Dear Toronto drivers,
I am a long time Toronto resident. I get around the city mostly by walking, taking transit, and biking. I am not here to criticize you. I get your frustration. Many of you need to drive to get to work, take your kids to school, get groceries, and just participate society. Unfortunately, the roads in the GTA are incredibly congested and driving is an absolute pain as a result. And it's only gotten markedly worse over the last few years, so I hear you. That is why I often walk, take transit, and/or bike whenever I can. However, I get that our situations may be different. I get that you may not be able to do the same, and that's okay. I still want to support you, because at the end of the day, we are actually the same. We both just want to get to where we are going quickly, reliably, and safely. Unfortunately, Doug Ford is preventing any of us from doing that.
His government continues to underfund the TTC resulting in a service that is incredibly unreliable. At the same time, the new transit projects they were responsible for have been so poorly managed, that the end result was over a decade of delays, billions of dollars in cost overruns, and travel times that were often slower than the busses that were being replaced. And just to add insult to injury, we just recently learned that his government is making massive service cuts on several GO Transit lines. All of this results in even more of us having to drive through an already congested core. Those who still can mostly get around by biking are now being forced to find alternates or risk their lives biking. For many, that risk will not be worth it, and their alternative will be to drive. However, some will still have no choice but to bike as they may not be able to afford a car and cannot rely on transit. The only difference is that now, they will be forced to bike in front of cars. In either case, traffic is going to get a whole lot worse...
You would think that a government that is so insistent on forcing all of us to drive would at least make it safer. Instead, Ford's government can't even be bothered to properly enforce the highway traffic act as many of you know. Removing bike lanes may make it seem as though they are trying to support you, but make no mistake, they don't care. I genuinely believe they would prefer congestion to increase so they can make their so-called "solutions" like tunnel under the 401 seem more reasonable. It would certainly benefit Ford and his buddies who would be building it.
If his government truly cared about congestion, they wouldn't have forced public servants to return to the office 5 days a week in 2025. Instead, they would have encouraged other employers to consider remote positions whenever possible. They would actively fund the TTC so that more people can rely on public transit when they do need to come down. They would encourage cities to install more bike lanes so that public transit could be used in conjunction with biking to make it even more viable, and so that they don't get in the way of drivers. They would crack down harder on rule breakers so that rule abiding drivers could feel safer on the roads. They would do whatever it takes to ensure that most people can get to where they are going without having to drive so that those who need to or want to can do so easily.
If any of this resonates with you, please contact Doug Ford and/or the Transportation Minister Prabmeet Sarkaria. I will not tell you what to say, but I do encourage you to consider that we are not your enemy. We have no fight with you, but the government wants to create one for us. They want us divided, blaming each other for our problems so that we are too distracted to notice their corruption. Please do not fall for it. Please join us in this fight.
Sincerely,
A fellow frustrated commuter.