Why experts say work on these 5 fronts is needed to tackle Toronto’s congestion crisis


Unfortunately, there is not a single solution to Toronto’s congestion problem.

“You have to do everything,” said Baher Abdulhai, professor of engineering at the University of Toronto who specializes in smart transport systems.

“There is no silver cane solution.”

Instead, Abdulhai explained, we will need a significant investment and changes on five key fronts. A variety of other experts in which CBC Toronto spoke for this series, GridLocked: The Way Out, said the same.

Part of the work is already underway, while other solutions remain controversial. But in the heart of the subject, says Abdulhai, is supply and demand: there are too many cars for existing roads.

Look | Why the congestion is so bad and the necessary solutions to improve it:

Toronto has a congestion crisis. Here are 5 things that could fix it

Part 2 of the series of three parts of CBC Toronto, GridLocked: The Way Out, explains why the congestion is so bad in Toronto and how experts say that implementing a combination of several solutions in Tandem could improve things.

1. Build more and better transit

Toronto has about 5,600 kilometers of road, and the city says it doesn’t plan to build more.

These roads reached their maximum potential in the 1970s. And since 2000, the Metropolitan Area of ​​Toronto (GTA) has added 1.2 million cars to the system, according to the Board of Commerce of the Toronto region.

Then, experts say that there is the need for attractive alternatives, namely public transport.

“Building the system is the critical piece,” said Giles Gherson, president of Trbot. “We have known that we had to build traffic for decades, but we couldn’t do it.”

Aerial images (drones) of construction work for the Ontario line along Queen St West and Bay Street.
The construction on the Ontario line, a meter of 15 and 15.6 km, has closed Queen Street West in the heart of the center of Toronto since May 2023. (Patrick Morrell/CBC)

Several projects are in development. The construction began in the Ontario line, a meter of 15 births and 15.6 kilometers, in December 2021. The line will extend through the center of Toronto that connects the Eglinton Crosstown LRT in the northeast with a place of exposure in the southwest. It is supposed to be complete in 2031.

Other projects include the extension of Yonge North Subway, which will add five stations to the service of TTC line 1 to the north of almost eight kilometers to Richmond Hill, and Electrizers Transit trains GO for a faster service.

Abdulhai says we can’t afford to stop there.

“We need much more, especially at the regional level,” he said. “Expand Go Transit and have a traffic solution to 401”.

But the transit of buildings requires construction, which also affects congestion.

2. Minimize the impact of construction

Between traffic, infrastructure improvements and housing construction, there is a lot of construction in Toronto.

“Last summer, we saw up to 18 percent of all the eliminated road due to construction,” said Roger Browne, director of Traffic Management at Toronto.

Overwhelmingly, experts told CBC Toronto that the city needs to improve its supervision and management of construction projects.

Man in suit in front of the screen.
Roger Browne, director of Traffic Management of Toronto, says that the city is implementing the congestion tax to encourage builders to limit the construction traffic lanes for construction. (Paul Borkwood/CBC)

“Spite them, don’t close all roads at the same time,” said Abdulhai.

“[Otherwise] He is not looking for a traffic engineering solution, he is looking for a magician to be able to move the clogged infrastructure everywhere. ”

The city is working on it. The Council approved a Congestion Management Plan last fall that includes a tax for builders that block traffic lanes for construction. The rate would increase according to the size and duration of the closure.

“They are encouraged to minimize their construction work area.”

There will also be a new online reserve system so that builders see what road closures have already been approved before they request to close a road for construction.

“That gives us the opportunity to make sure we are not closing too many paths at the same time,” Browne said. “AND [builders] see themselves [for] first-hand.”

3. Huibrate the technology on existing roads

While construction continues in a new transit and other projects, technology can help maintain existing roads in motion.

“If you put too much demand in the infrastructure,” said Abdulhai, “then stops … and that causes more delays.

“We want to use technology to soften the functioning of how demand demands in infrastructure.”

For him, that means using AI to create smart roads and traffic lights. It showed the difference for CBC Toronto using funnels that represent two roads and rice nuclei that represent cars.

Look | The difference between an intelligent road and existing roads:

How to use the road ramps could keep traffic in motion

Baher Abdulhai, professor of engineering at the University of Toronto, demonstrates the difference between a smart road and existing roads that use funnels to represent roads and rice nuclei to represent cars.

For the uncontrolled road, it poured all the rice in the funnel at the same time, creating a bottleneck that took time to drain, which represents the congestion.

“On the smart highway, possibly controlled by artificial intelligence, what we do is control the rhythm of how [the rice] Traffic is poured into the system so that everyone passes without stopping and without delay, “said Abdulhai.

Practically, that rhythm could be done by adding traffic lights to the road input ramps, also called “ramp meter”, which would control the traffic that merges on the road in a way that does not slow it down.

Browne said the city currently has no plans to implement road measurement inside Toronto, because there is not much space to queue vehicles outside the roads.

Nor could it be under the control of Toronto, he said, given the loaded supervision of the city of the Gardiner highway and Don Valley Parkway to the province in 2023.

Man sitting on the desk looking at monitors with a lot of traffic video foods.
The Toronto Traffic Operations Center monitors traffic for the city 24/7 to 400 cameras and can adjust the almost 2,500 traffic signals of the city remotely when there is a problem. (Paul Borkwood/CBC)

When it comes to traffic signs, hundreds of the almost 2,500 traffic lights of the city already use artificial intelligence. But Browne says that his team is exploring more use of AI for signals to relieve pressure on staff, which otherwise has to adjust them remotely when there is a problem.

CBC Toronto also explored how automated application technology for traffic violations can change driver’s behavior and relieve stagnation in the first part of this series.

4. Incentivize changing behavior

The public and private sectors must offer incentives for changed behavior, experts say, as an insurance break or a free TTC pass.

“People will not be motivated to change if they do not have a reason,” said Taryn Grieder, a psychology assistant professor at the University of Toronto.

Woman in front of a blackboard.
Taryn Grieder, an assistant professor of Psychology at the University of Toronto, says that offering incentives is the best way to motivate drivers to change their behavior. (Laura Pedersen/CBC)

Gherson del Trbot is surprised by the amount of businesses that they know they are already doing this. He also says that many companies are executing private ferries between their workplaces and transit centers.

“This building here has a private sector transport service to get to Union Station because we don’t have much along Queens Quay and will inhibit the ability to grow this area,” he said about the office tower where the Board is trade. lying.

The man approaches a link bus.
The Trade Board of the Toronto region says that many companies are executing private ferries to take their employees to and from transit centers when there is a lack of transit in the area. The office building in Queens Quay, where the Board has its offices, operates a transport bus to and from Union Station. (Sue Goodspeed/CBC)

Gherson also believes that there should be incentives for companies that deliver during the night to avoid obstructing roads during the day.

“The role of companies will be to support the action plan, because governments will not make great movements if they do not feel that there is much support behind them.”

5. Consider congestion prices

The lack of public and political support occurs around the final piece of the puzzle for many experts: congestion prices.

The devices used for congestion toll hang on traffic on a Manhattan street in New York City.
New York City implemented congestion prices earlier this month for vehicles entering the Central Commercial District of Manhattan. (Seth Wenig/Associated Press)

Several important cities, including London, Stockholm and, more recently, New York City has some position raised by drivers in their most congested areas. The rates are intended to convince some to search for alternative traffic options or drive at hours of extraction with time prices.

The previous efforts to implement this in Toronto have failed. But Abdulhai and others say there is no way to avoid it to reduce the gap between road capacity and demand.

“It’s inevitable.”


Tomorrow: In the third and last part of Gridlocked: the exit, we explore why the idea of ​​prices and congestion tolls is so deeply unpopular in the ontarium, despite helping congestion elsewhere, and why some planners They say that drivers are already paying a significant cost for congestion.



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