Toronto’s tra c crisis hurting businesses
Traffic is so bad in Canada’s financial capital that a majority of Toronto residents are prepared to endure round-the-clock construction to improve the situation sooner, according to new polling data.
A survey commissioned by the Toronto Region Board of Trade found that 64 per cent of residents are reluctant to travel to work because of traffic congestion, a dismal statistic that’s harming efforts by banks and other large employers to get workers to come to the office more often.
This reluctance to tackle the commute “can lead to higher absenteeism rates and a decrease in overall workforce participation,” the business organization said in a statement, noting that unpredictable journey times are a huge concern for stressed-out commuters.
“Major employers in the downtown core — a lot of the banks and the big business consulting firms and so on — would very much like to have their employees in the office at least three days a week, potentially four and beyond,” Giles Gherson, chief executive of the Board of Trade, said of his conversations with the city’s business leaders.
COMMUTE INTOLERABLE
“But what’s held them back — because they want to keep their employees, obviously — is they’re very well aware of the fact that their employees are saying: ‘My commute has become intolerable.’ ”
Toronto was ranked the worst city in North America last year in a traffic index rating published by location technology company Tomtom, which determined it took 28 minutes on average to travel 10 kilometres in the city.
The Board of Trade’s survey found that 86 per cent of respondents believe there’s a traffic “crisis” in the region.
The online poll of 1,000 residents who live in the Toronto region was conducted over a one-week period in June by public opinion firm Ipsos.
Almost three-quarters of respondents said they would support 24-hour road construction if it meant clearing up Toronto’s streets faster.