Karen Stintz says it will take a czar to help unclog Toronto’s congested roads and transportation systems.
Standing in front of a blustery stretch of the Gardiner Expressway during the busy morning rush hour Friday, Stintz promised that if elected mayor, she would create a single agency headed by a ‘transportation czar’ to make sure people can get around the city smoothly.
“The reality is that congestion in this city robs us of time, probably one of the most valuable things that people have,” Stintz said. “Right now we’re not in a position to fight this congestion and the reason is that responsibility and accountability is spread across the city.”
Stintz said her plan would consolidate four agencies – Toronto Transportation Services; Taxi Standards and Licensing; the TTC; and the Parking Enforcement unit – into a single agency dubbed Transportation for Toronto.
The agency would consist of a President and CEO – the ‘Czar’ – who would be answerable to a board chaired by the mayor and composed of people knowledgeable about transportation issues.
The new agency would be responsible for everything from parking tickets, to salting roads and subway schedules. The agency would also liaise with Metrolinx, the province’s regional transportation authority charged with unclogging the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area.
According to Stintz, the new model would lead long-term transportation planning, provide real-time information to commuters, coordinate construction efforts and more.
She cited King Street as an example of a place where many different city agencies work separately to handle parking, streetcar services and pedestrian issues.
“This is not a new idea, but its time has come for Toronto,” Stintz said.
Stintz said she based the idea off Transport for London, an agency created to manage London, England’s complex network of subways, buses, ferries, roads, bikes and taxis on a daily basis. Stintz said the agency has been a successful model, smoothly coordinating the transportation for the 2012 Olympics.
While Stintz did not provide specific dollar estimates for setting up and running Transportation for Toronto, she said there would likely be savings from bringing existing agencies together.
“We’ll find efficiencies through consolidation,” Stintz told cp24.com Friday afternoon. “The primary objective is to get traffic moving. It’s not going to cost more.”
Stintz, who served as chair of the TTC during most of her current term on council, has said that transportation and congestion will be a major part of her platform.
As TTC Chair, she has often been the face of transit issues – both good and bad.
She has been involved in high-level spats with both the province and the Ford brothers over plans for a proposed Scarborough subway. She has gone back and forth over which transit option would be better in Scarborough -- light-rail transit or subways.
As first reported by cp24.com, Stintz also moved a motion for the city to take over the Bixi bike sharing program after the company failed to make its loan payments, a move council approved.
With congestion estimated to cost the city billions of dollars in lost productivity annually, Other mayoral candidates have also seized on gridlock and frustration with the pace of transit growth as a campaign issue.
John Tory has promised to make a downtown relief line a major priority if elected, while Olivia Chow has promised to increase bus capacity and scrap the Scarborough subway extension in favour of a cheaper above-ground line.
Incumbent Rob Ford has promised to continue building subways, beginning with an extension of the Sheppard line, followed by a downtown relief line.
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