Harry Shannon
Some years ago, even before traffic was as bad as it is today, I had to get into Toronto from the Hamilton area. There was a problem on the GO (commuter) train line, so I drove. But so did many of the people who normally took the train.
Stuck in traffic, I did some simple mental arithmetic. At the time, there were three trains in from Hamilton each morning rush hour. Each had 10 carriages which held about 100 people each. So 3 x 10 x 100 = 3,000 people on these trains.
Let’s say half of them got in their cars. That’s 1,500 cars. Each car takes up at least 10 metres, even if they’re tailgating or going really slowly. That’s 15,000 metres = 15 km of road. The main highway, the QEW, has three lanes, so it was equivalent to setting down on the highway a solid block of cars 5 km (about 3 miles) long. Just from three trains!
Of course, the TTC (Toronto’s transit system) has an even bigger impact. Improving transit and making it free will have a huge effect.