What will each of the top Toronto mayoral candidates do about traffic and transit

With road congestion at an all-time high in Toronto as more construction and transit projects fill the street, how people will get around the city will be high priority for the incoming mayor.

Here’s what each of the top mayoral candidates say they will do to address the issue of traffic and transit:

Ana Bailão

• Immediately fund the preliminary work needed to transform the SRT into a dedicated bus route, while continuing efforts to secure funding from the province.
• Reduce fares on the 501 streetcar and the Scarborough SRT on-street bus replacement to $2 for single rides until the Queen Streetcar is rerouted to Adelaide from Dundas, and the Scarborough BRT construction is complete.
• Prohibit lane closures on Richmond, Adelaide, and Dundas between Bay and Victoria until Ontario Line construction completes.
• Make sure the Government of Ontario, not Toronto, takes back responsibility for the Gardiner Expressway and the Don Valley Parkway.
• Get tough on rush hour ticketing and towing by making the successful blitzes permanent and city-wide, and increasing enforcement with twenty tow trucks ready to tow lane blockers.
• Increase the fines for vehicles caught blocking lanes or parking illegally, penalties which haven’t been increased in a decade.
• Automate enforcement of tickets for drivers who “block the box.”
• Work with Toronto Parking Authority to fast-track the five-year Bike Share expansion and focus on key areas
• Pilot new technology in school safety zones with lights that only turn green when drivers are at or below the speed limit to protect kids.

Brad Bradford

• Appoint a Congestion Relief Commissioner with a mandate to end the traffic chaos and coordinate all construction and maintenance work across Toronto.
• Re-deploy 200 parking enforcement officers to unclog intersections and keep traffic moving.
• Accelerate the reconstruction of the Gardiner Expressway, shaving years off projected construction timelines and reducing gridlock in Toronto.
• Call for the head of Metrolinx to be held to account and for a provincial guarantee the Eglinton Crosstown chaos and that it won’t repeat itself with the Ontario Line as a portion of Queen St. is set to close for construction.
• Install platform edge doors at subway stations.
• Stop the city’s plan to put streetcars on Richmond and Adelaide Street, instead running all streetcars along the King Streetcar Express Zone

Olivia Chow

• Create a dedicated, off-street bus rapid transit line – or busway – along the Scarborough RT corridor. Stops will include Kennedy Avenue, Tara Avenue, Lawrence Avenue East, and Ellesmere Road.
• Change the Gardiner East to an at-grade boulevard from Cherry Street to the DVP to save the city upwards of hundreds of millions of dollars and open up 5.4 acres of land to develop upwards of 8,000 units of housing.
• Get cell service for everyone on the TTC and restore workers in TTC stations to be the eyes and ears of the system.

Anthony Furey

• Conduct a more formal study with a view to removing the RapidTO lanes in Scarborough along Eglinton East, Kingston and Morningside. Halt the planned roll out of RapidTO along Jane, Dufferin, Steeles, Finch and Lawrence.
• Remove existing dedicated bike lane infrastructure from Hospital Row along University Avenue and review other dedicated bike lanes, including the Yonge Street bike lane and will not proceed with plans for lanes along Sheppard, all of Eglinton, Bloor West and Kingston.

Mitzie Hunter

• Clear our streets of snow faster by increasing the budget for snow clearance by more than 10 per cent and investing in more modern snow clearing equipment.
• Fill potholes faster by doubling the budget for pothole maintenance and investing in modern equipment to repair roads.
• Make roads safer by fixing the most dangerous intersections and roads where the most accidents happen by boosting the Vision Zero Road Safety Plan.
• Reduce road congestion by taking aim at bottlenecks and improving traffic flow.
• Eliminating all TTC fares for seniors and all users of Wheel-Trans to help our most vulnerable and those living on fixed incomes with the rising cost of living and boost ridership, starting this September.
• Reversing the TTC fare hikes that took effect in April 2023 to save transit riders more than $20 million a year.
• Reversing the almost $53 million in TTC service cuts that reduced service frequency by about 10 per cent and increasing Wheel-Trans service to accommodate increased demand.
• Fully-fund TTC’s operational costs while advocating for greater support from the Provincial and Federal governments.
• Negotiating with the Province to reach a fair deal for Toronto to eliminate the dual fares paid by transit users when they switch between the TTC, GO and transit systems in neighbouring cities.
• Build the Eglinton East LRT extension to the University of Toronto Scarborough and Malvern, with the City’s one-third share coming from the existing Scarborough Subway levy funds given that those funds are no longer needed because the subway is
  now fully funded by the Province.
• Commit to building the Waterfront East LRT to extend streetcar service along the waterfront and transfer the City’s share of funding to a new and dedicated fund.
• Champion and advance the planning for the North York Scarborough Subway extension along Sheppard, connecting Line 4 to the new Scarborough Subway Extension in the east and to Sheppard West on Line 1.

Josh Matlow

• Increase total investment in Toronto’s fact-based Vision Zero Road Safety Plan by 150 per cent, including a doubling of the capital spending on road improvements within the first two years.
• Replace the current request-based system for Vision Zero improvements with an automatic process when there are major civil works occurring.
• Shift the budget focus from operating investments in behavioural modification measures like signage, distracted driving and red-light cameras to capital investments in infrastructure and street improvements that make it safer to walk, bike and
  drive.
• Create a Safety on the Scene rapid-response team, the SOS Team, responsible for collecting on-site collision data and coordinating interdepartmental communication in the wake of a traffic fatality, so that unsafe locations can be identified and
  targeted for improvements.
• Restore TTC service to full pre-pandemic levels by the end of this mayoral term
• Invest $50 million from his recently announced City Works Fund to fully reverse the cuts made earlier this year. In subsequent years, a combination of funding from the City Works Fund and new climate action levy will secure the remaining amount
  of the up to $183 million needed annually to restore full service.
• Create a new Eglinton East LRT with 23 stops from Kennedy Station (Lines 2,5) to Malvern Town Centre, including University of Toronto Scarborough.
• Create a new Sheppard East LRT with 9 stops from McCowan subway station (Lines 2,4) to Neilson Road and connect it with the new Eglinton East LRT and the provincial subway extension.
• Create a new Scarborough Rapid Busway to run quick and efficient buses on dedicated, congestion-free bus lanes along the separated corridor used by the RT from Kennedy (Lines 2,5) to Ellesmere Road, connecting to Scarborough Town Centre.

Mark Saunders

• Limit the number of road closures in the city at any one time.
• Stop the weekend “clean-up” closures of the Gardiner and Don Valley Parkway and requiring work repairing and cleaning be done during the night.
• Remove the bike lanes on University Avenue.
• Reverse the decision to make the Yonge Street bike lanes permanent pending a review of the data and consultation process.
• Deprioritize the Bloor Street West bike lane expansion.
• Immediately suspend all bike lane expansions pending a renewed approach to accountability and community consultation for both residents, local businesses and business improvement areas.
• Establish an accessibility and disability rights group to ensure people with disabilities can get around their own city.
• Explore the impact of bike lanes on snow clearing around residential and business areas.
• Work with provincial and federal levels of government to accelerate the time to completion for the Scarborough subway extension of Line 4 to Sheppard and McCowan, and in doing so, finally give Scarborough and North York residents the transit options they deserve.
• Work with key transit and infrastructure partners to speed up recently announced intentions to study an extension of Line 4 to the west from Sheppard-Yonge Station to Sheppard West Station. North York residents can’t wait another decade for a study.
• Work with the provincial government to undertake a planning assessment for extending the Ontario Line northbound to Sheppard Avenue East, which will give North York residents another north-south option and further relieve congestion on Line 1.
• Offer free TTC to seniors 65+ every Monday from 10:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m. to make it more affordable for them to get groceries, go to medical appointments, and get around the city.