November 6th, 2003: THE TORONTO STAR

PAUL MOLONEY
CITY HALL BUREAU

Traffic is on the minds of the two candidates battling it out to represent the voters of Ward 39, Scarborough-Agincourt, on city council. But they have different ideas of what to do about it. Incumbent Sherene Shaw, a councillor since 1988, wants to see better bus service. Challenger Mike Del Grande, a former chair of the Toronto Catholic District School Board, believes better traffic flow is the answer. President Eric Macklin, who lives near Kennedy Rd. and Steeles Ave. E., said it's not unusual for traffic to be backed up in all directions during the morning and evening rush. "I try to avoid that intersection," Macklin said. "It can be jammed up for two hours in the morning and again in the evening. "Macklin said Kennedy Rd. at Finch and Sheppard Aves. is also congested, leading to accidents. "There seems to be a lot of wreckage between those three intersections. It's amazing there aren't more body shops up here."

Del Grande says more sophisticated traffic lights would help motorists navigate the ward, which includes other major routes such as Victoria Park, Pharmacy and Warden Aves. and Birchmount Rd. "Our area doesn't have a lot of left-turn signals, so what happens is when someone wants to make a left, everybody's backed up and they start taking side streets and trying to find a shortcut," he says. "So if the main arterial roads had all the advanced greens and turn lanes, traffic would move better and it wouldn't be moving in the side streets." Del Grande doesn't stop there. He thinks someone should look at the city's traffic computer with an eye to synchronizing traffic lights to accommodate through traffic.

Shaw, vice-chair of the TTC, is concerned about how long transit users must wait for buses in the ward, which don't arrive as frequently as downtown routes." You can't get people on public transit if the bus runs every 45 minutes," Shaw says. "It's just not practical." Both want to see the subway system expanded but, again, their approaches differ. Shaw says she's pushing for the new Sheppard subway to be extended from its current terminus at Don Mills Rd. east to the Scarborough Town Centre as originally planned. And she wants to see the Spadina subway extended from Downsview to York University.

The projects carry a combined price tag of $2.8 billion, for which funding is elusive.Del Grande prefers a program of continuous expansion, adding a subway station every year at a cost of $100 million, a strategy he believes should make it easier to raise funds from the senior levels of government. The chartered accountant would also explore building parking lots in the hydro corridor north of Finch Ave. where 905 commuters could park and take the bus to the subway.