Bigger vision needed to fix traffic woes

Re A rocky road, Oct. 6

Any mayoral candidate who wants to lose this election in Toronto simply has to say something like “tearing down the eastern Gardiner Expressway will only add (insert time here) to the average commute.” What is missing from this pacifying statement is “to the longest commute time in North America.”

What also is inevitably missing from these analyses is what happens in the rest of the city when the link between the DVP and the Gardiner is severed.

The DVP/Gardiner/401/427 is the closest thing Toronto has to a ring road or beltway.

Vehicles heading east to south now have the option to use either the DVP/Gardiner or 401/427. Traffic on these routes changes depending on time of day. The 401 is already one of the busiest highways in North America, and adding more traffic to it will result in longer commute times on it as well, not just the DVP-downtown travel time.

There is no question something needs to be done with the existing structure.

We need to think big and do something that frees up valuable real estate for development and maintains traffic flow and options in a city choked with traffic.

Gridlock affects everyone, including transit users and emergency services. Interstate 5 in Seattle runs right through their convention centre. Why can’t we find a win-win-win solution here?

The eastern Gardiner could be incorporated into new development while being kept out of sight. What is required of our city leaders is the vision to see solutions that work for everyone. Rob Graham, Toronto