Little fixes could put Parkway plan on long-term hold

Several years ago, when the Parkway debate was in one of its hot phases, a group opposing the cross-city roadway adopted the rally cry “Beyond the Parkway.”

Now a new city staff report that takes a “what next” look at the city’s long-term transportation plans could give those anti-Parkway warriors hope.

That’s because the report’s preferred option seems to suggest that smaller, more innovative solutions to moving people and vehicles around the city could make the Parkway unnecessary.

However, the report undercuts that reading when it notes that doing those smaller solutions over the next three years might satisfy concerns of both Parkway protestors and the provincial government and allow planning for the Parkway to resume.

The background to all this stretches back 70 years to the original Parkway plan, but the key element is much more recent.

Two years ago, just when Parkway supporters thought the route to construction was finally clear, the Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change dropped a major new roadblock.

The ministry ordered a new, more detailed environmental assessment predicted to take five years to complete and cost as much as $4.5 million.

The report that goes to council Monday is a response to the general feeling that another EA would take too much time, cost too much and still might not win ministry approval.

The report looks at three options:

1. Do the new Parkway EA.

2. Do a new Transportation Master Plan and treat it as an EA in the hope that all city transportation projects would be covered off.

3. Do a series of smaller studies and upgrades, some already planned and budgeted for, with a view to quicker improvements to traffic flow and bigger change down the road.

Option 3 is the clear favourite, and the bulk of the

$3.6 million needed to fund it would come from cancelling other projects designed to help move the Parkway forward.

Hence the reality that the Parkway would be, if not dead, on long-term hold.

There is also an Option 4, not mentioned in the report.

Council could decide to do nothing until after the June provincial election, when the Doug Ford-led Progressive Conservatives might take over at Queen’s Park. Some Parkway supporters will be counting on a Ford win and a PC government strong-arming the ministry to back off on its environmental assessment demand.

But let’s assume council does the right thing and makes a decision Monday night. Given all that has gone on and a desire by Parkway supporters and opponents to get transportation plans moving forward, Option 3 is the best and likely choice.

It includes work to modernize and synchronize the traffic light system, revamp the bus route network, look for short-term traffic flow fixes and update the city-wide cycling plan. Those are solutions everyone can get behind.

The final new study will be more contentious but is also necessary.

The city seems ready to kill a planned Parkway bridge over Jackson Park. Instead it will look at transportation options for the entire park area, including how “infrastructure corridors” could move around or through the park.

Taken as a whole, city planners have given council a workable starting point to put transportation planning on the move again.

And maybe even move it beyond the Parkway.