By Pepper Parr
May 11th, 2025
BURLINGTON, ON
Word is that gridlock is the best way to describe traffic in downtown Burlington today.
Saturday evening, a fire truck and an ambulance with sirens blaring had to move from the southbound lane to the northbound lane in order to get to their destination. There was no room for traffic to get out of the way on the southbound side.
We have a report of an emergency room doctor who had to ride his bicycle to the hospital to get there to cover his shift– vehicular traffic wasn’t moving.
Another report had a resident who had to walk from Appleby Place to the hospital.
One reader called to tell us this is a sign of the “summer from hell” that the city is going to face.
Indeed, there are problems – the biggest of which is – there isn’t a solution in sight. The city is close to releasing a Master Traffic Plan. As if that will solve the immediate problems.
The people driving the emergency vehicles are under the most pressure.
Back n September of 2019 Mayor Meed Ward said in one of her many communication platforms that:
Managing traffic across our City is a top priority for me and this Council.
During our Planning and Development Committee meeting on Sept. 10, staff followed up to our request back in March asking the Director of Transportation Services to update us in September on the ongoing and planned traffic management strategies aimed at improving traffic congestion on Burlington’s roads.
As populations continue to grow both in Burlington and in our surrounding municipalities, the demands on the City’s roads is going to keep increasing. We need to find ways and strategies to make sure our existing roads as effective and efficient as possible, as well as ways to improve the flow of traffic through our streets.
The staff report submitted at the committee provides an overview of the initiatives aimed at improving traffic management and reducing the impacts of congestion on our roads.
The notice the city got on the closure of the QEW Niagara Bound Partial Lane Closures (2 lanes open) May 9th – May 12th:
Providing notice of a weekend partial lane closure on the QEW Niagara Bound (2 lanes to remain open), on and adjacent to the Burlington Skyway bridge, scheduled to start on Friday, May 9th, 2025, from 10:00 pm to Monday May 12th, 2025, at 5:00am.
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In the mid 1990’s the Harris government planned to build the Mid-Peninsula Hwy that would re- route A lot of Niagara traffic away from the QEW .It was to start at Fort Erie run on top of the escarpment near Smithville and then around the Hamilton Airport then north towards the 401 with off ramps to the 403 and 407.
This plan was killed by the McGuinty Liberals with the support of Burlington Council and the local environmental group.
This could have been finished in the early 21st century.
We are now felling the results of nearsighted governments.
HOW ABOUT CLOSING THE ON RAMPS TO THE QEW AT NORTHSHORE? I live in Aldershot and work downtown Burlington and I get stuck in this traffic all the time. As many of you have noted, the traffic in downtown Burlington is almost exclusively cars that have gotten off the QEW and tried to save time by snaking through downtown Burlington to get back on the QEW Niagara. We should not allow this. There are examples of on-ramps being shut down in Toronto during certain hours, the most obvious example is the QEW westbound on-ramp at Jamison. This is shut down around 3:00 every day. Why can’t we do the same at Northshore? The Fairview on-ramps are only 2 minutes away, there is no need for the Northshore on ramp.
How about a petition to close those ramps? I would sign it!
That is an excellent point and suggestion.
I agree this is a great suggestion but it would require support from the Province.
Here is another solution: Plains Rd East, 3 light controlled lanes eastbound starting at 07:00 and vice versa after 16:00.
Bruce
In 2016 New Street was narrowed from 4 to 3 lanes, two through traffic lanes, one middle turning lane. I along with a small committee started a petition against these lane reductions on a major east west road in the City to have unprotected bike lanes created when a well used, protected multi use bike path already exists running parallel to New Street.
In a few short months the petition had almost 3500 signatures, many letters to the editor were written and published, hundreds of emails to council members, a segment on our local cable TV station and many delegations at City Hall. A long, hard fought battle.
Over the years numerous residents have written to express their concern about the lack of synchronization of the traffic lights.
As one person commented here, when there is a major incident on the QEW, or planned lane closures as there were this past weekend, some police presence would be welcome to try and keep traffic moving or at least prevent all the dangerous and illegal turns.
So no, please don’t say we are just pointing fingers and not offering solutions.
We simply cannot keep bringing in thousands of new residents to the City without the infrastructure to support this growth.
As another commenter pointed out, they are all coming with their cars, likely not just one. They will not be riding bikes. Transit is free for a good number of our residents, full sized buses run almost empty for most of the day. This I can attest to first hand when using the bus.
Per some of the comments, “what is your solution”.
First, the problem. The problem being, the three bridges that cross the bay are a choke point. When an issue occurs on one or more of the bridges or when one or more lane is under repair or construction commuters et all cut through Burlington.
Solution Options:
(A) Build a tunnel under the canal.
(B) Look at ferry options that connect to GO and Bus services on the north and south sides of Lake Ontario.
(C) Dust off the Mid-Pen roadway.
(D) COB alert to residents when they know about an impending lane restriction.
All these so called solutions are just stupid. Who would enforce these rules? You’re all complaining but you’re all out there in your vehicles honking your horns and getting angry. Maybe if some of those “empty buses” could be used for their purpose that could alleviate some of the congestion. But no, you want to get in your cars and drive instead of walk or use transit then I suggest you stop whining and start walking.
I was out walking on Saturday downtown. It was a dangerous situation for every Pedestrian. Cars were stopped bumper to bumper in all the Pedestrian walk ways. Folks on foot had to weave/squeeze around cars and trucks and empty buses to get across Lakeshore / Brant /Martha/Elizabeth – all the downtown streets.
No member of council was seen photo-oping. I wonder why? Nothing to see here move on. The writer once wrote to a former Mayor suggesting the Hospital should be located elsewhere and that a developer would probably be interested in a land swap that would see the Hospital in a location that would be more accesible to us. And here we are with a Hospital and paramedics that are captive to traffic jams that are only going to get worse. Meanwhile some councillors and their families are living it up in Holland.
Whether its a flood, or predictable gridlock, do your job, be there in mind and spirit to show the people who elected that you at least care. Anyone can pose for photo ops, cut ribbons, or take trips on the taxpayers dime. Sad that I had to spell it out.
These innovative and bold ideas need to be discussed. Given what we know about Burlington traffic, we could have shuttered downtown to traffic this weekend and held a festival. However, only those within walking distance or who ride a bike would be able to attend. Beyond these closures, which highlight the issues, regular daily traffic has changed dramatically. A simple commute across town that should take 13-15 minutes now takes 30-45 minutes (and more) , even without accidents, breakdowns, or closures. The daily pinch point of trying to enter the QEW Niagara from North Shore Blvd exacerbates the issues on Lakeshore Road du to its prior narrowing, condo construction, and once again “temporary” summer patios, a holdover from COVID times. Driving downtown for anything is simply untenable on most weekends.
I don’t believe City Council has the vision, the fortitude, nor the power to make these types of changes on their own. They need to partner with provincial politicians and ministries. I think this could end up being the number one issue for change in the next election, as condos and in-filling are only going to make it worse.
It took me an hour and 15 minutes to travel from Guelph Line and Lakeshore to Locust and Lakeshore on Saturday afternoon. Sunday I missed my great niece’s dance competition in Hamilton. Is anyone doing anything about this? We need to hear from City Hall. Forget about travelling to our “twin cities” which does absolutely nothing to alleviate the issues negatively affecting Burlington residents.
I live in the St Paul and 1st Street area
They were trying to use First Street to get around the traffic causing it to become a traffic nightmare. I’d love to see us clothes off our side streets making them dead ends. How can I be walk their dog in safety when they’ve got cars lumbering down their quiet Street during a traffic jam on the main roads
From Bruce previously “A huge proportion of the vehicular traffic that’s getting stuck on Lakeshore Road, New Street and Fairview Street is transient, which means it is not traffic made up of Burlington residents. It is non-Burlington resident traffic using city streets to avoid using the congested QEW and the 403 highways to get to the Skyway Bridge and the QEW south towards Niagara and the 403 towards Brantford.
Lakeshore Road (Highway #2) used to be a Provincial highway under the jurisdiction of the Provincial government. Now it is a municipal road under the jurisdiction of the City of Burlington.
By allowing this transient traffic to clog our city roads, we are accepting an offload of a Provincial responsibility – making the Provincial highways adequate for the volume.
It is time for this city to embrace radical changes to improve traffic flow, pedestrian safety, and the attractiveness of our downtown.
Donna Lavery, if we could get the transient vehicle traffic off our streets there would be room for our buses to move.”
This is the Crux of the problem, its much less about Burlington Development, although this does not help, traffic trying to find an alternative route to the QEW i.e. cutting the corner- these are typically not Burlington Residents nor visitors to Burlington
The citizens of Burlington deserve a formal Transportation Department postmortem of the nightmarish traffic congestion downtown this weekend. The lack of any advance notice of QEW lane closures to the public (presumed to be the root cause) and absence of police to maintain order contributed to the chaos and need to be addressed for the future.
Most common sense post on here.
My recommendation was for the City’s Transportation Department to prepare a postmortem on the traffic nightmare last weekend. I noticed that you have provided some potential solutions, but what do the “experts” paid for with taxpayer dollars propose. Btw, few listen to radio anymore and civility was what was missing & in need of policing.
The only plan this Council appears to have is to build more and more condos in an already overpopulated downtown, higher and higher and narrow the roads.
Whoever is responsible for the traffic jam in Burlington Saturday and Sunday , I want to thank them for ruining my Mother’s Day. I could not get to my daughter’s place in Hamilton nor did I want her coming out here. On Saturday my husband and I took 1.5 hours to go from Plains and King Rd to Maple Crossing Blvd. We stayed in on Sunday as we were not going to be caught in that traffic . We have lived downtown for nearly 30 years and it has gotten worse each year.
Even little Seneca Avenue was a glorified parking lot on Saturday, with cars inching northward every 10 minutes. Did the bloated sluggos at the Highway Department not realize that closing two southbound lanes on the Skyway on Mother’s Day weekend would foster difficulties? I recognize that half our Municipal Council and many staff were likely still on their “Brantford School Board” trip to Europe and were unable to comment.
The mayor has no plans other than bicycle and electric buses.
We need a totally new city council that stops jamming more housing in town.We have acres of vacant land north of Dundas.
The whole issue re : traffic is a total lack of planning and foresight with all the condo buildings congested in the downtown and more to come. We live in a medium rise condo in the downtown. BUT HIGH HIGH ones generate more cold cash for the builders. This has occurred with no concern and totally ignoring the requirements of infrastructure AND the environmental results. As well, the exhaust fumes from idling cars for the entire day is unacceptable and a concerning problem. The builders have made fools of the city. Do not forget the lesson from Midas and the Golden Touch. I could go on but I think you get my drift.
Why were the QEW lane closures not announced in any of our Mayor’s media posts this past week?!
Our Mayor was able to have all of her multiple photo ops published on social media this past week without any issues.
Also, all of our traffic lights in Burlington still remain unsynchronized, even though our mayor and council have promised the last several years they would get this done!! This would certainly help to get traffic moving!!
2.5 hrs to get home at Bellview St from Burlington Center on Saturday. Every road blocked: Fairview, Lakeshore, James and New., 1st Street, . Ontario and Brant and Maple too. 2 ambulances lights and sirens able to move on Maple and Lakeshore. And not a policeman in sight helping direct or control traffic. People making right turns onto Northshore from the left lane, colliding with people turning left from the Beach strip. Repeat on Sunday. An hr to get home normally 10 min drive. Time to move. This city is chaos and our mayor is a joke.
Closing or reducing lanes over a known heavy traffic and travel weekend is absolutely ludicrous! It took us 1 hour and 20 minutes to travel from just eat of Guelph Line and New St to the QEW southbound via Lakeshore Rd south of the hospital. Have never experienced worst traffic even in the worst snow conditions.
Council has no problem throwing Burlingtonians under the bus (perhaps not the right metaphor, since the bus isn’t moving) by closing off Lakeshore turn lanes all summer long. They’ve already destroyed downtown by putting in all the condo towers (and the vehicles they bring) so why not make residents who are just trying to get home even more miserable?
Saturday & Sunday our downtown was total Gridlock. It is very dangerous for Pedestrians. This Gridlock starts at 10:30 am and continues until 9 pm.
Why does the city insist on closing a traffic lane for on street patios ?
Empty Burlington Buses also plug up traffic flow.
Transport Trucks don’t belong on our Downtown Streets.