Recognizing the financial realities of a city that needs improved public transit and smooth roads, Mississauga is hoping to introduce something called a “vehicle registration tax.” It’s a newfangled idea, but apparently it has the potential to generate “revenue.” Who would’ve thunk it? Read the entire story [Globe and Mail] »
The comprehensive index of every blog post, magazine story and restaurant review that appears on Torontolife.com
All stories relating to Roads
Mississauga is set to embark on a municipal experiment: introducing a vehicle registration tax
City council considers toll roads (very, very briefly)
Two city councillors have an idea to increase city revenues and—oh, wait, forget it. Councillors Josh Matlow and Doug Holyday both made calls for the city to consider adding tolls to Toronto roads. The Toronto Sun reports that Matlow said his idea could be an answer to the mayor’s repeated call for someone—anyone—to propose something other than service cuts as a way to balance the city’s books. But Rob Ford said that tolls hurt the economy and cause congestion (surprise, surprise). Both motions were defeated. Read the entire story [Toronto Sun] »
Eglinton residents worried that Transit City’s crosstown LRT won’t make the streets any prettier
Eglinton Avenue circa 1935. But what does the future hold? (Image: Toronto History)
The NDP announced yesterday morning that its election platform would include funds for the TTC (and other transit systems across the province) to offset a freeze on municipal transit fares. The move would essentially bring public transit back to how it was before Mike Harris ended the provincial subsidy for operating costs, and it would also provide an answer to what was always David Miller’s biggest complaint about the province’s role in Transit City: that the province was giving the city enough money to build transit but not enough to keep it running. Meanwhile, the last piece of Transit City that’s still actually getting built—the Eglinton Crosstown—apparently has some people nervous. Why? Not because they’re worried about the LRT clogging traffic above ground; they’re worried that with the light-rail line going underground, the street might not be beautified the way local residents and business owners had hoped.
Read the rest of this entry »
A chunk of the Gardiner Expressway drops off—but it’s no big deal, right?
Look out below! (Image: Dylan Passmore)
Apparently, the sky Gardiner is falling. The 55-year-old expressway seems to have a dropping-five-kilo-concrete-slabs-onto-the-road-below issue after another piece fell onto unsuspecting Lake Shore Boulevard West on Monday. Luckily, no cars were hit and no one was injured. Of course the city is looking into it all the same, but it appears to be no big deal (um, really?)—aside from the fact that five-kilo slabs of concrete are dropping onto the road below.
Read the rest of this entry »
Doug Ford wants charity events off city streets and, well, put somewhere else
Cyclist in a past Ride for Heart (Image: Commodore Gandalf Cunningham)
In the final months leading up to the election, Rob Ford said he’d prefer to move marathons off city streets—apparently, the traffic delays they cause are simply too inconvenient for local motorists. At the time, his brother Doug took the opportunity to engage in a little good-natured familial ribbing. But it looks likes Doug doesn’t find the idea that silly anymore. According to today’s Toronto Star, the Ford who isn’t the mayor is now singing the same tune as the Ford who is, after the Becel Heart and Stroke Ride for Heart shut down parts of the Don Valley Parkway and the Gardiner Expressway last weekend.
Read the rest of this entry »
What the heck is happening on Finch?
Finch Avenue West is one of the lingering casualties of Rob Ford’s war on Transit City. One of the busiest bus routes in Toronto, serving three priority neighbourhoods, the existing service was supposed to be replaced by an LRT line, but has been in a state of protracted limbo ever since the mayor declared Transit City dead. This has forced Toronto’s most underserved transit commuters to choke on the ridiculous combination of packed buses and gridlock with no promise of improvement in the near future. The TTC has been asked to look at ways to address the current service—you can read the report they’re considering here—but the options basically range from “slight improvements” to “piecemeal half-measures that won’t help much, if at all.” We look at four such proposals after the jump.
Read the rest of this entry »
Former Queen’s Park insider has a billion-dollar 407 secret that he’ll share for only millions of dollars
Read the rest of this entry »
Here’s a nutty story we don’t quite know what to make of: former provincial insider Jodie Parmar (mainly known as the dude responsible for the 407 during the Mike Harris years) tells the Toronto Star that he knows how Ontario could save $1 billion. For a government facing many times that in deficits for the next few years, this should be an easy sell. The problem, apparently, is Parmar’s insistence on an unorthodox payment scheme: 2.5 per cent of any money he finds through existing provincial projects. See? Nutty.
Karen Stintz wants to crack down on bikes on sidewalks
We can’t imagine why Karen Stintz, who’s got work up to her eyeballs with the restructuring of the TTC under Rob Ford’s Transportation City plan, wants to pick another fight. But some councillors are able to multi-task better than us, we suppose. Stintz’s new project is to crack down on cyclists who ride their bikes on sidewalks. She’s requesting ideas on a new approach from police and civic staff.
Read the rest of this entry »
Oshawa mayor wanted Toronto’s Transit City money to fund expansion of the 407
Read the rest of this entry »
The city of Oshawa, fresh from electing a man to city council without knowing he couldn’t take the job, is now in an uproar over a planned expansion of the 407 toll highway. Why the uproar? The story will sound familiar to Toronto: it turns out that Dalton McGuinty and the Liberal government initially planned to build the highway extension in one big bang but are now doing it in two stages to save money. Come cry on Toronto’s shoulder, Oshawa—we know just how that feels.
Bike lanes may not be coming to Toronto streets, but they are coming to Google Maps
Bike lanes in New York City on Google Maps
Torontonians will soon find a new bike feature added to the popular Google Maps site, which will allow users to plan out bike-friendly routes with the service’s trademark take-it-with-a-grain-of-salt reliability. Users in most major Canadian cities—namely, Ottawa, Gatineau, Waterloo, Winnipeg, Edmonton, Calgary, Vancouver, Kelowna and, of course, Toronto (no Montreal, apparently)—will be able to select routes of bike trails and bike lane-equipped roads. Canadian cyclists who do not live in those cities will have to settle for highlighting of routes with low traffic volume instead.
Read the rest of this entry »
We’re number three! We’re number three! Toronto’s roads no longer the worst in Ontario
(Image: Joshua Davis)
Toronto might not have the most progressive mayor-elect in Canada—curse you, Calgary!—but we can still hold our heads high now that the Canadian Automobile Association has released its list of Ontario’s worst roads. The good news mediocre news is that while Toronto’s streets fill four of the top 10 slots, we’re no longer the worst of the worst: that honour goes to Sioux Lookout (if we’ve got this right, that’s about 250 kilometres northwest of Thunder Bay). According to the National Post, Steeles Avenue has gone from worst to first.
Read the rest of this entry »
Smitherman tries to get by with a little help from his friends
75,000 Torontonians will receive this flyer this week. Lucky them
Over the past six months, we’ve catalogued a few examples of how Toronto has been ignored by the McGuinty government. The short list would include cuts to Transit City, funding for roads everywhere except Toronto, and a pretty poisonous fight over fare cards (of all things). Turns out there is one thing that really gets the attention of Ontario’s governing Liberals: the prospect of a Rob Ford victory over George Smitherman. And Smitherman, clearly not making headlines of his own, needs all the help he can get.
Read the rest of this entry »
All hail our cyclist overlords! Jarvis bike lanes going in; bike racks colonize Spadina
Bike lanes are coming to Jarvis Street (Image: Bitpicture)
Most days, talk of Toronto’s “war on the car” seems like so much overheated rhetoric. The vast majority of roads have no bike paths, streetcars or pedestrian scrambles; parking in downtown remains expensive but ample. If this is a war, imagine what surrender would look like. But then some days, the headlines conspire to make it seem that Toronto will soon look like 1970s Beijing, dominated by bikes, with cars rare and/or spat on. Today is one of those days.
Read the rest of this entry »
Ford adviser: stop funding the TTC
(Image: Bill Burris)
Like most Torontonians, we hadn’t heard of Mark Twohey until today, but that all changed when the Toronto Star‘s bloggers dug up one of his old posts and figured out that he is now an adviser to Rob Ford. As Ford’s director of policy, Twohey’s views on city politics are worth knowing. So what does the man think about the TTC, for example? That it should have its funding cut off:
Read the rest of this entry »
Wait—street hockey is illegal in Toronto? No wonder our kids are fat
Outlaws (Image: doviende)
Spacing publisher Matthew Blackett was at Yonge and Dundas when Sidney Crosby scored the gold-medal goal for Canada back in February. He watched as an impromptu hockey game broke out on the street, thinking: too bad that’s illegal. According to Blackett, the by-law outlawing the most Canadian of pickup games came from the pre-amalgamation version of Toronto, and became the law of the megacity afterwards. Breaking the rule comes with a $55 fine—something most hockey-playing kids don’t typically have on hand—and certainly not the kind of punishment a doctor would order when 1/3 of young male Torontonians are overweight.
And that’s why if Blackett and his supporters get their way, street hockey and other ball-playing would be legalized once again.
Read the rest of this entry »
Follow Toronto Life on Twitter, Facebook and via RSS