rfmcdonald | [URBAN NOTE] "Evidence demands Toronto tear down the Gardiner east, will council listen?" (Reply)

Metro Toronto's Matt Elliott argues that the eastern end of the Gardiner Expressway should be torn down. Will it, though? How will people vote? He looks at the issue at length, providing speculation as to how city council will divide.

The reports are in on the Gardiner. The analysis is done. The numbers have been crunched and crunched again.

It all points to the same conclusion: When Mayor John Tory and 44 other members of council meet on June 10, they should vote to remove the eastern part of the Gardiner between Jarvis Street and the Don Valley Parkway.

[. . .]

There’s the money. Maintaining the elevated expressway connection is far more costly, requiring about $500 million more in construction and maintenance costs compared to simply removing it and building a University Avenue-like boulevard.

Then there’s congestion. On this, the studies are in agreement. With reasonable signal timing along the replacement boulevard, the impact on commuters in 2031 will represent about two to three minutes of additional delay in the morning rush hour when compared to maintaining the elevated connection. How much is avoiding a two- or three-minute delay really worth?

And finally, there’s the relatively small number of people who actually use the east Gardiner. Traffic on this section represents just three per cent of morning commutes to downtown, according to a city traffic analysis. In comparison, GO and TTC ridership represent 68 per cent.