Toronto's new mayor pitches six ideas to get traffic flowing immediately

Six easy steps to fix Toronto’s transit problem, could it really be so simple?

The John Tory era officially began in Toronto on Thursday when the new mayor promised a marked and nearly-immediate improvement to the city’s oppressive traffic congestion.

And he isn’t going to do it by pushing forward with SmartTrack, the expansive public transit plan that helped put him in office, but with a series of simple, common-sense proposals that aren’t likely to stir much controversy at all.

Could it really be that simple?

“When it comes to traffic, there’s a new sheriff in town,” Tory said during a morning press conference.

Tory, who was elected mayor of Canada’s largest city in October and was officially sworn in on Tuesday, knows that traffic is a major issue for Torontonians.

During the election, he promoted an expansive rail line known as SmartTrack to take pressure off of roads and subway lines. He also vowed to address congestion more directly.

Thursday’s announcement was the culmination of that promise.

The plan includes:

1. Strictly enforcing parking and “no stopping” regulations on major roads; meaning that fewer cars and delivery vehicles will be parked where they shouldn’t be.

2. Improving the process by which road closures are reported; meaning the public will have a better sense of which routes will be clogged and, hopefully, avoid them.

3. Create a traffic enforcement committee; meaning that groups that close roadways will have to co-ordinate with one another to ensure there’s always a route open.

4. Accelerate the city’s traffic signal retiming program; meaning that the current plan to improve the way traffic stops are synched will be widened and quickened.

5. Make it harder and more expensive for private developers to close traffic lanes; meaning more lanes will remain open.

6. Extend work hours of construction projects, meaning projects will be completed faster and roads will re-open sooner.

Read through that list again and you’ll note that not one of them is a revolutionary idea. They don’t “reinvent the wheel,” if you will.

They are simple, common sense plans that could have been done years ago. While the previous administration was vowing to end the “war on the car” by burying more transit lines, the real problem with traffic comes from within.

Despite a recent study that found that Canadians actually enjoy their commute, traffic congestion is routinely identified as a major urban frustration.

That is no different in Toronto.

According to the 2011 National Household Survey, Toronto has the longest average commute time in the country. A one-way trip to work, on average, takes 32.8 minutes in the city.

A more recent Angus Reid poll found that 12 per cent of Torontonians faced an hour-long daily commute, in each direction.

Traffic isn’t going to disappear. But if we can make it run more smoothly by keeping transit lanes flowing efficiently, everyone wins.

The most pressing one of these new promises is the plan to tow away illegal parkers. Too often, entitled drivers or cars and delivery vans block traffic on a whim. There has rarely been repercussion.

That changes starting January 1, Tory says.

"You will be towed," he said during his press conference. "If I have to chip in and drive a tow truck myself, you will be towed."

The big-picture transit expansions can wait. Let’s get these simple changes in place now.

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