The City of Toronto is planning to quadruple the number of traffic agents in a bid to reduce congestion and keep vehicles moving.
Mayor Olivia Chow said the city plans to spend $3 million to bring the number of traffic agents who are responsible for patrolling some of the busiest intersections within the downtown core to 100 by the end of the year.
“Traffic agents are boots on the ground that get people and cars and traffic moving,” said Chow, who made the announcement Thursday at the busy intersection of King Street and University Avenue. “They make our intersections safe and easy to move through, no matter what the conditions.”
When she became mayor one year ago, Chow says there were a total of four traffic agents. Since then, the number of agents has increased to 25 and another 48 agents are scheduled to graduate in the spring.
City officials say you can expect to see agents where “blocking the box” situations would typically pop up.
“They are all over the city …Anywhere there’s traffic jams you can expect to see them,” said Chow. “If there’s a special construction zone that jams things up, they will be there and of course any big games that are expecting huge crowds they will be active.”
Mayor Chow says traffic agents have prevented 96 per cent of vehicles from blocking intersections in the downtown core while helping decrease travel times by 33 per cent in some areas. Streetcar service along the busy King Street corridor is also three times faster while TTC bus travel times along Spadina have been reduced by as much as 40 minutes, according to the mayor.
