Stop the City of Toronto from Tearing down the Gardiner Expressway

To:  As many citizen of Toronto as possible.

This is a petition to stop the city of Toronto from tearing down any portion of the Gardiner Expressway; instead we need to look at replacing it with a new highway either in the form of a Channel a Tunnel, or by revamping the existing Gardiner at the least.
All Toronto residents are going to be negatively affected by any plan to simply tear down a section of the Gardiner. Not only is it bad for traffic but also for access to the Lakeshore and for the environment.
All that you need to do to understand this is to go and look at the amount of traffic on both the Gardiner and Lakeshore Blvd. at almost anytime of the day, (but if you want the best proof go and take a look during rush hour). Now imagine all that traffic being diverted to city streets, what a mess it will make.
It is impossible for anyone to think that this traffic can be accommodated on the rest of our already crowed streets, or that it is going to make access to the lakeshore better.
All that this proposal will do is to create an even worse city to commute in, and live in, and negatively affect everyone’s quality of life, as well as detracting from businesses investing in Toronto, (because the quality of life as well as the commute times of employees are factors that businesses consider when deciding which city they will setup offices in. These factors affect their work force, and in the end cost them money, from workers arriving late due to their morning commute, trying to leave early to beat the traffic home, and just being stressed out while they are at work, all do to their commute, and all cutting down on their productivity).
It comes down to a simple case of math, if you take the amount of cars on the road and then subtract the Gardiner Expressway (a major route with no traffic lights), you then have to add all that traffic to the rest of the city streets, ending up making your commute longer, local streets busier, congestion like you have never seen, and the amount of smog in the city worse.
Even if you don’t drive at all this proposal will negatively affect you, from more smog to more cars and trucks on your streets, which will have to lead to wider streets, and less pedestrian walkway space.
If you think that just because you don't take the Gardiner that it won't affect you, I would ask you to ponder for a second, if there is no Gardiner where will the traffic end up?
The answer is simple it will be on every street, Lakeshore Blvd, on the DVP, the 401, the Allen, and every road that leads out of downtown, which will add up to much more then the few extra minutes of commute time that the cities studies suggest will occur if the Gardiner is taken down.
Traffic in Toronto is already bad, tearing down the Gardiner without supplying an alternative is simple irresponsible and unbelievable short sighted of the city to even suggest.
They have said that it is clear that Toronto’s citizens are not concerned about this due to lack of response to their ill timed and almost completely unannounced meetings, I say that we do care and they are just not listening, and that is why I have started this petition, to show them that not only do we care, but we are against this proposal, and are going to fight it.
Let’s not just sit by and let them make what could be the biggest and most costly mistake Toronto has ever made.
I have not only drawn up this petition but also designed an alternative solution to show Toronto what I feel should be done as I think that it is important to have alternative idea if you are going to take issue with what is currently out there.
Here is a link to my alternative plan that I developed, I am not trying to promote my plan as the final answer to the problem, or even looking to be part of developing it, but am simply putting it out there as an alternative, and a better place to being the process of deciding what will happen to the Gardiner Expressway.

http://www.cp24.com/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20090602/090602_gardiner_replacement/20090602/?hub=CP24Home

http://docs.google.com/Presentation?id=dfbg5cfv_603svbm87c3

Please sign the petition and lets make a better more innovative Toronto, it is all of our jobs to ensure that Toronto is moving towards a better, brighter future, and to demand that our politicians are doing the same.
Thanks for your support.

Sincerely,

The Undersigned

The Stop the City of Toronto from Tearing down the Gardiner Expressway Petition to As many citizen of Toronto as possible. was created by and written by Mark Fraser (Project1.Gardiner@gmail.com).  This petition is hosted here at www.PetitionOnline.com as a public service. There is no endorsement of this petition, express or implied, by Artifice, Inc. or our sponsors. For technical support please use our simple Petition Help form.