A city councillor has put forward a motion asking the municipal government to urgently design an action plan to help ease congestion in Liberty Village following an uptick in complaints from local residents about frustrating gridlock.
The downtown neighbourhood has been inundated with traffic as a result of construction along Spadina Road and the Gardiner Expressway.
“Residents are experiencing unreliable and lengthy travel times via car and on public transit, which has caused considerable community frustration,” a motion from Spadina-Fort York Councillor Ausma Malik says.
Liberty Village is an extremely busy area as it’s home to major venues such as BMO Field, Budweiser Stage and Exhibition Place.
In addition, it currently has one main road, Liberty St., where most vehicles are forced to travel along to get in and out of the neighbourhood.
But Malik assured she is intent on finding effective ways to mitigate road safety risks and to reinstate the smooth flow of traffic in the area.
“With Gardiner and King St. construction, and a number of special events, the situation is at a critical point. I am committed to ensuring public safety, efficient emergency services, and smooth traffic flow in this neighbourhood so everyone can get where they need to go,” she said in a statement to Now Toronto on Friday.
Current traffic is trapping drivers and some are breaking the rules of the road to free themselves, which causes “additional challenges and safety risks to road users, including cyclists and pedestrians,” the motion continues.
As a result, Malik is recommending that the city direct multiple city officials, Transportation Services and the Toronto Transit Commission to take immediate action on items such as parking, construction, event management, and rideshare in the interests of road safety.
The motion says that new measures must help reduce congestion, improve traffic flow, ensure fast and reliable travel times for all road users, including transit and must be implemented with regard to traffic management plans in adjacent neighbourhoods.
Malik’s suggestions also include halting all non-essential construction along King Street West, traffic agency coverage at the Strachan and East Liberty intersection, and the temporary closure of northbound Strachan with redirection along Lakeshore and Fleet to improve traffic flow, among others.
Malik is asking the city to begin implementing the measures this month, to make changes as soon as possible. Her motion will be considered by city council at its next meeting on Wednesday.
RESIDENTS FED UP WITH TRAFFIC
Residents are weighing in on the traffic online with some suggesting the issue exists because of how the area is built.
“Liberty Village has been a disaster since 2006 when the first condo arrived. It’s such a poorly designed community,” one person wrote on X.
Others were less empathetic towards residents’ complaints, saying sitting in traffic is an unavoidable consequence of driving downtown.
“Obviously they think like it’s a suburb. Just do something about traffic, so I can drive my car, which IS traffic, in the downtown core,” one X user said.
“Strachan acts as a major exit off the Gardiner since there’s minimal highway exits in Toronto. It’s a gd nightmare and they keep building more condos,” someone else wrote.
