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Controlling the Traffic Monster

Traffic is worse every year. Often the engineers' solution to this is to plough big, wide roads through the centres of quiet neighbourhoods. There are other solutions, such as the Bypass and innovative traffic control technologies. I am your voice on each of the committees which have an effect on Ward 5 traffic problems. Our defend your neighbourhoods from the Traffic Monster and we need to support new tools to untangle the traffic gridlock.

Urban transport Showcase Program – Smart Commute Initiative

Growth, even controlled growth will increase the number of cars on our overcrowded streets. I am getting calls daily about widening the arterial roads and improving intersections. I am proud to say that work is being done, even thought it is not fast enough. However, we can’t make the roads wide enough to take all the vehicles that will try to move through Markham in the future. The only long term approach that will be somewhat successful is an improved transit system. The system must be designed to encourage people to become riders instead of drivers. One of the methods of encouraging rapid transit use is the development of Travel Demand Management Programs, such as the ones Markham Council has been working on.

Travel Demand Management Programs are non-profit, member controlled organizations that provide sustainable transportation solutions to improve mobility and accessibility, as well as enhancing land value in the targeted area or corridor. The Highway 407 and Highway 7 corridors, as well as the Markham Centre area have been identified as areas of current and future employment that would benefit from the activities and services of a Travel Management Area, and our aim is to initiate a network of Travel Management Associations along these routes. Our roads need to move people, not vehicles.

Please click here for more information on the Travel Demand Management Program.