Too often, politicians make decisions based on what’s best for them, not Toronto

Self-interest is the motivating force that drives decisions in human affairs — especially politics.

Most of the time it is camouflaged as objective disinterest, but for the public good.

The movement of people, goods and services in and around Toronto is a prominent example that continues to dominate public debates today, without even recalling the fierce battles that occurred over it in the past.

The flip-flopping on road tolls by Premier Kathleen Wynne, plus the latest municipal revelation about the cost of an underground bus terminal for the one-stop Scarborough subway, have focused our attention on these issues once again.

The late U.S. Democratic House of Representatives’ leader, Tip O’Neill, is credited with the insightful observation that “all politics is local”, meaning a politician’s first concern is usually about how a particular proposal will affect his or her re-election fortunes.

Self-preservation and self-perpetuation have been the common denominators for politicians since time immemorial.

The debate over mass public transit and transportation, along with private automobile movement, is littered with public pronouncements of good intentions and abandoned promises shortly thereafter.

Should we build more roads or more public transit?

If more roads, what kind? Highways, freeways or regional roads? With or without tolls?

If more public transit, what kind? Subways, buses or streetcars (now LRTs)? Who will pay?

As Sam Cass, the former Metropolitan Toronto transportation commissioner said in the 1970s, we need a balanced system of both. It’s not one or the other.

One of the most egregious examples of political self-interest and, some would say, spinelessness in transportation planning, was the cancellation of the Spadina Expressway by then rookie premier Bill Davis in 1971.

This after the Conservative provincial government was confronted by a well-organized “Stop Spadina” citizens’ uprising.

I believe one of Davis’ motivations for stopping Spadina, had to do with the political fortunes of the late Allan Grossman, who held the downtown Toronto riding of St. Andrew for the Conservatives.

An able cabinet minister, Grossman had wrestled the seat away from Joe Salsberg, a Communist MPP who remained loyal to the cause despite Russian atrocities against Jews, which many Jewish voters found abominable.

Holding the downtown riding, where the Spadina Expressway was deeply unpopular, with a tough, capable and popular Jewish cabinet minister was important to the Conservatives.

Especially so with Grossman’s son, Larry, waiting in the wings to take over the riding for the Tories when his father retired.

Whatever Davis’ motives, his capitulation on Spadina, killing the expressway at Eglinton Ave., precipitated some of the worst traffic congestion Toronto had ever seen and created gridlock problems that continue to this day.

Arbitrarily killing what was supposed to be a relief valve for traffic coming into the downtown core from the northwestern part of the Greater Toronto Area, as the Don Valley Parkway was intended to do the same in the northeast, had immediate negative consequences.

First, it increased traffic congestion in the northwestern GTA.

Virtual parking lot

Second, it turned the DVP into the virtual parking lot it remains to this day during rush hours, discouraging for all but the most patient of drivers, or those without any commuting alternatives.

Another misguided political decision occurred when the Toronto Transit Commission’s Streetcar Elimination Program was stopped in its tracks by an alliance of local citizens and aldermen (now councillors) delaying the sensible transition to subways and buses capable of maneuvering more easily in traffic.

Unfortunately, the streetcar lovers prevailed and motorists are now stuck behind slow moving and frequently disabled streetcars and LRTs in the downtown core.

Now, city council is considering a King Street traffic mitigation plan giving priority to streetcars and pedestrians over cars, when it should be looking at Queen Street and how to complete the planned subway along it, linking it with the long-awaited downtown relief line.

There are many other examples of short-term thinking and aborted transit plans requiring a 50- to 100-year vision, such as completing the Sheppard subway.

The real issue facing Toronto is not roads versus transit.

It must be both, with realistic funding and financing mechanisms for the construction and operation of the integrated transportation networks needed to solve our congestion woes.