacking.

On top of that, about 50 per cent of the motorists polled by CAA feel they already pay their fair share for transportation, while an additional 25 per cent say they are paying more than their share for road enhancements.

The perception out there is that motorists do not cover the cost of road infrastructure, Ms Di Felice said, noting CAA has found the opposite to be true.

Ontario's motorists are covering up to 90 per cent of the cost of maintaining and operating our roads and when one zeroes in on the GTHA, you discover that motorists are, in fact, paying more than the cost of upkeeping the roadways.

The constant themes heard throughout the panel's work in the fall, Ms Di Felice continued, was that people generally do not trust the government to keep its word and that any new money collected for transit needs to be dedicated for that purpose.

York Region CAO Bruce Macgregor agreed with Ms Di Felice on the urgency of new investments in transit and transportation infrastructure. Currently, about one in three York residents rate congestion as the No. 1 issue facing the region, which puts it ahead of taxes, health care, the environment and even the economy, he said, adding the next 25 years will likely see as much growth or more in the 905, which could spell trouble if transit and local employment growth don't keep pace.

In its 10-year roads program, the region is working to add capacity, including construction of 266 new lane kilometres of arterial road, and pressuring the province to build new highways and expand old ones, Mr. Macgregor said, but it's also advocating for more help to build more and better transit.

He pointed to the Viva bus rapidways under construction in Vaughan, Markham and Richmond Hill as evidence of what the region is doing to improve transit with its senior government partners and also highlighted the Yonge Street subway extension is an important project that needs to move forward to alleviate congestion and create a vital transportation hub he described as a sort of "Union Station north".

We're well passed simply widening roads to solve the congestion problem, he added.

"I don't think you could put enough lanes on Hwy. 400, Hwy. 404 or Hwy. 401," Mr. Macgregor said. "Any lanes built are pretty much full the next day."

Vaughan planning commissioner John MacKenzie expressed gratitude for the transit and transportation funding the city has received to date, but stressed that more is needed as the town grows from 310,000 people to 450,000 in the next 15 years. Jane Street, for example, will need some form of enhanced transit put in place given the fact a hospital and more dense housing is planned for parts of the route, he said, expressing his hope to see more people get involved in the dialogue than have historically.

The general consensus was that while transit and transportation infrastructure improvements are needed, the motoring public needs to see some feasible alternatives to driving in place prior to asking for new fees and taxes and that the value needs to be demonstrable, with some pointing to Hwy. 407 as an example as drivers are willing to pay a toll for the sake of convenience.

Other thoughts were that the transit network must be made truly seamless and that cycling should be viewed as a more viable means for inter-regional transportation with adequate connections between municipalities established.