Toronto’s Traffic Sheriff has done a lot more to reduce congestion than he’s getting credit for, or so his deputies say.

But when the best they can do is point to two ticket blitzes and cash thrown at the Gardiner Expressway to reduce the construction time, drivers can’t be blamed for doubting it.

We asked readers Saturday to tell us if traffic is moving better since John Tory was elected mayor a year ago and pinned the badge of Traffic Sheriff on his own shirt, saying he wouldn’t put up with the status quo.

We reported yesterday that most readers who responded said things haven’t gotten better since Tory rode in to the rescue, with some saying it’s even worse.

That’s when his deputies pulled their pop guns and got serious. The Sheriff was busy with important stuff, so his media liaison sent us a six-point list of things he’s done to get traffic moving.

At the top is the ticket-and tow blitzes conducted last week and in January, which are lumped in with increased fines and a program to tow the vehicles of repeat illegal parking offenders from out of province.

It says Tory created and has chaired nine meetings of a road closure co-ordination committee, “to discuss and co-ordinate potential road closures, their impact on traffic and communications to the public.”

There’s also city council’s approval of “more stringent criteria and higher fees for the closure of lanes and boulevards by private development projects.”

The list also includes extra money budgeted to speed up remedial work on the Gardiner, which should reduce the construction time frame and see the job completed several months ahead of schedule.

It says the transportation services department has created a Big Data team “to collect and analyze current and past traffic patterns,” that will improve planning and co-ordination of future road closures.

And then there’s the acceleration of the 2015 traffic signal re-timing program, to 350 traffic lights from 250.

Now, does that sound like a sheriff who’s put his feet up on his desk and dozed off, while the inmates fish the keys to the cells out of his pocket?

Or do you think he is a take-charge lawman who cannot rest until there’s a noticeable improvement in traffic flow?

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You tell us and we’ll tell him, if he’s not pre-occupied with other stuff.

What’s broken in your neighbourhood? Wherever you are in Greater Toronto, we want to know. To contact us, go to thestar.com/yourtoronto/the_fixer or call us at 416-869-4823 email jlakey@thestar.ca . To read our blog, go to thestar.com/news/the_fixer . Report problems and follow us on Twitter @TOStarFixer.

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