Traffic reporter reveals Toronto’s 3 worst Pan Am HOV lanes

“Awful.”

“An absolute nightmare.”

“It just doesn’t work.”

That’s what one insider had to say about Toronto’s worst HOV lanes. The decision to turn portions of existing highways into high-occupancy vehicle lanes for the Pan Am Games has not been without controversy, or scrutiny.

Rob Valentine is a traffic reporter for 680 NEWS. He has been watching the effects of Toronto’s temporary HOV lanes every morning during rush hour.

Here are the worst areas, according to Valentine’s observations:

Don Valley Parkway

“The DVP has been awful,” Valentine says.

He says there have been unusual northbound slowdowns in the mornings because of the temporary HOV lanes, especially between Don Mills Road and York Mills Road.

In his first 15 minutes in his ‘chair’ – the traffic booth at 680 NEWS – Valentine saw three accidents on the southbound DVP between York Mills and Don Mills during the first couple days of the temporary lanes.

Gardiner Expressway

The morning westbound traffic has been unusually heavy, especially between York Street to Highway 427.

It’s three lanes squeezing into two, Valentine explains.

“It’s as if you wear a size 34 pant and you try to fit into size 30,” he says. “It just doesn’t work.”

Queen Elizabeth Way

The westbound QEW into Mississauga and Oakville has been “awful,” Valentine says. “It’s been an absolute nightmare from Highway 403 to Trafalgar.”

Is there good news? A little. The saving grace seems to be Highway 401. “It’s been pretty good and isn’t really much of an HOV experience,” Valentine explains. ‘It hasn’t shown its ugly face.”