‘What a nightmare,’ Toronto crowned number one in Canada for most congested city and residents are growing frustrated – NOW Toronto

A new global traffic scorecard has ranked Toronto as the 17th most congested city in the world, which comes as no surprise to residents.

Amid the Gardiner Expressway construction, infrastructure upgrades along Spadina and streetcar track replacement along King Street West, it’s no wonder the city has been crowned the worst for congestion in Canada and eighth overall in the Americas.

The 2023 Global Traffic Scorecard by INRIX looked at travel delay comparisons, collision trends and last-mile speeds in each metropolitan area across the world to come to its findings. Some of its newest methodology include more accurate commute times, which were calculated by looking exclusively at the time it takes to get to and from major employment centers within an urban area. 

As a result, the scorecard found that New York took the top spot for the most congested city in the world with 101 hours lost in traffic per driver in 2023. 

In second place is Mexico City with 96 hours lost and in third place, London with 99 hours lost. 

“These results are due to their large populations and the increasing vehicular demand on their respective road networks. As the demand for vehicular travel continues to grow faster than the supply of roadway, traffic congestion and delay tend to grow,” the scorecard reads.

The study also notes that Toronto’s lost hours has increased dramatically over the years.

“Some major urban areas like Bogota, Boston, Miami and Toronto all moved up significantly from last year with double digit increases over 2022,” the study said. 

In fact, the average driver in Toronto spends about 63 hours stuck in traffic. Now Toronto spoke to some residents about their current thoughts on congestion and construction in the city.

“I understand the infrastructure needs to be maintained, but I think there is a general frustration from people because it seems like a lot of things just take very long, so it’s hard for people to plan their commute every day,” Sarah Wong said.

“It’s kind of frustrating because yesterday I was at Spadina. They told me I had to go upstairs to wait for the bus and it’s not as convenient for sure,” Crystal Zang explained.

“I think the priority is to get people that aren’t driving a little bit better service, so more people would want to take the TTC, so whatever they can do to help that would be great,” Lily Hansen-Gillis said.

“What a nightmare,” Marc Pileggi said.

City Councillor for Ward 19 Beaches, East York is currently advocating for city staff to look into accelerating the construction on the Gardiner. 

His motion includes having construction take place 24/7, increasing pre-fabrication technologies and building components off-site, and minimizing congestion on parallel routes adjacent to the highway to alleviate traffic. 

“Torontonians won’t be surprised to hear our congestion is the worst in the country, and 17th worst in the world. It’s getting harder and harder to get across town to see friends or get to work. 

That’s why I’ve been pushing to accelerate the rebuild of the Gardiner Expressway by allowing 24/7 construction, and making sure we don’t let construction projects tie up every parallel route,” Bradford said in a statement to Now Toronto.

“Council needs to do a better job of taking congestion seriously and helping people get where they need to go. Our economy – and more importantly, our sanity – depends on it,” he continued.

On the upside, the study says traffic congestion is a sign of economic activity.

“The movement of people, goods and services creates demand for road travel, but when demand exceeds the supply of road space, it results in congestion,” the study said.

“This means that while traffic congestion has a negative impact to the economy, it’s a symptom of economic activity,” it continued.