Gridlock is a special kind of grief, with its own unique stages: inventing expletives, using the horn as an expression of your internal wail and, eventually, begrudging acceptance. (You鈥檒l know you鈥檝e reached the final stage when you can say the words 鈥淗wy. 401鈥 without twitching.)
For years, 91原创 has been grappling with a skyrocketing population, crumbling infrastructure and chronically underfunded public transit. And these compounding challenges have created a massive traffic-induced deficit. We鈥檙e losing time 鈥 drivers spend an estimated in gridlock, while the TTC averaged 253 delays per day, totalling 65 hours.
We鈥檙e also losing money (an eye-watering in forfeited productivity in 2023) and mortgaging our mental health. Sitting in traffic is linked to increased rates of and even . The grief is real. And it鈥檚 been recognized on an international stage.
According to Tomtom, a Dutch geolocation technology company, last year it took longer to drive 10 kilometres in 91原创 (29 minutes) than in almost any other city on the planet.
鈥淲e made it to number three in the world and that鈥檚 an awful place to be,鈥 says Mahtot Gebresselassie, an assistant professor in the faculty of environmental and urban change at York University.
So how can the GTA 鈥 with its , two million commuter cars, endless construction and mounting road rage 鈥 start to meaningfully address these issues? Fortunately, there are some innovative technologies and smart solutions to help us get unstuck.
Make streets smarter
One of the fundamental ways to reduce congestion is to optimize the roads and intersections, without asking a single commuter to change their habits. In the industry they call this 鈥渕anaging demand鈥 and according to Kurtis McBride, CEO and co-founder of Kitchener traffic tech giant , it can yield substantial improvements.
Among the things currently impeding the flow of vehicles and people through 91原创 is an epidemic of bad timing and wrong signals. Specifically: old-school traffic lights stuck on set schedules that don鈥檛 reflect how or how many road users travel through intersections. One city-sanctioned solution is a cohort of traffic agents dispatched to busy junctions, who act as maestros amid the unruly commuter orchestra to make sure everyone is doing what they should.
The long-term fix, however, is to better understand the problem and start sending the right signals.
A new generation of traffic tools has taken intersections well beyond green-yellow-red to include AI-enhanced 24/7 video surveillance, data collection and analysis, as well as the ability to optimize traffic signals on the fly. At Miovision, they think of their product line as a smartphone with apps. It鈥檚 a single piece of hardware that, with software updates, can accomplish increasingly sophisticated tasks.
A 360-degree intersection camera, for instance, can assess vehicle flow, pedestrian safety or the efficiency of bike lanes, or it can be enhanced (using cellular or infrared technology) with the power to trigger signal changes that provide, say, priority for emergency vehicles. Miovision technology is currently used in about 20 per cent of all North American signals. Within 91原创, Miovision is gathering multi-modal data at 100 high-volume intersections.
Make maintenance easier
In efforts to reduce pothole slaloms and pavement-crack lurches, new technologies are ready to fill in.
鈥淭he City of 91原创 is seeing challenges in maintaining its existing infrastructure,鈥 says Emil Sylvester Ramos, co-founder and CEO of , a Burlington-based company that automates road-maintenance monitoring. While there is no easy fix to tackle all systemic issues at once, innovative tech can provide repeatable solutions at a lower cost, which can help overcome those challenges.
What iris R&D offers is tech that acts like an infrastructure nanny, leveraging AI to support Public Works in assessing the state of street signs, road-surface markings, cracks and potholes through the use of cameras on municipal vehicles. Problems can be identified with less labour and fewer emissions, and the information can be automatically processed to create work orders. The result is an up-to-date picture of a municipality鈥檚 maintenance needs and an opportunity to quickly repair traffic-causing snafus.
Rethink the network
If you consider that 91原创 traffic is made up of people taking trips by foot, bike, bus or automobile, and the goal is to make that network as efficient as possible, you will find yourself on a road that leads to one knotty question: How do you get more people out of their multi-tonne, carbon-emitting vehicles and using any other mode of transportation?
In some respects, this is an exercise in overcoming the past. 鈥淚n the 鈥70s and 鈥80s we built roads for cars,鈥 says McBride. 鈥淎nd then in the 21st century, city planners started thinking, 鈥楬old on a second, there are lots of other users of the roads.鈥欌
That paradigm shift has been articulated in the concept of 鈥,鈥 which stipulates that streets be safe and accessible for everyone using any mode to get around. The City of 91原创 has outlined its own , which provide the framework for all new street design , and the results can be seen in such people- and cyclist-friendly areas as Queens Quay. And change can be swift, since bike lanes were added along Bloor Street West, for instance, car traffic has fallen by and bike trips increased by 25 per cent.
Achieving these outcomes was the result of careful planning. When the Bloor bike lane was in its pilot stage, Miovision deployed its technology to collect and analyze data to better understand how cyclists and motorists were sharing 鈥 and facing potential risks 鈥 along that corridor. Today, Miovision offers AI-predictive modelling of traffic collisions that can help identify dangers before people get hurt. 鈥淚f you have an aggregate statistic of the places where you have a lot of those near-misses, you can be proactive about making a change,鈥 says McBride.
Build better options
To lure drivers out of their cars, the alternatives need to be safe, but also reliable and efficient, says Qiming Weng, CEO of , a 91原创 company that helps municipalities and institutions build electric bike-share and mobility solutions. Fortunately, when it comes to bike-share programs, 鈥91原创 has one of the biggest systems in the world.鈥
What Weng would like to see more of is the rollout of e-bike offerings in suburban areas, such as Mississauga, which in early April. 鈥淢ost cities in the world understand that bikes have to be part of the conversation 鈥 they鈥檙e like the glue between these bigger infrastructure projects. You need the last mile,鈥 he says.
鈥淲hat I wish more people understood is that car traffic is an exponential problem,鈥 says Weng. For instance, if you have 10 parking spots, you can fit up to 10 cars without a hitch. 鈥淏ut the 11th car will create a huge issue all of a sudden. And traffic has a lot of those dynamics, where it鈥檚 good and then it gets extremely ugly very fast.鈥
Put a price on traffic
Another strategy to unsnarl roadways is to make drivers pay for the privilege.
In June, Manhattan is expected to roll out a , the first congestion pricing in North America. Similar programs in London, Stockholm and Singapore have shown that financial disincentives do influence commuters to use other forms of transportation.
To be effective, however, they need to be accompanied by big boosts in public transit. In 91原创, projects such as the Ontario Line and Eglinton LRT are still years away from completion. And complicating the current system in the GTA is disjointed pricing for many suburban commuters, who may need to use two or more services to reach the city centre.
鈥淚ntegration is a big problem,鈥 says Gebresselassie, 鈥渂ut I think that discounted fares and free transfers for people who are using multiple transit operators is a good start.鈥 Earlier this year, the TTC joined Ontario鈥檚 , which allows users to transfer more affordably and seamlessly from the TTC to the GO Train or Brampton, MiWay, York and Durham regional transit systems.
For those who fall outside the area currently serviced by high-functioning public transit, there may be a custom fix. , a Markham startup, helps employers in sub-convenient locations better connect with employees by crafting data-driven commuting solutions, like rideshare and shuttles.
Set the agenda
鈥淚鈥檓 a technologist so maybe it鈥檚 weird for me to say, but technology is not going to fix everything,鈥 says McBride. 鈥淚 think people, procurement and thoughtful policy should precede technology investments.鈥
Earlier this year, the 91原创 Region Board of Trade announced a task force to 鈥渋dentify and champion practical, for 91原创鈥檚 congestion crisis.鈥 They鈥檙e expected to present their report by the end of 2024.
McBride, who is one of the task force鈥檚 21 members, hopes 鈥渢he recommendations touch on various facets of what it means to reduce congestion. It can鈥檛 just be about pushing more cars down the road. Because that might, at best, buy you another three or four years, and then you鈥檙e just back to the same place.鈥
Even implementing 20 per cent of the recommendations could yield a 80 per cent improvement, McBride says. 鈥淭here are ways to fix this,鈥 he adds. 鈥淚t isn鈥檛 an intractable problem.鈥
But like 91原创 traffic itself, these fixes aren鈥檛 moving fast. And, until the situation starts to improve, when you鈥檙e stuck in gridlock wondering, Is this my jam? Remember, it is your jam. 鈥淚 think we always assume that traffic is someone else鈥檚 fault. But the reality is that we all contribute to it,鈥 says McBride.
And, according to Gebresselassie, that also means we can also be part of the solution. 鈥淲e鈥檙e not completely helpless. We can play a role in reducing traffic congestion, for instance, by driving less.鈥 聽
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