Torontonians ‘mad as hell’, Bradford says, pushing to temporarily reopen King Street amid traffic gridlock

Toronto city councillor Brad Bradford says the city must act on what he calls a “common-sense” solution to worsening downtown gridlock: reopen a key stretch of King Street to vehicles until major construction wraps later this summer.

Standing near the closed King and Church streets on Thursday, Bradford said downtown congestion has surged since the intersection was shut earlier this month to replace a 142-year-old watermain.

With no streetcars currently using King Street between Spadina Avenue and Church Street, Bradford says he plans to introduce a motion at next week’s council meeting to temporarily allow cars back onto the corridor. It’s a move he says is already backed by businesses and residents in the area.

“What I’m hearing from Torontonians is that they are mad as hell with the congestion in the downtown core,” Bradford told reporters. “They want the city to take it seriously. They want the mayor to step up and do something. If she’s not prepared to do that, I will.”

Construction closures bringing traffic to a crawl

In addition to replacing the watermain, the work along the King-Church includes rebuilding TTC streetcar tracks.

However, Bradford argues that no streetcars have been running through the corridor, with several routes instead using Richmond and Adelaide streets.

“These streets are already under pressure from the Ontario Line construction, lane closures and everyday commuting,” Bradford said. “Now there are four busy streetcar lines moving more than street 30 streetcars per hour that have been diverted onto Richmond and Adelaide.”

Bradford emphasized that due to this overflow, it makes little sense to restrict King Street when streetcars don’t use it.

Rethinking a traffic strategy

Bradford’s motion, seconded by Coun. Stephen Holyday, also calls on the city’s Deputy City Manager of Infrastructure Services to develop better strategies for managing congestion ahead of major downtown infrastructure work — something he explains is even more urgent because the city’s planned “congestion czar” has yet to be appointed.

That czar role was approved by council in April, part of Mayor Olivia Chow’s wider congestion strategy. But a report on what the role will entail isn’t due until July 10.

In a response sent to CTV News Toronto, Chow’s office released a statement suggesting they have sped up construction in the area by “one full month” and that “Bradford has not yet shared his motion with our office.”

Instead, Chow plans to bring her own motion forward at council next week in collaboration with Coun. Chris Moise and Deputy Mayor Ausma Malik.

Chow’s office says this motion aims to “ease congestion” by working with the TTC, transportation services and the Financial District BIA to “manage temporary loading zones in specific areas.”

“This has been considered at city council repeatedly,” the email reads. “We are always open to exploring new solutions to speed up traffic.”

Meanwhile, another staff report suggested that Toronto’s 5,600-kilometre road network has not expanded in decades, despite massive growth in construction activity and traffic volume. Last summer, up to 24 per cent of city roads were closed at one time, more than doubling travel times. The report also highlighted the city plans to have 67 traffic agents in place by summer — but enforcement alone may not be enough, Bradford suggests.

“This is about using common sense and looking for creative solutions to our problems,” Bradford said. “We should be making better use of all the corridors that are available at our disposal when we can, particularly one that is significantly underutilized right now.”

A ‘segregated’ east end feeling left out, Bradford says

While the King–Church intersection isn’t in Bradford’s Beaches–East York ward, he says the consequences of downtown congestion are city-wide — particularly for residents east of Yonge Street.

“Respectfully, a lot of people from the east end of the city feel entirely cut off from the downtown core,” Bradford said. “When they took that ramp down on the Gardiner, they segregated the east end of Toronto and made it very difficult and painful to get into the core, and we’re still dealing with the impacts of that.”

“I’m standing up for everybody east of Yonge that’s having a hard time getting into the core, and folks from out in Etobicoke, North York, trying to get downtown.”

Developers and business leaders have also lined up behind the motion, warning that gridlock is hurting the city’s economic engine.

“Fixing Toronto’s mobility crisis requires action, not just talk,” said Jon Love, executive chair of KingSett Capital. “There’s no reason for King Street to be reserved for streetcar priority when there are no streetcars running on it.”

Leona Savoie, co-chair of NAIOP Greater Toronto’s government relations committee, called the motion “a common-sense solution to alleviate congestion and get Toronto moving again.”

A bid for mayor?

Notably, Bradford was asked several times during Thursday’s news conference about whether he was trying to lay the groundwork for a future mayoral run, to which he said:

“I have not made any decision on that... As a member of the 25 councillors and 26 including the mayor, it is becoming on all of us to stand up and fight on the issues that are important for people that are trying to call the city home.”