Complete Streets for Ward 18

Ward 18, like all Toronto's near-downtown wards, is plagued by morning and evening rush hour gridlock. Our streets -- which should be reserved primarily for local citizens -- are clogged by commuters in cars, usually one person per vehicle, driving as fast as possible on their way between downtown and the suburbs.

These “foreigners” rarely stop to shop or eat, they oppose bike lanes, they have little patience for pedestrians, and they feel trapped behind transit vehicles. To accommodate this twice daily madness the city reduces parking, thus frustrating local merchants and their customers. This is a big issue on Dundas. On Dupont the gridlock is blamed on the new bike lanes which start westbound at Lansdowne, which reduce the number of car lanes from four to two. The solution would be to complete the bike lanes eastward to downtown.

Ward 18 citizens should not be subjected to commuter noise, danger and pollution. Yes, we welcome people visiting our Ward, but they should be on transit or bicycle. Fewer than half of Ward 18 citizens drive cars, so theoretically our community should be quiet and walkable, not overrun by cars.

My vision of Toronto is to rebuild our city into about 200 walkable, pedestrianized, "complete neighbourhoods", and "complete streets" where everyone can walk to basic amenities and take transit or cycle to other areas of the city as desired. City streets should be quiet, hosting slow moving vehicles of all kinds, and serving the needs of local residents first, visitors second, commuters third.