Party leaders are called to take action on gridlock
Posted Apr 18, 2011 01:46:41 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Traffic on major roads are not only annoying, but it is also expensive. Gridlock is a national problem that costs the country about $5-billion a year.
“The longer one is sitting in the traffic in a gridlock situation… Not only are you wasting fuel and wasting money, you are also wasting your time and that it taking away from either your job, family or your leisure time,” said Carl Zehr, the Mayor of Kitchener.
The Federation of Canadian Municipalities are hoping to eliminate the frustrations of commuting and intend to bring up commuting as an issue on the campaign trail.
City Mayors’ are calling on party leaders to take action on gridlock.
The Mayor of Kitchener, Carl Zehr, is spear-heading this campaign and told 680News that it is about time Canada have a long term National strategy to help commuters get to and from work a lot quicker.
“If we could reduce our commute times by 10 to 25 per cent, it would make a dramatic difference in the economy,” said Zehr.
To achieve this, he said that cities need to see more investment in efficient public transit and upgrades to our major roads and highways.
Zehr points out that since this election began, Canadians have spent at least 200-million hours stuck in traffic and in three weeks those long commutes have cost the economy more than $300-million.
“That means infrastructure funding. It means transit programs that will actually address the issue over the longer term. It is not something that can be fixed in one year,” said Zehr.
The Federation wants the new government to set concrete targets to reduce commute times and is hoping to get many angry drivers involved.
The group has even set up a calculator on their website so people can see how much time driving is costing the country.
