Construction is the key culprit behind Toronto traffic, city says. Here's what it plans to do about it
24% of roads temporarily closed during peak construction season last summer: staff report
In what may not come as a shock to those who stew in frustration behind the wheel of a car in Toronto, the city has identified construction as the leading cause of worsening traffic on its streets.
That diagnosis is at the heart of an update to Toronto's congestion management plan, which was adopted with amendments by the city's infrastructure and environment committee Wednesday.
On top of being the busiest construction city in North America, according to the new staff report, Toronto's roads have also seen a 26 per cent increase in vehicle registrations since 2014. And that road network, some 5,600 kilometres, hasn't grown in decades.
"During the summer of 2024, construction in the city at its peak saw the temporary closure of 24 per cent of all roads, which resulted in the travel times being more than double," the report says.
The updated plan still needs to be considered by city council later this month, but it would implement five key measures to manage the congestion clogging Toronto's streets:
- Using new technology to move people more efficiently.
- Helping transit move faster.
- Increasing on-the-ground traffic management at specific intersections.
- Implementing a strategy for traffic around special events.
- Planning and coordinating city-wide construction projects.
Coun. Mike Colle, who introduced the motion to adopt the report's recommendations Wednesday, said those measures will help, but Toronto is still facing a growing traffic problem.
"Despite all these efforts, all the improvements we're going to look at making, we are still faced with [a] 26 per cent increase in car ownership," he said.
"I'm just warning people out there, don't think this is going to make it easy for you to come [to] downtown Toronto at eight o'clock on a Tuesday morning."
As part of the strategy, staff want to expand transit signal priority — where TTC vehicles get longer green lights — to 50 new locations by the end of the year.
An amendment put forward by Coun. Dianne Saxe Wednesday directs city staff to work with the TTC to see how existing transit signal priority systems can be further expanded to high ridership corridors.
"It's the cheapest, fastest thing the city can do to make transit more reliable, bring riders back," said Saxe, adding that she'd like to see that work done ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, when an influx of visitors is expected to add pressure to the city's roads.
Saxe also introduced an amendment to request city staff work with the TTC and Toronto police on a plan to "significantly reduce" the number of streetcar delays caused by improperly parked vehicles that block transit. She suggested exploring higher fines, increased enforcement and faster towing services.
The number of traffic agents around the city would go from 22 to 67 by early summer, with the goal of having 100 agents by the end of the year. Those agents would also be deployed to 13 new corridors, a significant increase to the current three.
The city would also look at charging construction companies more money for shutting down lanes of traffic. Under the present scheme, which came into effect at the beginning of April, companies are charged a $76.15 application fee, then $40.71 per 50 metres, per day, for shutting down a lane of a major road.
The city would look at upping those fees using road closure data from this summer.
Strategy needs to get people out of cars, expert says
Steven Farber, a transportation geographer and interim director of the Mobility Network research hub at the University of Toronto, was glad to see the city highlighting the issue of road space being maxed out.
"But we're treating the symptoms, not the root cause. And the root cause is simply too many people trying to drive," he said. "We need to recognize that drivers aren't just stuck in congestion, they are the congestion. When you drive, you are part of the problem."
He said everyone wants a magic bullet for traffic, but really what's needed is a shift in behaviour.
"What I mean is we need to have people doing less driving and more cycling and transit use at scale," he said.
The way to do that, he added, is by making those alternative options more attractive. One thing he'd like to see is a focus on expanding dedicated bus lanes, so vehicles moving many people aren't stuck sitting behind vehicles moving what might be just one person.
In addition the expanding transit signal priority, the plan also includes a process to reduce congestion impacts on transit vehicles during city or TTC construction projects. It would use traffic simulation models that will create different traffic signal timing plans that benefit transit and consider temporary adjustments to street parking that could slow it down.
Board of trade wants more from city
A Toronto Region Board of Trade task force spent more than a year digging into the city's traffic woes before making recommendations in February, which staff responded to in an attachment to the new report.
"We don't think that they've quite taken the bold action that we've been calling for," said Monika Wyrzykowska, the board's director of transportation and infrastructure policy.
But she said there were some positive developments, like the discussion around charges for construction companies blocking lanes of traffic.
When it comes to what more Wyrzykowska wants to see, she pointed to the recommendation that the city create a cross-departmental commissioner for congestion to bolster a culture of accountability on the file.
"There are a lot of departments involved in making decisions that impact our roads and we need a person that's accountable and implementing the right types of evidence-based measures to really make sure that the city is moving again," she said.
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With files from Ethan Lang