Ontario can end gridlock. But not with more highways

If you’ve driven along a 400-series Ontario highway recently, you’ve probably seen one of the massive Highway 413 billboards installed by the Ford government late last year to promote the massive spending on highway projects that have become one of its signature priorities.

As the traffic problem in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton area (GTHA) continues to worsen, the Ford government is increasingly loud about its plans for not only the 413, but also the Bradford Bypass and other possible highway expansions. Earlier this month, the premier suggested that more was on the way to ease congestion on the Gardiner Expressway and the 401.

Their reason for this obsession is clear. Anyone who has tried to drive on the 401 during rush hour recently knows that constant, crushing gridlock has become a serious problem.

The problem with the government’s plan to build more highways, though, is that it doesn’t actually solve anything. The money is wasted because traffic only gets worse. 

The Ford government’s proposed highway projects are based on the idea that we can solve gridlock by building more highways and expanding existing ones — creating more space for cars to spread out and improve traffic flow.

But history and evidence have shown that this isn’t what actually happens because of something called induced demand. (Emma McIntosh has a great explainer on this as it relates to Highway 413).

New lanes and highways attract new drivers and new cars that fill whatever space you’ve created. While there may be some short-term congestion reductions, the long-term effect is just more roads with more cars, more congestion and more costs. 

That’s why the government’s own modelling has shown that even if it builds the 413, gridlock on 400-series highways will continue to get worse. According to documents obtained by The Trillium, whether the 413 is four, six or eight lanes, typical commute speeds to and from Toronto during rush hour will be under 50 km/h on major highways like the 401, 403 and QEW by 2041.

So, if more highways isn’t the solution, what is?

There’s no silver bullet. What we need is a diverse mix of solutions working together, with all of them sharing the goal of creating affordable alternatives that are shorter, easier and more pleasant for drivers than sitting in bumper-to-bumper traffic on the 401. 

Some of these solutions need to be shorter term and more pragmatic. For instance, the Ontario Green Party has repeatedly called on the Ford government to subsidize tolls for trucks on Highway 407. This is a simple move that could ease gridlock on the 401 immediately by diverting truck traffic and keeping goods flowing, while creating additional spaces for cars.

A report by Environmental Defence has shown that this change would take 12,000 to 21,000 trucks off the 401 per day, saving taxpayers at least $6 billion, compared to the cost of building Highway 413.

But we also need to think bigger-picture about how we can build and design communities that don’t require spending hours in a car every day.

Part of that is investing in transit solutions like all-day, two-way GO train service across the Greater Golden Horseshoe — making sure that the transit options we create offer a viable alternative to driving when and where we need it.

For instance, the Kitchener GO line runs all the way from Union Station in Toronto, to downtown Kitchener — but it only offers a handful of these trips to Toronto per day and none on weekends. So, commuters in Guelph, Kitchener and Georgetown are left with limited options for getting to and from the city. 

We also need to find ways of building communities that don’t require travelling a great distance to get to work or school. One of the ways we can do that, which Ontario Greens have proposed, is by increasing housing density in existing neighbourhoods, and ensuring our communities are built to accommodate cyclists, pedestrians and transit users. 

We can scale up programs like bikeshares, e-bike infrastructure and dedicated bike or transit lanes that make it convenient and easy for people to get around. 

And we can build a greater variety of homes around transit hubs, so more people can live on existing transit lines and incorporate them into their daily routine without having to make major changes.

If we want to solve our traffic problems, we need to give people more affordable choices for how they get around — like cycling, walking or taking public transit, instead of being stuck in gridlock for hours on end.

The solutions are there for the taking. But they require the government to plan and fund them properly, instead of wasting dollars on massive highway projects that will pave over farmland and wetlands. 

The path forward is laid out in front of us. Now, all we need is a government with the will to make change — not one that’s going to make gridlock even worse.

Mike Schreiner is the leader of the Ontario Green Party and the MPP for Guelph, Ontario