It no longer matters if you are on two feet, two wheels or in a vehicle with an engine; if you are younger or older, a downtowner or a suburbanite, a progressive or a conservative. Greater Toronto’s grinding traffic congestion has become an implacable feature of city-life, the consequence of decades of undisciplined planning and inadequate infrastructure investment.
The blame for the mess is diffuse and multi-generational, but it shouldn’t be too much to expect that the current crop of leaders apply even a minimal degree of clear-sightedness in confronting a wicked problem with profound environmental, social and economic implications.
And yet.
The Ford government’s latest “solution” 鈥 lifting the tolls on the publicly owned eastern leg of Highway 407, from Brock Road to Highway 115/35 鈥 showcases the muddled thinking that consumes Queen’s Park at the moment.
Yes, some portion of the commuting public will be loving the premier’s decision. But its popularity, which is limited, is vastly overshadowed by a glaring missed opportunity to actually ameliorate a certain form of congestion on a nongeological timeline.
How? By making it easier, cheaper and faster to move freight traffic along the entire length of Highway 407.
Thousands of trucks hauling goods into, out of and through the GTA contend with the enormous costs associated with gridlock 鈥 a hit on the regional economy that runs into the billions each year. At a time of severe economic uncertainty, thanks to our neighbour to the south, it would seem to be a no-brainer to fix that issue as soon as possible.
Which Queen’s Park could do聽right now聽by cutting a deal with the private聽owners聽of the 407 鈥 among them, the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board 鈥 to allow trucks and other commercial vehicles traverse the entire length of the 407 for free, with the provincial government picking up the tab for the foregone revenue.
Lifting tolls for all traffic on the eastern portion won’t help freight haulers. Why? Queen’s Park聽, which makes the Ford government’s latest gesture that much more perplexing.
While there’s some manufacturing in south Oshawa 鈥 notably the GM assembly plant and some suppliers 鈥 the vast majority of Greater Toronto’s industry is situated around Pearson, in Mississauga, Brampton, Milton and Georgetown, as well as parts of York Region.
An analysis carried out several years ago by the Neptis Foundation showed that these are the locations of the GTA’s employment “megazones,” districts characterized by sprawling distribution centres and light manufacturing. These zones generate a lot of commuter traffic, to be sure, but all those companies, many of them tethered to U.S. ports of entry at Fort Erie and Windsor, live and die by the goods they move to foreign customers.
One way to solve Highway 401 traffic, pictured above, is for Ontario to pay for freight trucks to drive on Highway 407 instead.
R.J. Johnston 海角社区官网StarOne way to聽solve Highway 401 traffic, of course, is to encourage all those firms to find other places where it’s easier to do business 鈥 something no one wants.
There are other and far more attractive options. The employment mega-zones, notably, are all situated tantalizingly close to Highway 407 and what remains a relatively easy drive, especially for truckers eager to dodge the 24/7 gridlock on the 401.
By intentionally directing freight traffic to the 407 using incentives, Queen’s Park has a way of providing a benefit to all those firms immediately, as opposed to the glacial scale required to complete Highway 413 鈥 which isn’t a solution at all 鈥 much less the galactic time-frame associated with Ford’s fantasy tunnel under the 401, also not a solution.
I understand that infrastructure takes a long time to plan and build. But the Ford government’s specific traffic infrastructure solutions are preposterously expensive 鈥 don’t believe the tunnel cost estimate of $120 billion, which is vastly inadequate for what’s proposed 鈥 and probably technically impossible.
The groups with the premier’s ear 鈥 I’m thinking specifically of the 海角社区官网Region Board of Trade 鈥 need to cease encouraging Ford’s magical thinking and push him to reach for a fix that is immediate, effective and 鈥 by comparison to the Big Doug tunnel scheme 鈥 cheap.
The government has a budget to deliver soon and a responsibility to support a sprawling economic region whose suburban employers are clamouring for practical, short-term solutions. Why Ford & Co. would ignore the one hidden in plain view is really anybody’s guess.
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