Life in Toronto, Canada has been interesting and chaotic since crack-smoking Mayor Rob Ford’s big brother Doug Ford became the Ontario Premier. The populist party leader is so obvious when he’s pandering for votes… especially from motorists.
There’s no hiding the fact that Toronto traffic is bad. Heavy construction projects snarl traffic for months, a 10 km commute to the office takes more than half-an-hour, and rush-hour speeds on Hwy 401 are less than 20 km/h. Brutal. Ford and his team float all kinds of crazy ideas like removing bike lanes in downtown Toronto to fit more cars, or tunneling a second highway under Hwy 401.
Now next the plan is to open up HOV lanes (high-occupancy vehicle) to cars with only a single occupant. Why should only those carpoolers get to use the left lane, just because they’re reducing carbon emissions by reducing the number of cars on the road? If covid didn’t completely kill carpooling in Canada, remote work certainly eliminated the need to carpool for many.
“Pretty common sense. After rush hour, those lanes are sitting empty, and if there’s a traffic jam … people should be able to use the HOV lanes!”
– Premier Doug Ford
In Ontario, the HOV lane is for vehicles with 2+ occupants, plus buses, motorcycles, taxis and limousines. What likely irks Ford is that tree-hugging ‘green plate’ vehicles (battery electric or plug-in hybrid cars) are exempt from HOV rules. Why shouldn’t the 96.1% of drivers in good old-fashioned gas guzzlers get to take the HOV lane too? Surely, voters are asking the same question.
And Ford has the answer; now you can! Outside of rush-hour, anyone in Ontario will now get to drive on Ontario’s 383 km of existing / proposed HOV lanes. Even the leader of the official opposition, Marit Stiles of the left-leaning New Democratic Party, agreed the idea has merit, practically gushing “I don’t think it’s the worst idea possible…”.
With so many HOV lane exceptions, it’s better just to scrap them altogether. It’s only a matter of time until the wealthy buy their own personal taxicabs to circumvent the law.