Latest news with #EglintonCrosstownLRT
Toronto Star
28-05-2025
- Automotive
- Toronto Star
There's a hidden pattern behind Toronto's awful congestion problem. We need to find it before we can fix it
Torontonians waste an average of 142 hours annually sitting in traffic, costing the region an estimated $6 billion in lost productivity each year. Beyond the economic impact, this congestion contributes significantly to our carbon footprint and diminishes our quality of life. Will building new lanes above and below Highway 401 solve our traffic congestion problems? Is now the right time to close a lane on the Gardiner Expressway for construction? Should we build more bike lanes or remove the ones already installed? When the Eglinton Crosstown LRT finally opens, and the Ontario Line after that, will congestion improve? Is congestion charging the answer? Is building a tunnel under Highway 401 the best way to help reduce traffic congestion? R.J. Johnston Toronto Star To answer these questions, we must first recognize that transportation data is inherently spatial — it is geographical information about where and when movement occurs. Traditional data analysis struggles with these kinds of questions because it treats this rich spatial data as entries in a spreadsheet, stripping away critical real-world context. The solution is clear: we need a geographic approach, a way of understanding and solving real-world problems by making sense of data through the lens of location. This approach is enabled by geographic information system (GIS) technology. For example, Santa Clara County, which is just south of San Francisco, used GIS to analyze millions of vehicles turning movements per day and optimize signal timing, eliminating 18,000 unnecessary stops per day. GIS technology has already been widely adopted in more than 20 industries and numerous government departments, from emergency services to urban planning. ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW While GIS has been successfully applied to many municipal issues, its full potential for addressing traffic congestion, specifically, is a significant opportunity for many cities, including Toronto. Traffic congestion is fundamentally a supply and demand problem: too many vehicles competing for limited road space. Building more roads seems logical, but induced demand complicates this approach. There are countless residents who don't currently drive but would choose to if roads were less congested. How many people? What is the ideal number of new roads to build? Traditional analyses have failed to provide clear answers. GIS reveals otherwise invisible patterns by visualizing layers of data as maps, allowing planners to see, analyze and determine true correlations between cause and effect. For example, GIS analysis in Barcelona revealed that 60 per cent of congestion occurred at just 15 per cent of intersections, leading to targeted improvements rather than broad, expensive solutions. Toronto's transportation planners, city council and provincial authorities are already making significant strides through the recently updated Toronto Congestion Management Plan and various technology innovation pilots. These forward-thinking initiatives demonstrate the city's commitment to addressing traffic challenges, but their impact remains uncertain. By further incorporating geographical approaches into transportation planning, the city can complement these existing efforts with additional evidence-driven insights. GIS-based analysis would work alongside current programs to provide deeper spatial understanding of traffic patterns, helping to optimize infrastructure investments and enhance data-backed strategies. Without precise spatial analysis, we're essentially guessing.
Yahoo
08-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Ottawa could lose oversight over LRT under Metrolinx, Toronto councillor warns
Two major provincial party leaders have promised to transfer responsibility for Ottawa's light rail system to Metrolinx if elected, but some experts in Toronto are warning that they've been trying to claw back authority from that same agency. Metrolinx is the provincial agency responsible for building and maintaining certain public transit projects in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). Coun. Mike Colle, who represents Toronto's Eglinton-Lawrence ward, says giving that power to Metrolinx was "the worst thing we ever did." He warned the capital could lose oversight over the LRT if Doug Ford or Bonnie Crombie fulfil their campaign vows to "upload" the project to the province. "You're basically giving it away to private contractors that don't have to answer to the people of Ottawa. They don't answer to anybody." Metrolinx is "totally unaccountable" for its projects in Toronto, Colle claimed. But Mayor Mark Sutcliffe is a supporter of Metrolinx "uploading" the LRT, arguing it would free up enough funds to assure a future for Ottawa's transit system. Metrolinx 'doesn't inspire confidence' Ottawa recently reopened its expanded second LRT line after more than four years of construction and delays. Sutcliffe said that according to his understanding of the campaign promises, Ottawa would continue running and paying operating costs for the train service, while the province would build and maintain it. While Ottawa has paid the LRT's construction costs so far, Sutcliffe contrasted this with Toronto receiving provincial funding for Metrolinx to build four major lines in the GTA: Eglinton Crosstown LRT, Hazel McCallion Line LRT, Finch West LRT, and the Ontario Line. Sutcliffe said uploading the LRT was a 'huge victory for the residents of Ottawa. It takes an enormous amount of financial pressure and risk away from the residents of Ottawa.' (Patrick Louiseize/Radio-Canada) But of the four he referenced, none are fully open. Coun. Colle told CBC he struggled to get basic information about the progress of the Eglinton Crosstown LRT, which will run in his ward and has been under construction since 2011. He said Metrolinx's work is done mainly by private contractors and offshore consultants, who receive provincial money through the agency but don't hold public meetings or "reveal any information [about] why they can't make the thing run." Shelagh Pizey-Allen, the executive director for transit advocacy group TTCriders, also said Metrolinx lacks transparency by not providing answers about millions of dollars in payouts to the private companies building the lines. "The way that Metrolinx has been dealing with construction doesn't inspire confidence," she said. What it means for Ottawa Sutcliffe told CBC that Metrolinx's track record in the GTA wasn't a deterrent. "There are delays and cost overruns with every major infrastructure project in the world, that's not unusual," he said. "The team at the province has much more experience, expertise, scope, heft and and capacity to handle the construction and expansion and negotiations." Since September, he has been calling on the provincial and federal government to help Ottawa balance its budget, particularly the cost of OC Transpo. Uploading the LRT to the province would allow "OC Transpo to focus on what it does best, which is running a public transit system," Sutcliffe said. But Coun. Colle said the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) effectively has "zero" control over its own operations, because of how much it is affected by Metrolinx's work. "And God help you, if they continue [to be] as incompetent as they've been here, imagine what they'll do with the Ottawa Line," he said. "You think this is going to bail you out, you got to look for another approach." Colle said that Metrolinx has been 'a real nightmare to work with' and compared the company to the Kremlin because 'they can do anything they want and spend money at will.' (Angelina King/CBC) Local transit workers have been watching Toronto from afar, said Noah Vineberg, president of the local branch of the Amalgamated Transit Union representing OC Transpo workers, and they haven't liked what they've seen. Though Ottawa's LRT is run by the Rideau Transit Group, a consortium not unlike Metrolinx, much work has been done to improve the system in Ottawa, Vineberg said. "Is a reset necessarily the right move? No, I don't think so." Pizey-Allen said the widespread problems with Metrolinx are why TTCriders is pushing for the TTC to be put back in charge in Toronto, because "the TTC is accountable to Toronto. It has elected city councillors that sit on its board." Pizey-Allen said that, in Toronto, 'we're worried about what we could see unfold once the [Metrolinx] lines are open, if there are delays, if there are technical issues.' (CBC) "What we're calling for is a restoration of provincial funding for all municipal transit agencies in Ontario," she said. "The provincial government used to provide a 50 per cent of the operating subsidy for local transit." That's the plan which Ontario NDP Leader Marit Stiles is pitching, while her counterparts for the Progressive Conservatives and Ontario Liberals offer to give responsibility to Metrolinx. None of the parties provided a timeline for their plan. CBC reached out to Metrolinx about the party leaders' promises and about the concern over its work in Toronto, and a spokesperson said the company was "not able to comment on commitments made during an election campaign."
CBC
08-02-2025
- Politics
- CBC
Ottawa could lose oversight over LRT under Metrolinx, Toronto councillor warns
Two major provincial party leaders have promised to transfer responsibility for Ottawa's light rail system to Metrolinx if elected, but some experts in Toronto are warning that they've been trying to claw back authority from that same agency. Metrolinx is the provincial agency responsible for building and maintaining certain public transit projects in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). Coun. Mike Colle, who represents Toronto's Eglinton-Lawrence ward, says giving that power to Metrolinx was "the worst thing we ever did." He warned the capital could lose oversight over the LRT if Doug Ford or Bonnie Crombie fulfil their campaign vows to "upload" the project to the province. "You're basically giving it away to private contractors that don't have to answer to the people of Ottawa. They don't answer to anybody." Metrolinx is "totally unaccountable" for its projects in Toronto, Colle claimed. But Mayor Mark Sutcliffe is a supporter of Metrolinx "uploading" the LRT, arguing it would free up enough funds to assure a future for Ottawa's transit system. Metrolinx 'doesn't inspire confidence' Ottawa recently reopened its expanded second LRT line after more than four years of construction and delays. Sutcliffe said that according to his understanding of the campaign promises, Ottawa would continue running and paying operating costs for the train service, while the province would build and maintain it. While Ottawa has paid the LRT's construction costs so far, Sutcliffe contrasted this with Toronto receiving provincial funding for Metrolinx to build four major lines in the GTA: Eglinton Crosstown LRT, Hazel McCallion Line LRT, Finch West LRT, and the Ontario Line. But of the four he referenced, none are fully open. Coun. Colle told CBC he struggled to get basic information about the progress of the Eglinton Crosstown LRT, which will run in his ward and has been under construction since 2011. He said Metrolinx's work is done mainly by private contractors and offshore consultants, who receive provincial money through the agency but don't hold public meetings or "reveal any information [about] why they can't make the thing run." Shelagh Pizey-Allen, the executive director for transit advocacy group TTCriders, also said Metrolinx lacks transparency by not providing answers about millions of dollars in payouts to the private companies building the lines. "The way that Metrolinx has been dealing with construction doesn't inspire confidence," she said. What it means for Ottawa Sutcliffe told CBC that Metrolinx's track record in the GTA wasn't a deterrent. "There are delays and cost overruns with every major infrastructure project in the world, that's not unusual," he said. "The team at the province has much more experience, expertise, scope, heft and and capacity to handle the construction and expansion and negotiations." Since September, he has been calling on the provincial and federal government to help Ottawa balance its budget, particularly the cost of OC Transpo. Uploading the LRT to the province would allow "OC Transpo to focus on what it does best, which is running a public transit system," Sutcliffe said. But Coun. Colle said the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) effectively has "zero" control over its own operations, because of how much it is affected by Metrolinx's work. "And God help you, if they continue [to be] as incompetent as they've been here, imagine what they'll do with the Ottawa Line," he said. "You think this is going to bail you out, you got to look for another approach." Local transit workers have been watching Toronto from afar, said Noah Vineberg, president of the local branch of the Amalgamated Transit Union representing OC Transpo workers, and they haven't liked what they've seen. Though Ottawa's LRT is run by the Rideau Transit Group, a consortium not unlike Metrolinx, much work has been done to improve the system in Ottawa, Vineberg said. "Is a reset necessarily the right move? No, I don't think so." Pizey-Allen said the widespread problems with Metrolinx are why TTCriders is pushing for the TTC to be put back in charge in Toronto, because "the TTC is accountable to Toronto. It has elected city councillors that sit on its board." "What we're calling for is a restoration of provincial funding for all municipal transit agencies in Ontario," she said. "The provincial government used to provide a 50 per cent of the operating subsidy for local transit." That's the plan .
