Toronto to change 1,000 traffic lights to combat congestion

Toronto is currently faced with some significant transportation problems, from downtown congestion to a lack of effective transit option in the suburbs to, heck, a lack of efficient transit options anywhere.

Roads are clogged and plans to build alternatives transit options constantly crash against a impenetrable wall of politics at city hall.

Serious plans to redesign and expand the city’s transportation grid rise and fall like empires and, in the end, little is done to offer relief.

So if the big ideas are bound to fail, and it seems at this point that they are, why not a small one?

The National Post reports that the city is planning to re-calibrate traffic lights at about 1,000 intersections as part of a plan to improve congestion.

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By using updated details about traffic flow, the city’s traffic control system can adjust when lights should be green, and when they should be read. The idea is that slight changes can reduce how many and how long cars are stuck at lights, and how fast traffic clears the area.

The plan seems to have some merit. In a test case on Richmond Street West, a one-way road that runs through the downtown, 16 signals were re-timed and traffic delays were reduced by 29 per cent.

But with traffic flow ever changing and new construction sites constantly popping up and obfuscating traffic flow, is it merely enough to change a few light bulbs?

Coun. David Shiner told the Post the changes were a "band-aid solution." With about 60 lanes currently out of commission due to construction, Shiner believes a more concrete solution would be to halt development until adequate transit has been built.

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"We have to stop approving everything until the shovel hits the ground on new transportation systems that will deal with the needs of the people that we’re saying should move in here,” he told the newspaper.

But the answer to Toronto's transit problems can't be shutting down development. For one, it just isn't feasible. For another, it is counter-intuitive. The city needs to develop better and more efficient means of transit, and it needs to do it soon. Transit is lagging behind the city's growth and the problem is getting worse. It has to catch up, but the city's decision makers sputter deciding which plan is best.

The city's transit system needs major surgery. Band-aid solutions are nice, but they aren't going to stop us from bleeding out.