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Toronto City Council · 2019-11-26 · 2019.MM12.28

The filed record

Are We There Yet? Assessing the Effectiveness of Toronto's Traffic Congestion Management Plan - by Deputy Mayor Denzil Minnan-Wong, seconded by Councillor James Pasternak

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The decision

2019-11-26 · Toronto City Council · referred

As filed

City Council on November 26 and 27, 2019, referred Motion MM12.28 to the General Manager, Transportation Services for consideration in an updated Congestion Management Plan, scheduled to be introduced in the Spring of 2020.

On the agenda

As the city filed it

Congestion and gridlock are top of mind for Torontonians. Time spent in traffic costs us all in many different ways. It keeps us away from our families. It adds to stress. It could contribute to the increased number of accidents. It also creates pollution. Since 2013, a number of initiatives have been introduced through the Infrastructure and Environment Committee to address increasing gridlock. These include the Congestion Management Plan (there was also a plan for the downtown) and looking at ways to identify and improve the 10 worst intersections in the City.

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After his election, Mayor John Tory made it a priority to take steps to operationalize the Congestion Management Plan. He focused on practical actions such as moving cars and especially courier trucks out of no stopping zones during rush hour, better coordination of transportation capital programs, and shortening the duration of long term lane closures by developers and construction companies. However, residents continue to wait in traffic. They feel that it is getting worse. It's time to look at the numbers and see if our Congestion Management Plan is making a difference.

Staff recommended

Deputy Mayor Denzil Minnan-Wong, seconded by Councillor James Pasternak, recommends that: 1. City Council request the General Manager, Transportation Services, to undertake an evaluation of delays in travelling, congestion and gridlock using a baseline year of 2013 or 2014 by using existing studies, including external data and studies commissioned by the Toronto Board of Trade and the University of Toronto, to, among other things, determine whether congestion and gridlock is getting better or worse.

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2. City Council request the General Manager, Transportation Services, consultation with the Toronto Board of Trade and the University of Toronto, to take into account international best practices and develop a Dashboard made available to the public that quantifies, and identifies the scope and scale of gridlock and congestion issues; such dashboard to distinguish and identify congestion and gridlock indexes for the downtown, suburbs and major expressways. 3. City Council request the General Manager, Transportation Services to establish benchmarks for acceptable traffic delays in Toronto. 4. City Council request the General Manager, Transportation Services to report to City Council through the Infrastructure and Environment Committee on these issues no later than July 2020.

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