The city of Toronto is launching a new batch of measures aimed at trying to combat gridlock, with some taking effect this fall.
Mayor John Tory offered a sneak peek during a speech before the Toronto Region Board of Trade Wednesday. The action plan includes:
-a new towing blitz focused on illegally parked vehicles. Tory believes the crackdowns works, but when police aren't patrolling in great numbers drivers return to old, bad habits.
-a plan to address to vehicles that have to stop in the city core to make deliveries and to load and unload passengers--like buses, taxis and vehicles that move persons with disabilities or mobility problems
-a new partnership with the way-finding app Waze. Waze will help the city cover ground it misses with its existing camera network and share information about congestion and lane closures. The deal will also help the city push out alerts to Waze users about things like emergency construction
-a deal with Here Technologies to share real-time traffic flow data with the city to help manage congestion
-a move toward trying out multiple kinds of technologies for smart traffic signals