OPINION: To get us all moving, keep the HOV lanes and increase transit flowing through them

[caption id="attachment_5990" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Debunking the Myth of Underused HOV lanes[/caption]

This post is written by Shaun Cleaver, a TTCriders Campaigns Committee member. It does not reflect an approved position of TTCriders.

In the lead-up to the PanAm Games there were certain loud voices predicting a sort of “carmageddon” due to the implementation of temporary High Occupant Vehicle (HOV) lanes to Toronto-area highways. Now that the most ambitious restrictions are ending with the close of the PanAm Games (there are lighter ones through the ParaPans in August) we can look back their effects on our ability to get around with a bit more clarity. Sure, we had some anecdotes of fun with mannequins or claims about the righteousness of single passenger SUVs to play by their own rules, but for the most part Toronto accommodated this temporary change quite well.

Full disclosure: I live and work in the city so therefore do not spend a lot of time on highways. I do not own a car and therefore travel primarily bicycle and the pile of TTC tokens I keep near the door.

One evening rush hour I did, however, have to get myself from Brampton to Scarborough and was able to witness the Games-time highway situation; from the window of a GO bus headed to Union Station. Consistent to the reports that I had heard, the “general traffic” lanes were busy and moving slowly. Meanwhile, the bus streamed through the HOV lanes on the 427 and Gardiner Expressway, arriving 10 minutes early. As it turns out, my experience seems to have been the norm for the Games with most GO buses reporting on-time and early arrivals. If the goal is to allow more people to move around this region it seems clear to me that we need more swiftly moving GO buses and fewer vehicles with one or sometimes two occupants in them. In addition to GO, this Games-time experience even allowed the TTC to operate additional express service. I would certainly like to see more of that!

In Toronto 2015 we are regularly told that “congestion” is our most important civic concern. I happen to disagree; I think that the larger issue is that most of the GTA is either inaccessible or accessible only with difficulty to the hundreds of thousands of us who do not drive. Regardless of which problem is more pressing, maintaining the Games-time HOV lanes and increasing the amount of transit flowing through them is a good strategy to get us all moving.

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