Ring road redux? London to revisit an old fix to new traffic congestion

Note this story was first published Tuesday morning but updated after Tuesday's council meeting.

An old planning idea, once declared dead at city hall, is now back as council looks at ways to provide quick relief for fast-growing surging traffic congestion in London, Ont. 

The idea is a ring road, essentially a high-volume road that would connect the north and west ends of the city to Highway 401. 

It's been put forward in various forms since the 1960s, as a way to move traffic around the city, in part to relieve pressure on roads in the city's core. 

Councillors Corrine Rahman and Steve Lehman put forward a motion to council Tuesday asking that the mayor and staff begin talks with the province and neighbouring municipalities to "work collaboratively on a ring road and integrated transportation network." 

Councillors approved the motion with a 12-3 vote, with Councillors Skylar Franke and Sam Trosow opposing it. 

The concept was revived as council gave final approval to London's Master Mobility Plan, a document intended to guide transit plans for the next 25 years. 

During the debate on the motion, Mayor Josh Morgan pointed out that it doesn't include any specific locations or road connections for a ring road for London. It only gives a green light for city staff to begin a conversation between the city, the province and neighbouring municipalities about the potential for a ring road. 

The idea of a ring road runs counter to much of London's recent planning principles: Namely, to focus growth "inward and upward" and reach a goal of 32.5 per cent of all trips made by biking, walking or transit.  

In an interview with CBC News before Tuesday's council meeting, Rahman said London has already grown past those planning ideals and that a ring road is an idea worth studying. Her Ward 7 is located in the city's northwest, where new subdivisions are overwhelming two-lane roads such as Sunningdale. 

"One of the main arguments I hear against ring roads is that it promotes development on the outer ends of the city limits," she said. "But the practicality is that that's already there, it's already happening."

When the idea of revisiting a ring road began to resurface last week, city councillor Stephen Turner pushed back at the idea of revisiting what he sees as a leftover of 1960s planning.

He argues that it doesn't fit with council-approved planning directives in the Master Mobility Plan or with the city's Climate Emergency Action Plan, which has a built-in goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions.  

"You know how something checks all the boxes? This one crosses out all the boxes," said Turner. 

Citing examples in other cities, Turner said ring roads don't constrain growth to a city's core. Instead, he said, they spur new growth at the outskirts, essentially leading to the kind of sprawl the London Plan, the city's guiding planning document, aims to avoid. 

"They become mass conduits that usher cars away from local commerce," he said. "The only one they serve is big-box commercial modes." 

Creates conflict with farmers

Turner said while London doesn't have mountains or water bodies as obstacles to outward growth, the city is surrounded by valuable farmland and smaller communities outside London's city limits. A ring road would mean annexing parts of adjacent municipalities or moving into expensive land purchases and expropriations. 

Ring road proposals in the past have met with stiff opposition from farmers, raising the potential for expensive expropriation and possibly the need to annex land from neighbouring municipalities. 

"The opportunity for London to have created a ring road was back in the 1950s or 1960s," said Turner.

A.J. Wray, a research scientist in the Department of Geography and Environment at Western University, said a ring road is needed to move goods and people around the city quickly. He said London's planning history is marked by missed opportunities to fund badly needed, big-ticket infrastructure items.  

"I support the London Plan's core principles, but it's outdated now and needs to be given a reality check," said Wray. 

He said a ring road should be built in conjunction with higher-level transit, not in place of it.

6 lanes on Wonderland

Another proposal included in Rahman's and Lehman's motion calls for the restarting of a study to widen Wonderland Road to six lanes from its current four lanes, though with a long-term plan to eventually convert two of those lanes to dedicated bus lanes. Council voted down widening Wonderland back in 2021. 

On Tuesday at council, the motion to restart the environmental assessment for widening Wonderland was approved by a nine to six vote. 

Councillors voting in favour were Rahman, Lehman, Jerry Pribil, Mayor Morgan, Peter Cuddy, Paul Van Meerbergen, Steve Hillier, Shawn Lewis, and Susan Stevenson. Councillors Anna Hopkins, David Ferreira, Elizabeth Peloza, Hadleigh McAllister, Sam Trosow and Franke were opposed. 

"From residents in the ward, I hear there's challenges getting around the city in general and in peak times it is quite difficult to navigate the area," said Rahman in an interview with CBC News prior to the meeting. 

Neither the ring road revisit nor widening Wonderland is supported by city staff. 

A staff report said a ring road would be built too far out from the city's core to be an effective time saver. As for Wonderland, the report said widening it from Fanshawe Park Road to Southdale Road would only save two minutes of travel time and cost an estimated $400 million.