By Staff
June 6th, 2025
BURLINGTON, ON
Part 2 of that traffic mess on the Mother’s Day weekend.
Part 1 of this story had a Burlington resident taking a complaint to the city.
David Barker
Much to our surprise, and we suspect a surprise to Barker as well, he got a response from Traffic Operations <trafficoperations@burlington.ca on Thursday, June 5, 2025 8:51:43 AM
“Thank you for contacting us about congestion in downtown Burlington. The City has been experiencing occasional increased weekend congestion during maintenance activities on the QEW freeway, beginning on the weekend of May 9 to 12.
” This congestion was caused by a planned lane reduction on the QEW Niagara bound lanes over the Burlington Skyway Bridge. The work is part of a Ministry of Transportation of Ontario (MTO) infrastructure project involving bridge rehabilitation. The City of Burlington and Halton Region do not have jurisdiction over provincial highway closures or their scheduling. The City shares closure information from the MTO through our website and other channels to help inform residents. However, these notifications are for awareness only and do not reflect City approval or control over the closures.
“We understand the significant impacts this and other past Skyway/Freeway related closures have had on our community. When significant congestion occurs on the highways, drivers may exit to bypass the highway and Burlington’s road network is not designed to handle the volume of diverted highway traffic, which leads to extreme congestion across City and Regional roads.
When repair and maintenance work is required, the impact reverberates through the southern part of Burlington.
“Concerns were raised in advance about the timing of this work occurring over Mother’s Day weekend by the City. The MTO advised that, due to weather windows and contractual constraints, the closure would need to proceed as they are limited in available weekends and must take advantage of favorable conditions to complete the work.
“In response to the May 9–12 closure:
-
-
-
- City staff met with MTO and have requested additional meetings with senior leadership to raise ongoing concerns.
- We are coordinating with Halton Region, Halton Regional Police, and the OPP to explore traffic management support.
- Signal timing adjustments are reviewed and implemented where possible during the closure, but the sheer volume of vehicles exceeded the capacity of our local and regional road network which limits the effectiveness of these efforts.
- We are also reviewing tools to quantify the impacts (i.e. proportion of vehicles diverting through Burlington to avoid the highway, travel times and volume changes) these types of closures have on the road network both in near real time and historically.
-
-
” It is exciting to hear your support of the pedestrianization of the downtown area! As you accurately noted, most of the world’s nicest places have significantly more pedestrians than vehicles. The downtown patio program is an important element of this, as patios improve pedestrian capacity and support local businesses but retain some balance with capacity for vehicles that would otherwise be lost with full closures. This continued mode shift supports the prospect of improved air quality and reduced noise downtown, while also promoting healthier lifestyles and a more engaged community.
“We also encourage residents to share their experiences directly with the MTO, especially your suggestion about the partial closure of the North Shore Boulevard East interchange. Public input helps ensure the Province fully understands the local impacts of its projects and options to mitigate these effects in the future.
“We appreciate your patience and understanding as we continue to advocate for improved planning, coordination, and mitigation in the future. Due to the high volume of concerns received, we may not be able to follow up on each request directly, but all feedback is being documented and shared with the appropriate staff.
“Thank you: Traffic Operations – City of Burlington.”
The QEW in 1957
The problem is twofold. The Ministry of Transportation have done a terrible job in communicating to the public. As media, we do get reports from the Ministry. We have yet to succeed in being able to follow up. At one point, we found that the email address given in a notice was incorrect. Telephone calls go to voicemail and are never answered.
The other problem is – weather – specific weather conditions are needed to get the work done. And that is something even a provincial ministry cannot control.
Better communications management – please
Link to Part 1 of a 2-part news feature
I notice that the new group FocusBurlington has traffic as one of their key priority areas. I wonder if they have any recommendations to offer.
Well, yes I got a reply.
But like Councillor Lisa Kearns, Traffic Operations focused upon the horrendous traffic chaos that ensues after an accident on the bridge or when there are lane reductions.and the lack of notice from and communications with the Ministry of Transport.
The bridge’s, lane closures and/or the accidents upon it are not the cause of the traffic congestion in the downtown core. They simply exacerbate the situation.
So I replied to the Traffic Operations copying all 6 councilors noting the following, which I had previously expressed in my initial email and which was pretty much ignored by Council members and Traffic Operations
The daily volume of rush hour traffic, particularly in the evening, that travels along Lakeshore Road and New Street is primarily commuter traffic making its way to the Northshore Boulevard QEW Niagara on-ramp. Commuter traffic should not be using city streets as commuter roads.
Is there possibly a solution to get commuter traffic off city streets and back onto the highway?
Adam, a Gazette reader made a suggestion which is a simple, sensible and low cost solution in a comment he posted to an article about the Mothers’ Day Traffic Mayhem
What is his suggestion?
It is to during morning and evening rush hours close the Northshore Boulevard on and off ramps to/from the QEW/403. Closing the on and off ramps will force the transient commuter traffic presently clogging our downtown back to the highway thereby substantially reducing traffic in the City’s core.
To achieve this goal, it will be necessary for the City to approach both the Region and Province to get their buy-in. It will require Council to vote for this solution and have the Mayor approach the Region and the Province.
In my chat with Councillor Kearns I asked her to champion this suggestion at Council. She said she would wait to see a report back from staff. What a politician she has become! A ward councillor is supposed to bring a constituent’s concern, issue, problem to staff and council.
Why has traffic congestion as a very narrow focus not made it onto Council’s agenda for debate. That would allow people like myself to delegate.
Editor’s note: Very good question. Simple answer? This council doesn’t want to hear from anyone and they don’t want to be expected to do anything about serious problems
Hi David,
Another solution might be to install toll cameras on both the Northshore Blvd. “on” ramps and have them activated between 7 am to 9 am and 4 pm to 6 pm, Monday through Friday. During the rush hours.
407 ETR could be contracted to supply and operate the tolls. In turn, they can provide some revenue back to the city for road maintenance and the rest to top up our Canada Pension Plan (CPP) fund! CPP owns 50.01% of the 407 ETR so this might be an optional win/win for us pensioners!
The increased cost to drivers to use those ramps at rush hour may discourage them and reduce the traffic congestion to some degree.
The problem with this or any of these “great” ideas are that the solutions may push the drivers up to Plains Road and Fairview Street, or Brant Street North of Plains Road highway intersections.
You may also need to consider GO Transit traffic from Burlington and Aldershot stations within those rush hours. These drivers are a contributing factor to the Lakeshore traffic congestion at rush hour, regardless of what you do. The problem may just get moved to a different spot in the city or put in front of someone else’s yard.
The second consideration is that Lakeshore Road is a “Ministry highway” (King’s Highway 2).
In Burlington, Highway 2 follows Lakeshore Road along the shores of Lake Ontario. Highway 2 intersects with the QEW (Highway 403) at North Shore Boulevard in Burlington. Regardless of congestion, unfortunately, Lakeshore Road is part of the Ontario highway system within the GTHA.
Therefore, as great as your ideas are, the City of Burlington may not be able to close a section of Lakeshore Road in front of Spencer Smith Park as Lakeshore Road in Burlington is part of the Ontario highway corridor.
Not an easy problem to resolve for sure.
These are just some additional ideas and considerations for your ongoing discussion, so best of luck with the solution.
Cheers!!
Paul
Editor’s note: It is comments like this that make running the Gazette, at a considerable personal expense, worth the effort.
I knew that Hwy 2 was called the King’s Highway – did not know that the province has jurisdiction over all of it. Want to fact check that with the Ministry. The city maintains the road – does it get any money from the province.
Interesting
Paul
Thank you for your thoughtful comments. Some things you say though are not accurate. If I may go through your comment and point those out.
If 407 style camera recording devices were used, they’ll be placed on the on and off ramps. Those ramps are part of the highway and come under Provincial jurisdiction. So you can bet your life
Drug Fraud would not share any of that revenue with the City. None of the 407 ETR toll fees go to the Federal government. The Federal government has no participation in the 407 ETR highway.
The CPP does not have majority ownership of the 407 ETR.
The 407 ETR is owned by 407 International Inc., which is in turn owned by a consortium of private investors. The primary owners are:
Ferrovial S.A.: through its subsidiary, Cintra Global S.E., with a 48.29% stake.
CPP Investments: (Canada Pension Plan Investment Board) and other institutional investors, holding a 44.20% stake.
PSP Investments: (Public Sector Pension Investment Board), with a 7.51% stake.
Yes, by closing the North Shore Boulevard on and off ramps the transient commuter traffic will be forced north onto Fairview St./Plains Road, The North and South Service roads, and the QEW/403. You call this a problem. It is quite the opposite. Fairview Street/ Plains Road are four lanes (2 in each direction) and are built to carry commuter traffic and are not primarily residential in nature as is Lakeshore Road.
The GO Station traffic to which you refer is exactly the traffic that should not be using Lakeshore Road. Both stations are right by the QEW/403 where they should go if they are heading towards the bridge.
Lakeshore Road used to be, and I stress used to be, a Provincial highway. It is no longer a Provincial highway. It has been under the City of Burlington jurisdiction for a number of years now.
Municipalities do have the ability to charge tolls on their municipally controlled roads subject to approval by the Province. So potentially the downtown core could be ringed by toll cameras.
Whether it be the Province installing toll cameras on the Northshore Boulevard on and off ramps or the City installing toll cameras ringing the downtown, both are very expensive options.
Closing the North Shore Boulevard on and off-ramps during rush hours or when there’s a major issue on the bridge is a very low-cost option. The gates are already in place and just need to be manually closed, as happens at the Jameson ramp to the Gardiner Expressway in Toronto.
I thank you for giving this matter your thoughtful consideration and for sharing thosevthoughts with everyone. We need more like you who offer ideas and potential solutions.
I live on corner of St Paul and 1st 1 block from Lakeshore and Guelphine
when traffic get clog they use 1st street making impossible to walk the dog.
it’s also impossible to get back in the neighborhood due to the cloud traffic
The city should start ticketing people using streets as a bypass and keep them on main roads
This problem will not get better no matter what the city and province say.
The solution was found after much research and consultation by MTO in the 1990’s.The plan was to re-route Niagara traffic via a Mid-peninsula Hwy starting in Fort Erie and running on top of the escarpment,around the Hamilton Airport and connecting with 403/407 and the 401 near Milton.
The government of Halton and Burlington later helped kill the project .The Liberal government of the day dropped the plan.
We are now going to pay the price for this shortsightedness for decades if not forever.