Commercial travel times on the Gardiner have increased a whopping 250 per cent during the morning rush hour since the latest round of expressway repairs began two months ago, new fleet tracking data reveal.
Oakville-based telematics giant Geotab Intelligent Transportations Systems harnessed artificial intelligence, along with GPS and on-board diagnostic technologies, to assess the impact of the Dufferin-to-Strachan construction on business productivity – and the hard data confirm the anecdotal tales of grievous gridlock caused by the latest lane restrictions.
Comparing the travel times and patterns of 10,000 vehicles during the months before and after the construction began, Geotab revealed that commercial drivers are now spending 80 per cent more time driving per day on the Gardiner. “It's a huge drop from a productivity perspective,” Branch said. “We’ve got fleets doing last-mile delivery, right, service and repair. So you can think about – imagine the person sitting in the vehicle, spending that much more time on the road, what it does to them mentally, what it does the productivity of their work day.”
The 700-metre stretch of aging expressway is undergoing the second of six phases of rehabilitation work, as crews replace the elevated bridge and repair the supporting structures underneath. The resulting 30-per cent cut to lane capacity affects an estimated 200,000 vehicles a day, according to the City.
The lane restrictions were originally scheduled to be in place for three full years, lifted only during the FIFA World Cup tournament in 2026 – but in the wake of driver outcry, Toronto City Council voted in May to explore accelerating the construction schedule. “There’s a team that are meeting urgently, together with the provincial government, they’ve been extremely cooperative,” Chow said. The Minister and I have met twice on it, and we are pooling all our resources together, both the province and the city, and bringing in international experts to assist us. “
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