This article was originally published in the March edition of the Burlington Independent.
Councillors Kearns and Sharman are hosting a Burlington Community Traffic Forum on April 1st at 6:30 pm at the AGB. This is an election year. Was April Fools’ Day an intentional choice?
The current talking points from Councillor Sharman and our mayor are that Burlington’s traffic problems are caused by traffic flowing off the QEW and cutting through the city. If only the province would act! In other words, traffic isn’t our council’s responsibility. This is reflected in the city’s 2026 budget. No roads will be widened, and traffic lights will be timed to prioritize buses. Bus prioritization has been shown to worsen traffic flow for cars. The Skyway Bridge opened in 1958, and Burlington has grown up around the QEW. As a long-term Burlington resident, I know that moving east to west in this city during the evening rush hour is a test of patience. Blaming the province is like moving next to a small airport and then complaining about the noise as the airport grows. We’ve known for a generation that accidents and traffic jams on the QEW cause traffic to spill onto city streets, but the north and south service roads have only one lane in each direction, and traffic lights are not adjusted to handle rush-hour flows.
In Burlington, the master plan, the Integrated Mobility Plan, calls for active transit (walking, scootering, cycling) or public transit; roads will not be widened. This plan ignores many realities. Residents may live in Burlington and work somewhere else. Burlington employers need to hire the best employees, even if they live in another city. Companies lay off workers, forcing people to commute to find equivalent employment. People find jobs in other cities at higher salaries. A city that allows traffic congestion to worsen, forcing people to use active transit, limits employment options for residents and employers. In reality, we can’t all work from home or in the retail stores in the podium of our condo tower.
The budgeted renewal of Walkers Line is expected to cost $20 million over two years, with $5.6 million funded by development charges (DCs). The road is not being widened, and the province doesn’t allow DCs to be used to repair/resurface an existing road. Bus stop pull-over lanes are not being added. DC reserve funds are being used to add protected bike lanes. Is this in the interests of the people who paid the DCs when they purchased a newly built house or condo?
Dedicated bus lanes are in our future. Unlike Oakville, where major roads are widened to add bus lanes, Burlington intends to convert existing traffic lanes into dedicated bus lanes. Imagine Walkers Line with one traffic lane and one dedicated transit lane in each direction. Thankfully, the city is waiting for more people to use transit before implementing this plan.
What is your opinion on traffic in Burlington? Please take a minute to fill out this survey.
What is in the 2026 Budget for Traffic? Spoiler Alert – bike lanes.
Discover more from Focus Burlington
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
By tradition, April Fools day ends at noon on April 1st.
But like all things in North America, particularly real holidays and other days called holidays (e.g. Valentine’s Day or Halloween) it has been bastardized.
Notwithstanding all of that, if you’re fed up at all with a traffic congestion in Burlington please please attend this forum.
Right now the traffic lane from Martha St to Pearl Street is closed. It has been closed for 4 years. It needs to open up now. Beausoleil and Adi are built. Developers are controlling downtown Burlington and will continue to do so. Once the On Street Restaurants Patios are installed there will be 2 more traffic lanes closed. These patios sit empty most of the time.
Empty City Buses continue to add to the traffic congestion. Honestly downtown I have never seen more than 4 people on any bus at anytime. So we do have traffic lanes but the City wants them closed. Is that the fault of the Province?