No, ActiveTO should not be cancelled, and definitely not for the Blue Jays
Yesterday, President of the Blue Jays, Mark Shapiro, penned a letter to mayor John Tory asking them to end the ActiveTO road closures on Lake Shore West. He cited the fact that many fans heading to games at the Rogers Centre 'do not have options' for getting to the stadium, and that cyclists and pedestrians have plenty of options other than Lake Shore West. I won't like the letter, but because it's pitiful. While this piece will go more in-depth as to why Shapiro is wrong, and why Tory is wrong for even giving his suggestion considerations, I will start with two basic themes that refute Shapiro's above points:
- There is a difference between 'having no option' but to drive, and 'not exercising your options';
- The assertion that there is plentiful space for cycling in the city proves how out of touch Shapiro is with the city he supposedly serves (he's an American transplant, I expect no less, but still).
Why would you drive to a Jays game?
Some of us are old enough to remember that the argument for putting the stadium downtown was so that people wouldn’t drive https://t.co/s4yjQKi6EE
— Prof. Tricia Wood (@pkbwood) June 10, 2022
When the Rogers Centre, at the time the Skydome, was proposed, there were a variety of options explored: Exhibition, York University, Downsview Park. These were rejected in favour of the foot of John Street because the entire 50,000 fanbase could be accommodated on public transit. Note this was the late 1980s: GO Transit was not as established as it is today, so the argument could easily be made that the transit accommodation is more feasible today than it was then.
Now, particular to the argument that there are no options. I would add here that I am sympathetic to those with accessibility concerns who may need to drive, and they are not the focus of this article. For those who are, however: your laziness to not look at other options does not mean you don't have them. This is a problem with many drivers: any option that isn't driving isn't an option at all (I have a blog post upcoming on this topic, stay tuned!)
Let's be realistic about these options: GO Transit offers weekend service on the Union-Pearson Express, Lakeshore West, Lakeshore East, Stouffville, and Barrie Lines. This means there are 34 stations with free, tax-payer subsidized parking, so even if you didn't want to take local transit to the station, your need to drive is still accommodated. I find it very hard to believe that you can drive all the way into downtown Toronto, and not pass a single one of those stations. Even for the GO Stations that lack weekend rail service, there are GO buses that operate to and from them, which gives us 17 more options of where you can park. The TTC offers free parking at its lots at a number of stations, notably: Kennedy, Finch, Kipling, and Highway 407, the latter of which is at a junction of two major highways! My mom has a friend from Barrie who will drive into the city, but park at Weston GO, for free, and take the train the rest of the way. She spends only 14 minutes on the train. She swears by this, and will never drive downtown again.
I agree the TTC has reliability issues. I agree the lack of weekend rail service on GO's Kitchener and Milton lines is an issue. But this does not mean that the options are not there. So if you want to argue for driving downtown on a weekend, come up with a better argument.
John Tory, as a recipient of money from the Rogers family, has given Shapiro an ear for his argument. I think is a conflict of interest, because cancelling ActiveTO would have benefit for the Rogers family, even if marginal, but whatever. When Tory listens to these concerns of people who 'can't take transit', he is not listening to Toronto voices. There is a clear prioritization of people who do not live in the city, who do not pay taxes, over residents of the city who suffer through unreliable transit, and downtown residents and visitors who deal with obscene traffic that the city encourages. When our mayor decides to put Toronto's best interests last, you have to question whose interests he does listen to. I'm sure if you're reading this, you're a Tory hater like me, so you do question this, but unfortunately, a lot of people to do not. We know the city has disdain for its residents, but let's make is less obvious, maybe?
This argument of who Tory prioritizes can also be extended to the Blue Jays as a whole. We don't have exact numbers, but I think it is safe to say the vast majority of fans to Jays games take transit, walk or bike. The Blue Jays, however, decide that arguing for a minority of drivers is more important, than, say, offering free transit with a Jays ticket, or including a discounted fare with your ticket. I'm not trying to get too deep, but there are things the Jays could be doing for the majority of their fans they choose not to. This is particularly glaring when you compare it to the example of the Toronto Rock. When they moved from Scotiabank Arena to FirstOntario Centre in Hamilton, I was a bit bothered. However, this was done with transit improvements that saw Lakeshore West service extended hourly to West Harbour Station (not a free ticket), and the Hamilton Street Railway added a new 'Rock City Express' service that collected passengers from the station and brought them to the arena (which is free). Since the Rock have a huge fanbase in Oakville in particular, many fans prefer the movement to Hamilton over playing in Toronto. Hamilton offers these shuttles during TiCats games too, from Eastgate, University Plaza, and Limeridge. Why can't the TTC, GO, the City and the Blue Jays work on something like this for our city? It's laziness otherwise.
These are two minor points. One, it is hilarious to say you have no option to drive downtown, but then also complain about gas prices. Two, why would you drive downtown?
ActiveTO is obvious
Ashley Quan posted the City's most recent ActiveTO data, from last year, showing that bikes outnumbered cars on a normal weekend. Since the average car carries 1.1 people, the difference in people moved was around 21,500 in favour of bikes.
The most recent ActiveTO data (spring 2021) shows that way more people bike on Lakeshore West during ActiveTO than drive on it during normal times pic.twitter.com/Hj536OD4ZC
— Ashley (@ashley_quan) June 11, 2022
From a mathematic point-of-view, ActiveTO should stay, end of story. These may surprise people, and it goes back to an argument I made in a past blog post about cars being big makes you think their impact is larger than it actually is. Even if everyone using a car on Lake Shore was going to the Jays game (not true of course), that would only account for a quarter of all fans. Beyond statistics, the health and environmental benefits of ActiveTO are clear, and beyond that there are other intangible and uncalculatable benefits. I need not go into these, because, well, there are obvious.
My last point is that cyclists and pedestrians do not have enough space. Like really? Toronto has few bike lanes, and when we do have them, they tend to be closed or blocked off. The Martin Goodman Trail is closed presently near Rees, one of the busiest cycling stretches of the city. The trail parallel to Lakeshore is 2 metres wide for both directions, Lake Shore is 21. I think Mark Shapiro should actually go out in the city he supposedly works in, or, frankly, get the fuck out!
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