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Why public GO transit beats driving to Toronto

December 15, 2022   ·   0 Comments

By Martina Rowley

In the past three months, I had several needs for travelling from Orangeville to the big city, Toronto. Now that I have been living in this lovely small town for five years – where I love the slower pace, less noise, less traffic, and lower air pollution – I enjoy my occasional visits to the city. What I absolutely dislike is the ridiculous amount of traffic and time lost when you try to drive to the city! This is how that played out for me in the past three months. 

Three times I had to head right into downtown; twice for business meetings, another time for a sightseeing day trip on a Saturday, and on three other occasions I had social visits, including a funeral, in the beautiful Beach neighbourhood east of downtown. For three of those visits, I drove in a rental car (as I do not own a vehicle), given that there is no weekend GO bus service from Orangeville and the couple of other public transit options did not fit my timing needs. 

Each time I drove to Toronto, I was excited about getting to drive a vehicle and not having to stand on any bus or train platform waiting for my ride. Plus, it always felt like such a novelty to slip into a car seat right outside my front door and drive fairly closely to where I needed to be. Alas, the joy of those benefits was always short-lived and very much negated by the amount of time and more so the increasing aggravation that today’s urban traffic and congestion caused me. 

Within minutes of being on Highway 410 past Brampton, the three lanes of traffic started getting busier and slower. That continued, and worsened, once I entered Highway 401 East, which had more lanes but also even more vehicles. Overall, when I am driving on any of Ontario’s 400-series highways, a significant slowing down of traffic—while it is a little frustrating—always turns out to be a good thing in terms of safety because that way you are at less risk from aggressive and idiot drivers, who cut you off so sharply that they almost clip your car or mirror, try to merge into the side of you or make otherwise stupid and risky manoeuvres. When all that happens at 60 to 80km/h instead of 100km/h plus, everybody stands a better chance of survival.

Then I had to merge onto Highway 427 South, where several exits in close succession always result in drivers making frantic last-minute, multiple-lane changes to reach their exit. Just when I am hoping to be free and clear of that, the elevated ramp towards the Gardener Expressway East gives me a wonderful view of the sluggish traffic already lined up before me, slowly snaking away as far as the eye can see.

Once I get near downtown, some 20 to 30 minutes later, the ongoing and significant repairs around, and removal of the east end of the elevated expressway, force all downtown or eastbound traffic onto Lakeshore Boulevard and its intersecting streets with single lane traffic restrictions basically everywhere. Once I finally reached and found a Green P parking lot near my meeting location and found a ticket metre that either took my coins or allowed my credit card to work, my watch told me that it had taken 1 hour and 45 minutes to get there. My return drive that day was equally painful, as I sat through dozens of traffic light changes before I could even get out of downtown and back onto the expressway and the rest of the highway nightmare. That last business trip into central Toronto this summer was a stark reminder of why, in the past five years, I have driven into the city for meetings only once or twice and relied on public transit instead.

In comparison, here is how smoothly, relaxed and predictable my recent business trip to Toronto went via GO Transit:

07:20am leave my house for short walk to GO Bus station at the old railway station at Townline & Mill Street

07:35am GO Bus arrives, nice and warm inside, and I nestle into one of the many window seats that are still available. On route, I enjoy the scenery and occasionally close my eyes

08:15am arrive at Brampton GO station and wait indoors.

08:35am GO Train arrives and I find a comfy seat on the upper deck for even better views. On route, I check emails and make notes for the upcoming meeting

09:10am Train arrives at Union Station, where the station building has been beautifully enlarged and modernized

09:20am take a few quick stops on TTC subway and then modern streetcar.

09:40am arrive safely, early and utterly relaxed and unfrazzled at my meeting location on Queen Street East 

Yes, of course that journey took me just a little over two hours (typically I say it is two hours door to door) but consider this: By car, it takes a minimum of one and a half hours on a good day, and during rush hour there are no good days and good times to make it much faster than two hours door to door. And how much stress do you find acceptable for saving 30 minutes on a commute? I don’t know about you, but I will happily choose public transit over this urban traffic mess and arrive with my blood pressure and heart rate at a relaxed level. 

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