A new report wants the province to “finish the job” on Toronto’s traffic

The Toronto Region Board of Trade has pitched five big ideas to get our roads moving again.

Last February, the industry group suggested a bevy of traffic-cracking strategies to the City of Toronto, which the city dutifully adopted wholesale. Building off that success, the board is now turning to the province, and has released a new report, titled “Breaking Gridlock: Finishing the Job Through Provincial Action,” that’s chock full of tips Premier Doug Ford’s government could use to improve commutes city-wide.

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First on the list is a crackdown on blocking the box, which is when cars drive into intersections they have no room to clear, and then just sit there blocking traffic when the lights switch. Because those cars are sitting ducks, the report argues, they’d be very easy to ticket with an automated camera. (Perhaps seeking to head off Ford’s known hostility towards certain road cameras, the report authors were quick to note that these cameras would be in no way measuring the speed of any moving car.)

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To get this up and running, the report says, the government would have to tweak the Highway Traffic Act, since, as it stands, the liability for blocking the box lies with the driver, not the owner, of the car. Because those people are not always the same, cities can’t just hand out automated tickets based on license plates. By making car owners liable instead, however, cities would be free to start snapping pics, making impatient drivers think twice.

The second item concerns the 2,000 lane closures in Toronto per year. Since many of these are caused by the province’s own projects—looking at you, Ontario Line—coordinating them better could go a long way. Making construction sites more flexible and easy to move out of the way would also speed things up, the report says. To that end, they suggest looking into ways to automate placing and removing barriers, including using drones to move traffic cones. The future is now.

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Number three is sorting out bottlenecks on the DVP and Gardiner Expressway, in particular the latter’s westbound on-ramps at York, Bay and Yonge streets and Spadina Avenue. Those have needed improvement for a while, says the report, but the city and province couldn’t agree who they belonged to. Now that the province has taken over both highways, however, that’s a moot point, and Ford is free to redesign them as he pleases.

The penultimate ask is to make the TTC, GO Transit, MiWay and the region’s other transit operators work together. These agencies don’t coordinate their schedules, the report notes, which means lots of waiting around when trying to plan a trip across them. Having them work together would make commuters’ lives easier across the GTA.

Finally, the report recommends bringing Toronto’s traffic lights into the 21st century. Many of the city’s 2,400 signals count down just the same regardless of road conditions, leaving people at lights even when there’s no cross traffic. A modern system would see the lights respond dynamically to the traffic they’re governing—and could even be installed in time for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, the report says.

This year has shown Ford to be more than willing to make big changes to Toronto’s roads, what with his banning of speed cameras and recent plans to allow single drivers into HOV lanes. That suggests the premier has willing ears for ideas like this. If the past is any precedent, we may be seeing some cone drones in the near future.