The toll road snowball is hurtling through City Hall Thursday morning with reports that Mayor Tory is in fact committed and all it requires is a perfunctory vote on council and the stroke of a pen by Transportation Minister Del Duca. The mayor opposed such a scheme during the election campaign. The excitement as reported on CP24 seems heady. There is talk about a $2 toll as just the thing to fix Toronto’s finances. So far no one has pondered that this price for a one way trip would cost drivers more than $1,000 a year to get to and back from work
SOUTH BAYVIEW SPILL?
It is by no means clear whether a toll on the Don Valley Parkway would cause much, if any traffic, to divert onto City streets. But at more than $1,000 a year to use the expressways for work, it is possible. And as residents of South Bayview know very well, the local roads are jammed on weekends when the parkway is closed. Those who care about the number of cars merely passing through — and especially on Bayview Ave. — may wish to ask whether a study is needed to examine this possibility. It is an interesting irony that many of these streets are in the Premier’s riding of Don Valley West.
BLAME GAME
Jennifer Pagliaro of the Star writes that City Planner Jennifer Keesmaat and James Pasternak (Ward 10) are among many people pummeling those who live outside Toronto for not paying their “fair share” of road costs. Keesmaat says 40 percent of drivers on the DVP are from outside town. That means 60 percent live here. In the same report James Campbell (Ward 4) says TTC riders pay 70 percent of the cost of the service. But he knows that drivers pay enormously more money in taxes than the price of a Metropass. Blame is the name of the game. Jennifer Pagliaro
