If you live in the Greater Toronto Area or have to come into the city for any reason this week, you’ve probably noticed that traffic is a nightmare. You can thank the construction on the Gardiner Expressway – only one of the busiest highways in Canada and a main route into the city – which will be going on for the next little while.
Oh wait, it’s not just going to be a little while; it’s going to be for the next TWO YEARS.
Of course, the Gardiner needs work, but that sounds like a ridiculous amount of time to choke one of the key arteries of this massive city.
It has been awful for traffic this week and, while it may improve as people get used to the limitations and find either different routes or different modes of transport, I can’t help but look on the horizon at events coming to the Big Smoke.
It was pretty bad that the weekend the Boston Red Sox were in town, the Gardiner was closed. Well, over the next two years, there’s roughly a mere 162 home baseball games to go. Perhaps we should hope the Jays don’t make the playoffs.
With the Raptors playing a home playoff game on Wednesday, traffic was somehow not a nightmare. But could you imagine a potential Game 7 on Sunday if the Nets win at home tonight? That sounds like hell on earth!
Then there’s two more season’s worth of games, 82 at home.
And then there’s the Leafs! Traffic getting to and from games is bad on game nights at the best of times, this is going to be hellish. God forbid they makes the playoffs.
Perhaps the biggest nightmare of all is just a couple of months away – The Honda Indy Toronto. Picture this: The Gardiner down to two lanes and Lake Shore Blvd. closed for a week. You might as well cancel any plans you have of going downtown or leaving it, depending on where you are.
And this isn’t to mention big concerts, parades and other events that occur year-round in Canada’s biggest city.
At least whenever there’s an Argos game, traffic is usually lighter.
And when the Pan Am Games are going on next summer, we’ll be back to three lanes to handle the extra traffic. Oh, joy.