Tag: roads

PCs urged to pay truckers’ tolls

Proponents say move could quickly reduce gridlock on highways, roads

This article was written by David Rider and was published in the Toronto Star on December 2, 2024.

Proponents of diverting truck traffic from packed 400-series highways to private Highway 407 say the Ford government doesn’t need to strike a deal with the 407’s owners — it can quickly ease gridlock by simply paying truckers’ tolls.

Vaughan Coun. Marilyn Iafrate will on Tuesday urge her colleagues to lobby Premier Doug Ford to study the feasibility of buying back Highway 407 which the provincial government built and in 1999 sold to private operators to run as a tolled alternative to public roads.

But Iafrate said that, in the meantime, the province should launch a one-year pilot program to subsidize or eliminate truckers’ Highway 407 tolls to lure them off public highways and regional roads.

The province should then, she said, study the move’s impact on “traffic congestion and overall traffic efficiency.”

In an interview, Iafrate accused Ford of dreaming up new roads to combat gridlock, including planned Highway 413 that would impact her ward and which she opposes, and a possible tunnel under a swath of Highway 401, when a quicker, more cost-effective and underutilized solution sits in plain sight.

“If I’m on Highway 7 stuck at Bathurst Street going toward Bayview Avenue, I look south and see Highway 407 running free and that’s what irritates people — they’re very angry because we’re stuck while traffic is running free over there on a highway that we paid for,” she said.

(People are) very angry because we’re stuck while traffic is running free over there on a highway that we paid for.

MARILYN IAFRATE VAUGHAN COUNCILLOR

“It’s a no-brainer — they’ve got a piece of road that could be kickstarted tomorrow and provide immediate relief to residents of Vaughan,” and beyond.

Her push comes days after a spokesperson for Ontario Transportation Minister Prabmeet Sarkaria said the government has “been in conversations with the 407,” adding: “We will continue to find ways to make life more affordable for Ontarians and ensure they can get where they need to go every day. This includes looking at all options and building the critical infrastructure we need to keep up with our growing population.”

The spokesperson for the Ministry of Transportation, Dakota Brasier, declined to say if talks are about buying back the highway or subsidizing truck tolls, or something else.

In an email Highway 407 ETR spokesperson Christina Basil said: “We continue to have regular meetings with the Government and explore opportunities to alleviate congestion across the region. We’re always open to constructive dialogue that benefits both commercial users and the greater transportation network, though the Ontario Government hasn’t engaged in any discussions with us regarding a potential buyback of Highway 407 ETR.”

Basil declined to say if talks have included the possibility of Ontario subsidizing truck tolls.

Iafrate, whose ward includes Maple and Kleinburg, argued that Highway 407 majority owners, the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, should not charge Ontario for a pilot project to shift trucks to the tollway given that, in 2021, the Ford government opted to not pursue about $1 billion in penalties when 407 traffic levels fell below a contractual target during the pandemic.

The province could strengthen its bargaining position by buying out the current 407 shareholders, she said, including the 6.76 per cent AtkinsRéalis Group Inc., formerly SNC Lavalin Group Inc., which plans to sell by the end of 2027. But even if no deal can be reached, the province could simply start a process to fully or partially rebate truckers any Highway 407 tolls, Iafrate said, predicting an immediate decrease in gridlock on Highway 401 and other roads at a cost affordable to taxpayers.

A September 2023 report commissioned by Environmental Defence argued that fully subsidizing Highway 407 truck tolls for 30 years would cost substantially less than building the 52-kilometre Highway 413 through York, Peel and Halton while sparing agricultural land from the steamroller.

Phil Pothen, the group’s Ontario Environment Program Manager, said in an interview: “Subsidizing tolls on the 407 could be implemented easily and ramped down as measures to actually reduce traffic on Highway 401 kick in.

“The actual solution to traffic problems is, in concert with shifting traffic to 407, moving other trips to transit and active transportation while densifying urban neighbourhoods and suburbs,” so people have shorter trips to work, shops, hockey arenas and other vital trips, he said.

PCs to fast-track highway projects

Bill sets penalties for holding up work on Hwy. 413, Bradford Bypass

This article was written by Rob Ferguson and was published in the Toronto Star on October 18, 2024.

With an early provincial election looming, Premier Doug Ford’s government wants to fast-track construction of Highway 413, the Bradford Bypass and a twin section of the Garden City Skyway in St. Catharines.

Transportation Minister Prabmeet Sarkaria said legislation called the “Building Highways Faster Act” will be introduced after the legislature returns next week from an extended summer break to provide for “around-the-clock, 24/7 construction.”

Taking aim at potential protests against the two highway projects which have been heavily opposed by environmentalists and others for using up prime Greenbelt farmland and threatening endangered or rare species, the bill would set “new penalties for obstructing access for field investigations” or “damaging equipment,” Sarkaria said Thursday in Caledon.

It would also “accelerate” the process for buyouts or expropriations of farmland or other properties needed for the projects and “streamline” relocations of utility lines. There will also be legislation to establish an “accelerated environmental assessment process” for Highway 413, from Highway 401 at Milton to Highway 400 in Vaughan, allowing the province to proceed with early work on the controversial roadway rejected by a previous Liberal government.

“Projects like this need to get built,” Sarkaria said, citing “unprecedented growth” in Ontario with projections the population will increase two million by 2031 and put existing 400-series highways at or over capacity within a decade.

“Gridlock suffocates our roadways.”

Green MPP Aislinn Clancy (Kitchener Centre) said the proposed legislation is dangerous.

“Slashing environmental laws, paving over our Greenbelt, Ontarians have made it clear that they’re not OK with this,” she added in a statement, referring to the government’s $8.28-billion Greenbelt land swap scandal under investigation by the RCMP. “For the government to be trying it yet again with Highway 413 shows how they’ll do anything to help their inner circle over the people of this province. We also need to build communities that don’t require you to travel a great distance to get to work or school, by building more homes in existing neighbourhoods and especially around transit hubs.”

The Bradford Bypass will stretch from Highway 400 in the Bradford area east to Highway 404 in a bid to ease congestion between there and Toronto. The Garden City Skyway traverses the Welland Canal on a busy stretch of the Queen Elizabeth Way. Plans call for a new four-lane, 2.2-kilometre bridge in addition to a rehabilitation of the deck on the existing bridge.

Liberal Leader Bonnie Crombie reiterated her opposition to Highway 413 earlier this week.

“I have never supported the 413.”

Tunnel vision will make traffic worse

This article was written by Matti Siemiatycki and was published in the Toronto Star on September 27, 2024.

MATTI SIEMIATYCKI IS DIRECTOR OF THE INFRASTRUCTURE INSTITUTE AND PROFESSOR OF GEOGRAPHY AND PLANNING AT THE UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO.

Years late and way over budget, the Eglinton Crosstown LRT highlights local difficulties with tunneling.

Ambitious. That’s the word that Premier Doug Ford used to describe his proposal to build a tunnel under Highway 401 potentially stretching from Brampton to Scarborough.

Financially reckless and ineffective are other words that come to mind. There are far better options worth exploring to tackle Toronto’s traffic gridlock.

In his remarks, the premier lamented the terrible state of traffic in the region and called for bold solutions. I’ve been stuck on Highway 401 like everyone else. It’s awful. We need real solutions.

Unfortunately this proposed tunnel will not solve the problem, it will only make it worse. For decades, cities trying to solve their congestion problems by building bigger highways have experienced the phenomenon of induced demand.

New highway capacity encourages more people to drive and spurs auto-oriented development. More people then choose to commute by car because there is additional road capacity, and they choose to travel during the rush hour period rather than at off peak hours.

All of this ultimately leads to a return of gridlock, just with more vehicles flooding onto surrounding highways, arterial roads and neighbourhood streets that will not be increased in size. It’s like creating a bigger funnel without increasing the size of the spout.

Nor do suggestions of adding a transit line to this tunnel improve its merits. Transit works best for riders when the stations are on main streets surrounded by shops and dense housing, not in the middle of highways.

While there is ample evidence that expanding lane space through a new tunnel will be ineffective at solving gridlock long-term, the risks of building this project can hardly be overstated.

Tunnelling is hugely expensive at the best of time, prone to massive cost overruns and delays. Building one of the longest urban highway tunnels in a dense city environment under a wide, operating freeway only increases the degree of difficulty.

Many people will point to the Big Dig in Boston, a particularly notorious tunnelling project to replace an existing elevated freeway that was eight years late and skyrocketed in cost. The ballooning costs and delays on the Eglinton Crosstown LRT highlights local difficulties with tunnelling.

As the proposed tunnel idea is being spearheaded by the provincial government, all Ontarians would be on the hook for paying for this tunnel project and should be concerned about the risk of how much it will cost.

The premier’s announcement was to conduct a feasibility study. We’re a long way from construction getting under way.

In the spirit of early investigations of big, bold ideas to solve congestion in the region, it would be far more productive to conduct a robust study of the impacts of implementing road tolls on the most congested highways in the area. The road tolls would be required to go hand in hand with a massive expansion of existing public transit service at lower fares.

What are the benefits and the costs of implementing road tolls on Highways 401, 427, the Gardiner Expressway and the Don Valley Parkway that together make up the inner ring of freeways in Toronto? And can road tolls be implemented in concert with transit expansion in such a way that they don’t exacerbate existing inequalities or unaffordability?

This is not about implementing luxury lanes so the wealthy can move more easily, but rather about making travel faster and more reliable for everyone.

I know the chances of this suggestion being taken up are slim to none. Road tolls are loathed by Ford and are not popular across the political spectrum. But they have proven effective in reducing congestion in cities like London, Singapore and Stockholm.

Since we’re thinking big about how to solve Toronto’s nightmarish congestion, why not at least take a serious look at road tolls that have been effective in other cities.

Given the scale of the congestion problem, no stone should be left unturned.