On both Saturday and Sunday I had to meet a few clients only to find that Traffic was crazy this weekend near my downtown Toronto office space. Getting to my office space downtown was not a problem on Saturday, but trying to give my client a lift back uptown was a nightmare. I left the Toronto Star Building around 6:30 pm heading up Yonge Street. I was unaware that only 10 minutes earlier there had been a shooting at the Toronto Eaton Centre. Traffic was a mess on Yonge, so I decided to try Bay Street – it too was full of traffic. It was odd that there would be that much traffic at 6:30 pm especially since the Blue Jay game had ended a few hours before. It was not until I reached Richmond Street that I became aware of what had happened by tuning to CBC Radio One. I turned onto Richmond and decided to avoid going anywhere near the Eaton Centre and went over to University Avenue instead.
On Sunday, traffic was really backed-up as I got closer to downtown. The Becel “Ride for Heart” had closed the Don Valley Parkway and the Gardiner Expressway, thus forcing vehicle traffic onto other roads like Lake Shore Boulevard. A few people who were working on Sunday also commented how traffic was crazy this weekend near my downtown Toronto office space. Any time you close two major routes into downtown Toronto for a race or fundraising event, traffic is spilled onto other arterial roads and drivers become frustrated. Coming home from my office space Toronto was a lot easier as the roads reopened around 2 pm.
While thinking about how traffic was crazy this weekend near my downtown Toronto office space, there are other downtown events this summer that will cause similar traffic problems. Events such as Pride, Honda Indy, and Scotiabank Caribbean Carnival Toronto (Formerly, CARIBANA) require closures of major downtown streets or routes into downtown. I also thought about other great events and festivals that go on downtown and do not require street closures and cause traffic nightmares. The Redpath “Waterfront Festival Toronto,” Toronto Jazz Festival, Toronto Ribfest, CHIN International Picnic, The Fringe – Toronto’s Theatre Festival, Summerlicious, Toronto Burlesque Festival and Toronto Beer Festival all take place downtown or close to downtown, but do not require arterial street closures.
I personally am looking forward to attending the Waterfront Festival this month, as I can park my car at my Downtown Toronto office space and walk to all the various festival event locations such as Harbourfront Centre, HtO Park and Sugar Beach.