Five ways to improve the daily commute in the GTA

By Bill Fox/Columnist

In a recent study of 74 of the world’s greatest cities, the Toronto area ranked sixth worst for commuting in the entire world. The key reason being the sheer length of the ride or drive. The average Toronto worker spends an average of 96 minutes a day commuting — the second longest time in the list. I would suspect it is even worse for people commuting from the Oshawa area.

So are there possible solutions to help remedy this situation?

Suggestion #1-Double the size of the GO parking lots.

Parking at the GO stations is a joke. I recall a few years back I had to make a specialist’s appointment in Toronto. At 9 a.m. there were absolutely no spots available in Oshawa. Desperate not to be late for my appointment, I parked in what I felt was an appropriate spot, certain I did not impede traffic. When I returned back from my Toronto appointment, my car was gone. I learned from the GO station attendant that it was towed for being parked outside permitted areas. The cost for all this was over $300 for towing, and storage of my car, plus a ticket. What choice did I have? If I previously realized how poor the parking situation was at the Oshawa GO lot, I could have made other arrangements. Although a new parking lot has been added to Oshawa, it too is always full early in the morning.

Suggestion #2-Triple the amount of safety blitzes against trucks and truckers and make fines much more severe.

Trucks are becoming a real hazard for commuters. The Ontario Provincial Police laid 697 charges against commercial drivers and took 63 transport trucks out of service recently. Police stopped 1,692 trucks from June 13 to 14. Speeding topped the list of offences, with 226 charges laid. Defective equipment ranked second at 176 charges. I find it unbelievable that so many charges were laid against truckers. So far, there have been 3,048 truck-related collisions reported in 2018, including 25 that were fatal.

Suggestion #3-Take back highway 407 and create laws requiring politicians to always hold public plebiscites before selling off Ontario’s assets. I heard the suggestion recently that we should take back Highway 407. I think there should be law in place that requires a public vote before politicians sell what really belongs to all taxpayers. When Mike Harris sold Highway 407, analysts later said he sold it for one-third of its value. Can you imagine if we still owned the 407 today? I have a fear that our new Premier Ford may do the same thing to raise money for all his promises.

Might he sell all of Hydro, the LCBO, etc.?

Suggestion #4-Take trucks off the 401 in the GTA, especially during rush hours.

Now if we could take back 407, we could make 401 a no truck zone through the GTA and require all trucks where reasonable to use the 407. Imagine the 401 during rush hour with no trucks?

Suggestion #5-Create separate speed limits for individual lanes on three lane highways.

Have you ever been driving on any highway and find the passing lane being used by people not passing but coasting along at the limit? I wish police would enforce the rules that passing lanes are to be used for passing only, and that we increase the fines Sometimes coming home from trips to Niagara Falls, you will come up to a traffic jam.

Often if you can look far enough ahead you will see the cause is too many cars in the passing lane, and the front car is not passing anyone. It’s common knowledge that on highways like the 401, no one does the limit, so I suggest where there are three, the right lane might be for vehicles doing 105 or less, the middle lane for vehicles doing 105 to 115 and the left land for cars travelling faster than 115 I welcome other suggestions you may have.

These are just my initial suggestions to say nothing about trucks passing other trucks while going up hills. You can send you comments to ‘bdfox@rogers.com’, but if you are a trucker, please be kind.