No simple, single cure for transportation woes

For our mayoral candidates the "red rocket" seems to have become their "silver bullet" in the endless pursuit to find a solution to our transportation challenges.

The electorate are looking to politicians and decision-makers to ease commuter woes, and no one seems to have the heart to tell them that common wisdom and professional opinion suggest there really isn’t a single answer for something as complex as the way the citizens of Greater Toronto choose to move around the region each day.

Rocco Rossi is the latest mayoral candidate to position himself as a transit "super-hero" by promising to build two kilometres of track every year, over the next decade. Rossi says the city can afford the $4.5 billion price tag if it sells Toronto Hydro and other assets, and then uses that cash to clear the $2.5 billion debt. It seems that once someone dons the Captain Transit cape nothing can get in the way of their mission.

Mr. Rossi’s financial plan to fund his transit quest isn’t entirely apparent to me, however, in his words, The City of Toronto is rich in assets and together we own a lot of stuff’, and it seems that he and the Toronto Board of Trade don’t consider Toronto Hydro to be central to the operation and mission of the city.

That's beginning to sound like the same pretzel logic and voodoo economics the Mike Harris "common-sense revolutionaries" proffered up in the mid-1990s to clear a provincial deficit prior to an election. In that boondoggle we saw a prized public transportation asset sold to the highest bidder. Considering the tolls collected each year by the ETR 407 total a half a billon dollars a year it’s no wonder taxpayers continue to lament that decision.

What’s encouraging is that all of the candidates support transit expansion in some form or another, and some of the financing schemes being offered up are also on the mark. The challenge is that regardless whether we choose subways, buses or light rail transit (LRT) these systems once built require on going operation, maintenance and ultimately replacement. If, as Rossi suggests, we sell assets to pay for capital expansion how will we afford the other on-going (operational) expenses?

People move around the city in a variety of ways, at all times of day and for many different reasons. How we use the transportation system is based on many considerations – where we live and work, our disposable income, our age, our health, our recreational interests, our diet, and more. The notion that a "single fix" approach is out there, if only we could find it, is preposterous, and the search itself stymies creativity, collaboration and partnership. Humans are complex beings and our mobility needs and the transportation challenges they present demand sophisticated solutions.

With the run up to the municipal elections candidates across the GTA will form an opinion regarding "how they would solve the traffic problems in their community." What remains to be seen is whether someone emerges that has the acumen to fully understand the problem, the humility to admit they don’t have all the answers and the courage to deliver solutions they know will be unpopular.

About Lorenzo Mele

Comments

[Thinkingouthere]

Toll roads should be considered, Toronto has added a tax to residents already living in the GTA for driving a car. Most of the cars that I see in the downtown core where I work are from people coming in from outside the GTA to work. Tolls would collect from these people and stop penalizing those who chose to live in Toronto. I take the TTC everyday and pay for my car that sits at home.

[Crab Apple Annie]

Mr. Mele, thank you for this, it's wonderful. I would be interested in hearing which candidates' plans you think are viable ones. The 407 makes billions of dollars to make a few people rich. It's a private expressway. Amazing that we sanction a private company to profit from motorists, but we are afraid to tax public roads in order to maintain them or improve the public transportation network.

[NewDaddy]

Response to Crab Apple Annie: People have a choice to take the 407 or not. Check out the 407 and see how many people are on it, compared to the 401. You think tolls are the goose that lays golden eggs but you are wrong. If the volume of cars drops considerably because people can't afford it that means that revenues will also be drastically reduced. It is just a bad idea. I may have to go work somewhere else for the same reason that I had to buy a home somewhere else: I was priced out of the city. Toronto is becoming a city for the elite and everyone else needs to go somewhere else fast before the bike-riding zealots pull the rug from under their feet.

[cost]

The key is balance. Toronto seems to think the TTC is the silver bullet. York Region seems to think YRT is that silver bullet. It is the balance of modes within the communities that work. Costs are a big consideration that the politicians do not understand. The post notes tolls as a cash cow, but NEWDADDY is right, it doesn't really work. The capital cost of a bus is what? $500,000 (guessing), but to operate the bus including paying the driver is never factored in. It costs to operate shiny new toys.

[peteclarke]

With 25% of Canada’s population residing within the GTA, common sense should tell us that we must combine ALL the GTA areas under ONE transit authority.

At present the TTC, Metrolinx etc. are all run by purely academic political appointees having little to no actual transportation qualifications in private mass transportation systems from within the world’s private transportation industry.

All three levels of government, municipal, provincial and federal must completely understand that first the GTA area with its 25% of the population requires a lasting financial commitment to public transit which is NOT on the back of property taxpayers, renters, condo and homeowners or businesses alike.

Without a lasting and final political commitment from the province and federal government's any transit system within the GTA areas will NOT succeed.

Second until there are qualified professionals from within the worlds private mass transportation industry at the helm of any GTA mass public transit system as opposed to just political appointees from one political party or the other any public transportation system is doomed to failure and unsustainable by the people.

29 years ago the Toronto's public transit system recognized that the future major transportation needs for the city would be in the downtown core area.

This plan back then was referred to as the DRL or downtown relief line or DRL as it correctly foresaw the congestion problem that now exists within the down town core area of the city.

Until this plan is revised and implemented to relieve the current congestion during rush hour periods the movement of existing citizens using mass transit for work related issues within the downtown area will NOT be solved.

The current system most definitely will NOT be solved by increasing a subway line to the North of Toronto.

[pchiu]

TTC is losing money every year and they require funding from the city each year. If they Do expand under current management, what would happen to out taxpayer's money? TTC has to find ways to generate more revenue from within - may be developing real estate project above bus depots etc. Expansion is a must. One of the comment is correct to consolidate all transportation systems among cities. To be honest, who would want to drive if they can get everywhere within the city in a time efficient manner.

[Jose]

Yes, and it is very simple: If not talking about a mass GTA transit systerm, the subway line's north-most point should end at Steeles Ave. Then they can build and expand the subway lines all they want to from Steeles and under that, especially from Lawrence to downtown. That is where TORONTO is, and that is where the bulk of the population, action and work is located.

[Mike Restivo]

Subway or heavy rail cost is estimated at $250 million km. for surface and $300 million per km. for underground. This is admittedly much more costly than LRT, yet alone satisfies the public’s demands for speed and timeliness. LRT was never called “rapid” and is no rapid replacement for the Scarborough SRT, always described as light rail like LRT. Upgrade to heavy rail is the correct procedure to enable the demanded advantages over LRT. That rider demand fulfillment should be more expensive than short cut half measured transit LRT must come as no surprise. Do it right and for the future. Delay E.-W. expansions until after the Downtown Relief Line (DRL), with all its expansions are completed. Financing through increased municipal parking fees, zone fare system implementation, higher transit fares, attractively yielded bond issues, increased vehicle tax. The objective is to equalize the comparative user costs of public transit to private vehicle to favour public transit without excessive prohibition against vehicular transit. To keep costs down, debt financing should not be the predominant source of funds. Cost? The "Restivo" Transit Plan is $20 billions over 10 years or $2 billions per year which is a figure equal to that estimated by the Toronto Board of Trade for Metrolinx Big Push Plan. The Transit City plan must be modified replacing LRT with hybrid BRT to improve transit timeliness and speed including the DRL which reduces congestion along Yonge/University and Danforth/Bloor lines. For funding, no subsidy is needed, but completion time line may be elongated as a result. If Ontario wants to walk away from Toronto’s refusal to use obsolete anything, then so be it, but with persuasion most of the subsidy should be on board, less the $4 billions deferred.