Torontonians are driving more since pandemic began, city report finds
A City of Toronto report says people are travelling through the city more since the pandemic began, but deciding to drive more than other modes — a situation that could spell danger as the holiday season approaches, according to Mothers Against Drunk Driving.
MADD’s CEO Andrew Murie told CTV News Toronto he’s hoping that the city does more to encourage other modes of transportation, including by licensing more drivers for ride-hailing services like Uber and Lyft to give people plenty of options to get home other than drinking and driving.
“We’re going to have no drivers available, and when they’re available the costs will be through the roof. And people are going to make really bad decisions. We’re actually going to put drunk driving back to where it was before ride-hailing,” Murie argued.
The report also shows that ride-hailing delays in the city have risen from about 2.5 minutes to just under 6 minutes a trip.
“If you or I had a cardiac arrest right now, it would take on average about six minutes for an ambulance to pick you up — that’s still extremely fast,” said Thorben Wieditz of RideFairTO.
The city report says ride-hailing trips dropped to 15 per cent of pre-pandemic levels in April 2020. Friday and Saturday night trips were most affected.
By July 2021, that had recovered to about 43 per cent. That’s a faster recovery than transit — at 38 per cent as of July — and even walking — at 33 per cent, the report said.
Downtown bicycling has recovered to about 76 per cent, and downtown vehicle volumes are at about 74 per cent, the report said.
One explanation could be the perception of safety, said Shauna Brail, an associate professor in the Institute for Management and Innovation at the University of Toronto.
“There’s a greater sense or perception of safety in terms of transmission of disease in a ride-hailing vehicle than on public transit,” she said. “Whether that’s true or not is a totally different matter.”
The TTC has cut some service after suspending some workers who had not conformed to its vaccine mandate.
And the City of Toronto has paused issuing vehicle for hire licenses after it emerged that it was offering thousands of drivers licenses despite not providing mandatory training that had been ordered by Toronto’s city council.
The issuing will resume once a driver training accreditation course is established and applicants have completed a driver training course.
Councillors made the move in response to a fatal crash involving an Uber driver in 2018 — but the pandemic delayed its implementation.
The report said that the number of ride-hailing trips fluctuated with public health orders, showing day-to-day impacts of decisions that Toronto residents made in response to COVID-19 concerns.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Quebec nurse had to clean up after husband's death in Montreal hospital
On a night she should have been mourning, a nurse from Quebec's Laurentians region says she was forced to clean up her husband after he died at a hospital in Montreal.
'Anything to win': Trudeau says as Poilievre defends meeting protesters
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is accusing Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre of welcoming 'the support of conspiracy theorists and extremists,' after the Conservative leader was photographed meeting with protesters, which his office has defended.
Bank of Canada officials split on when to start cutting interest rates
Members of the Bank of Canada's governing council were split on how long the central bank should wait before it starts cutting interest rates when they met earlier this month.
Northern Ont. lawyer who abandoned clients in child protection cases disbarred
A North Bay, Ont., lawyer who abandoned 15 clients – many of them child protection cases – has lost his licence to practise law.
'My stomach dropped': Winnipeg man speaks out after being criminally harassed following single online date
A Winnipeg man said a single date gone wrong led to years of criminal harassment, false arrests, stress and depression.
What is changing about Canada's capital gains tax and how does it impact me?
The federal government's proposed change to capital gains taxation is expected to increase taxes on investments and mainly affect wealthy Canadians and businesses. Here's what you need to know about the move.
Police tangle with students in Texas and California as wave of campus protest against Gaza war grows
Police tangled with student demonstrators in Texas and California while new encampments sprouted Wednesday at Harvard and other colleges as school leaders sought ways to defuse a growing wave of pro-Palestinian protests.
Something in the water? Canadian family latest to spot elusive 'Loch Ness Monster'
For centuries, people have wondered what, if anything, might be lurking beneath the surface of Loch Ness in Scotland. When Canadian couple Parry Malm and Shannon Wiseman visited the Scottish highlands earlier this month with their two children, they didn’t expect to become part of the mystery.
Pilot reported fire onboard plane carrying fuel, attempted to return to Fairbanks just before crash
One of the two pilots aboard an airplane carrying fuel reported there was a fire on the airplane shortly before it crashed and burned outside Fairbanks, killing both people on board, a federal aviation official said Wednesday.