TORONTO - MIRROR OF A BIGGER PROBLEM

My city may have the biggest traffic jams in North Americas and may, according to numbers, rival London. No one seems to care enough to make a change. We almost had it, but Toronto squandered a chance to have a truly new transit system. But that’s politics, and “fairness to taxpayerS” trumps common sense or even fiscal prudence.

If you know Toronto, you know that the new St.Clair West “dedicated” streetcar line has shaved many minutes of traveling time. The even more dominating statistic is that people ride it. I got on that streetcar at the Yonge subway stop and along with more than 50 other passengers went west, This was not rush hour. It was 1:30 in the afternoon! Our mayor, who was photographed this week smiling as he leaned on the grille of his Lincoln Navigator, has no time for streetcars, The roads, he insists, are made for cars. I have no objection to subways, but they are very costly and take forever to build. Never mind that one of our mayor’s pipe dreams is a subway financed by private money. Gimme a break.

The madness is that the man who declared: that “the war on cars is over” still has an overwhelmingly favorable voter support, according to polls. I mused, as I sat there on that St. Clair streetcar: “If there are at least 50 people riding, that means that 50 cars on not on the road." The space taken up by one streetcar can’t be compared to the space taken up by 50 cars. But he doesn’t get it. Worse still, most people don’t get it either. He told them he would have respect for their taxpaying burden. He speaks perhaps to people who live in the former suburbs and are attached to their cars. The though of anything like toll roads or gas taxes to pay for transit that they won’t deign to use, is unacceptable.

One can only imagine what traffic would be like if we didn't have our transit system.
I still wonder at the choked rush hour highways, packed with people (one car-one driver) who could be joining the thousands who ride the GO system.

I wrote recently about the conference of the world’s 40 biggest cities. Michael Bloomberg is a lot smarter than Mayor Ford – and he is also a lot richer. His city is famous for traffic, but even in that seething metropolis, the centre of the Times Square area at Broadway and 42nd street, is car-free.

And just one more reminder: Paris, which has the world’s finest subway system. is now building dedicated surface routes for trolleys. Maybe our mayor should drive his Lincoln Navigator to Paris and see for himself.

As I said in the beginning, this is a cautionary tale for every big city – go transit or go broke.