Construction is the key culprit behind Toronto traffic, city says. Here's what it plans to do about it

In what may not come as a shock to those who stew in frustration behind the wheel of a car in Toronto, the city has identified construction as the leading cause of worsening traffic on its streets. 

That diagnosis is at the heart of an update to Toronto's congestion management plan going before the infrastructure and environment committee Wednesday. 

On top of being the busiest construction city in North America, according to the new staff report, Toronto's roads have also seen a 26 per cent increase in vehicle registrations since 2014. And that road network, some 5,600 kilometres, hasn't grown in decades. 

"During the summer of 2024, construction in the city at its peak saw the temporary closure of 24 per cent of all roads, which resulted in the travel times being more than double," the report says.

In 2025, city staff are proposing five key measures to manage the congestion clogging Toronto's streets:

As part of the strategy,staff want to expand transit signal priority — where TTC vehicles get longer green lights — to 50 new locations by the end of the year. 

The number of traffic agents around the city would go from 22 to 67 by early summer, with the goal of having 100 agents by the end of the year. Those agents would also be deployed to 13 new corridors, a significant increase to the current three. 

The city would also look at charging construction companies more money for shutting down lanes of traffic. Under the present scheme, which came into effect at the beginning of April, companies are charged a $76.15 application fee, then $40.71 per 50 metres, per day, for shutting down a lane of a major road.

The city would look at upping those fees using road closure data from this summer

Steven Farber, a transportation geographer and interim director of the Mobility Network research hub at the University of Toronto, was glad to see the city highlighting the issue of road space being maxed out. 

"But we're treating the symptoms, not the root cause. And the root cause is simply too many people trying to drive," he said. "We need to recognize that drivers aren't just stuck in congestion, they are the congestion. When you drive, you are part of the problem."

He said everyone wants a magic bullet for traffic, but really what's needed is a shift in behaviour. 

"What I mean is we need to have people doing less driving and more cycling and transit use at scale," he said. 

The way to do that, he added, is by making those alternative options more attractive. One thing he'd like to see is a focus on expanding dedicated bus lanes, so vehicles moving many people aren't stuck sitting behind vehicles moving what might be just one person.