A Simple Solution To Traffic In Downtown Core

Shutdown all parking lots, starting with the one at City Hall, to long term parking. Personally I take the subway/public transit when I have to go "downtown" but only because it is is convienent.

Editorial Digest
Tolled you

Councillor Glenn De Baermaeker's record isn't perfect — he's looked bad in run-ins with youth activists and Take the Tooker cycling advocates, for example — but we're inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt when confronted with one fact: he lives in central Scarborough and rides his bike to work. He's an environmental councillor who rides the talk, and that's always bought him a little respect.

Our estimation of him rose again on Jan. 5 when it was reported that, as the chair of the city's works committee, he's advocating looking at road tolls to help solve congestion and finance transit construction.

"If we want a spiderweb of streetcar lines all across Toronto, out to the hinterlands of Toronto, how do we pay for that? I think we have to look at having a road toll and using that money to fix potholes and increase public transit," he was quoted as saying in the National Post.

We've been advocates of charging for the use of the roads for a long time: fees on, say, the Don Valley Parkway and Gardiner Expressway, would encourage transit use, raise funds for building transit and fighting congestion, and reward those who live nearby to where they work, which is healthy for the city. They do it in London, England; Stockholm, Sweden; and New York City. We should do it here.

But Mayor David Miller has been running away from tolls ever since he brought the idea into the public consciousness with a little leg tease on the issue way back in 2003. He says it's not fair to those who "have no choice" but to drive because our transit network isn't strong enough yet. Here's a question for the mayor: what about those who have no choice but to pay to take the TTC from way out in Scarborough because they can't afford to drive? The residents of the inner suburbs have long been cited as the biggest political obstacle to introducing tolls. Now a councillor from way out there is taking a bold lead on the subject. We hope the mayor is paying attention.