Why Canada's Largest City Fails to Move Forward -- Blame the Media AND the Mayor

Toronto's public transit boss announced a plan to improve the constantly growing gridlock in Canada's largest city today.

Immediately, the idea has been shelved, without even a fraction of a millisecond of a thought -- thanks to the biased Toronto media, and the equally anti-transit top politician, the city's mayor.

The idea, is to close one of the city's major roads to cars during the morning and afternoon rush-hour, so street cars, busses and pedestrians have right of way.

The idea isn't a new one to big cities -- London, England closed all downtown streets to vehicles except transit and emergency vehicles years ago. Drivers can still drive on these streets, but they have to pay for the privilege.

New York City, Washington, Boston, and Chicago are also considering similar bans on vehicles in their downtowns, because traffic has literally stopped those cities cold.

You'd think a story about transit would include transit riders, as well as drivers, politicians in favour of the idea, and of course those opposed. That's something sadly lacking in today's modern 24-hour news cycle -- balanced journalism.

Toronto's media hates public transit. For as long as Toronto has had soil to walk on, the media has always made anyone taking transit feel like a second-class citizen, poo-pooing anything which increases and improves the service, always pointing out the negative impacts to drivers, instead of focusing on the benefits to drivers -- yes The Toronto Star -- there are benefits to taking cars off our roads other than some "hippie goal to stop global warming."

The fact that Toronto's media is biassed isn't really that bad. Journalists are human beings, and part of being human is to form a personal opinion and take sides.

That's natural, normal, and believe it or not -- OKAY.

What is NOT okay is unbalanced and unfair reporting which intentionally leaves out part of the story, so that all you get is the journalists personal bias, instead of all the sides.

Which is why a story about transit in Toronto makes anyone that dares to not brave the horrors of a two-hour traffic jam, pay over $20 bucks in parking, and then spend another two-hours in traffic going back, just to attend a Blue Jay's game downtown, is considered crazy.

Really.

I know.

Crazy!

And it's partly why Canada's largest city fails to move forward. As people read the horrors of taking transit, according to the unfair and unbalanced Toronto media, they decide it's better to drive.

Every year, a thousand new cars are added to Toronto's traffic-slowed streets. Yet there hasn't been new major highway or freeway into and out of the city, built to accommodate these new vehicles in over 50 years.

There just isn't any more land to build another way into and out of Canada's largest city. Unless the city and the province decide to uproot voters and knock down their homes to put a new route in place.

And we know that just ain't in the cards. Upset the hand that elects you into office?

Yeah, right -- you'd have a better chance at winning that lottery you forgot to enter last week.

Toronto Mayor Rob Ford has long been opposed to moving his city forward too.

Within days of being elected, he axed plans put in place by his predecessor to improve transit across the city, and he cut a tax which was supposed to be used to fund transit, and he's always complained about streetcars interfering with his daily drive into work.

Funny, Toronto politicians get free transit passes so they don't have to drive, and can lead by example and take "the better way," as the city's transit has been called.

Although nicknamed "the better way," transit in Toronto has always been stigmatized so much so, it really is thought of as "the student and poverty-stricken way," to travel.

God forbid you are caught on a public transit vehicle in Toronto. What will others think of you?

"Did you lose your job?"

"Do you have a place to stay?"

"Here, take this $5 and buy yourself a coffee."

In any other major urban center, taking public transit is acceptable and normal.

Not in Toronto, thanks to the media and it's mayor. And that's really sad, because there just isn't any more land to build their way out of traffic chaos, so the only real solution to the constantly growing traffic congestion is to improve public transit and to encourage people to use it.

Unfortunately, neither will ever happen in a city where the media continues to propagate negative stigmas about taking transit, and the city's mayor and politicians continue to waffle about the issue, knowing full well there are no other solutions to the traffic crunch.