How the Toronto Region Board of Trade got lost in traffic. My Toronto Star column on their terrible congestion task force report & how they’ve lost their way of late. $billions on a 401 tunnel? Where’s the rational business people now? www.thestar.com/news/gta/how... - ThreadSky

shawnmicallef.bsky.social • 4 days ago

How the Toronto Region Board of Trade got lost in traffic. My Toronto Star column on their terrible congestion task force report & how they’ve lost their way of late. $billions on a 401 tunnel? Where’s the rational business people now?

https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/how-the-toronto-region-board-of-trade-got-lost-in-traffic/article_fd965bea-f5de-11ef-96cd-23bff1f40671.html

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shawnmicallef.bsky.social•4 days ago

The Board of Trade is not a serious organization considering who was on their task force.

shawnmicallef.bsky.social•3 days ago

The board even ignored key parts of the expert study they commissioned that explain how congestion is actually mitigated.

shawnmicallef.bsky.social•3 days ago

Yes also read Lanrick’s piece. (I am so far out of the loop these couple weeks I didn’t even realize till I started that he wrote a piece for us. 😵‍💫🍸)

https://bsky.app/profile/lanrickbennett.bsky.social/post/3ljgk65ga7k2d

shawnmicallef.bsky.social•3 days ago

And here’s @johnlorinc.bsky.social on the boards recent shilling for Ford’s 401 tunnel. https://spacing.ca/toronto/2024/10/02/why-is-the-board-of-trade-shilling-for-the-big-doug/

lanrickbennett.bsky.social•3 days ago

We’re covering as many angles as possible on this dim witted, car centric plan, of utter and complete disaster.

Glad I could chime in. Hoping the mayor & the rest of #TOpoli open their eyes to a report that does nothing to prioritize the safety of people and everything to give convenience to cars.

michhham.bsky.social•4 days ago

Once upon a time, the Board saw Sidewalk Labs’ pitch to build a private surveillance city on the waterfront as “a good thing”.

denbysister.bsky.social•3 days ago

And I believe we can thank Doug Ford for this too. Rob Ford was the Mayor at the time and Harper was the PM. All part of the plan to overwhelm the city with cars and bring in foreign workers to drive them. Just like now with the Food delivery bikes. Most of them are from poor families in India &

denbysister.bsky.social•3 days ago

earn slave labour salaries. They live in rooms/apts/houses owned by the owners of the food delivery companies. They charge the cyclists for their bikes. I worked the poll on Thursday in Ontario & one of the young men working there, ordered from Uber Eats. Popeyes! Everyone has been so desensitized

denbysister.bsky.social•3 days ago

and lazy and uncaring. Harper & the Ford 'trifecta' dream: to have a Ford family member at all levels of gov't - Mayor, Premier, PM. Just like Putin, Harper likes his men & women to be compliant. Board of Trade are compliant & a taxpayer funded organization...that work AGAINST our best interests.

rogerman99.bsky.social•2 days ago

The trade for $10.2K annual max political contributions includes your endorsement of all my stupid initiatives. Just amazing.

johngmeadows.bsky.social•4 days ago

We also need to look at easing the need for everything to be a long commute. More walkable neighbourhoods, more remote work where possible. But with Ford back in power with a fresh mandate it will be government by the car, for the car and of the car. We are a city hobbled by a sense of privilege.

torontoboris.bsky.social•4 days ago

We're a city strangled by suburban small mindedness.

Our policies and planning overwhelmingly cater to people who don't live here but drive through our neighbourhoods.

johngmeadows.bsky.social•4 days ago

People who don't see the city as a place to live, but merely to drive through.

torontoboris.bsky.social•4 days ago

And we cater the city to their convenience

cdnmoonbeam.bsky.social•3 days ago

These 905ers need to get on board with the city of Toronto or hit go and get out of the 416s way. They're harshing our buzz.

seanyyz.bsky.social•4 days ago

There were a few good ideas, but they were overshadowed by some really awful recommendations.

Me? I’d ban more left turns, particularly on streetcar routes. (That’d help at Bathurst and Dundas.) That’s a very cheap and effective implementation.

christosyal.bsky.social•3 days ago

Thank you for writing this! I read the report and thought it wasn’t worth taking seriously for the most part. Like a high schooler wrote it the night before it was due.

markjaw.bsky.social•4 days ago

Fire Giles Gherson

ilikenewspapers.bsky.social•4 days ago

I feel like there’s an interesting story to be written about how the board of trade went from being a serious participant in discussions about city building not so long ago - certainly in the early to mid 2000s to its current cranky role

brianbswizzle.bsky.social•4 days ago

The executives who guided the report are in a tough spot. On the one hand congestion pricing would make their commute faster if they choose to drive, on the other hand they're cheapskates and would be upset about having to pay a congestion charge.

jjforward.bsky.social•4 days ago

Much-needed. The commissioned reports are decent, but a bunch of the actual BOT task force recommendations contradict them.

redjane67.bsky.social•4 days ago

Oh dear. I need to read this. I thought the summarized list that was reported was, um, unimaginative. But I'm used to following CAA's alternating lackluster to outlandish suggestions that no one ever pays attention to (and they shouldn't),

pamelablais.bsky.social•3 days ago

TBoT totally lost the plot here. I cannot imagine any credible rationale for this mis-investment that makes sense on any grounds, including competitiveness, productivity or solving congestion.

shawnmicallef.bsky.social•3 days ago

CEO brain? Regressive leadership?

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