What is interesting is that none of the candidates have addressed this problem in any meaningful way. They have all talked about the issue of new roads versus an upgraded transit system. As well, they have thrown around the idea of more toll roads. But, the problem is that they are afraid to face the music. None of them will talk about the very real and very obvious cause of this increasingly dangerous situation - a situation that is only getting worse.

The air that we breathe

Before discussing the ‘obvious’ cause of gridlock, let’s look at the dangers a jammed up road system brings to any city. We are all well aware that Toronto is experiencing more and more bad air days. Breathing is becoming a hazard and lung diseases are rising at a dramatic rate. Having cars and trucks spew toxins into the air we breath, as they crawl toward their destinations along a clogged road system, is a sure way to make the Air Quality Index jump through the roof.

Dollars and no sense

The economic ramifications are also quite disturbing. Businesses will start to move away as they realize they can’t count on the transportation system for the delivery of goods, services and people. The whole region is simply becoming less and less people and

enterprise friendly. This scenario has played out in a multitude of large cities across North America and Toronto is blindly following in their footsteps without any effort to learn from past mistakes.

The culprit, the obvious cause of the gridlock, is ‘urban sprawl’. But in the GTA, it is the worst kind of urban sprawl. There is mega-growth of high density housing scattered helter skelter around the region with no effort at coordinated planning to try to minimize the impact. And in the last few years, the impact has become blatantly obvious. The sad fact is that without extreme measures and costs, it is too late to solve these increasingly detrimental problems

This should have been part of proper urban planning back more than forty years ago. But, it was ignored in favor of fast and furious growth for the sake of the almighty dollar.

A runaway situation

None of the infrastructures has been updated to handle this out of control urban expansion. The sewage treatment facilities are breaking down, the water supply systems are stretched and at risk, the electrical grid is teetering on failure, and the transit system is almost useless. We all remember the black out last year - Well folks, that’s just the beginning.

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