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Victory: Island Airport Traffic Chaos Constrained

CommunityAIR press release May 16, 2012

A flurry of activity over the past two weeks has resulted in Toronto and East York Community Council yesterday adopting significant measures to address dangerous traffic volumes caused by the expanding Island Airport.

“We’ve won a significant victory. It took the combined resources of angry parents and an impressively‑responsive Toronto District School Board, working closely with Councillor Adam Vaughan and City staff, to force the Toronto Port Authority to take community concerns seriously.” said Brian Iler, Chair, CommunityAIR.

 “If the TPA had any willingness to listen to the community’s concerns it would have long ago constrained its aggressive airport expansion until sufficient measures were in place to protect the community. These actions should not have been necessary.”

“The City has limited ability to address that aggressive airport expansion and the TPA`s complete failure to properly plan for ground transportation to and from its airport. It has done all that we could reasonably have hoped for.” he added.

A City safety review of this intersection, tabled at that meeting, confirmed what parents have been worrying about:

  • pedestrian conflicts with vehicles related to vehicle turning movements at the intersection
  • taxi drivers queuing through the intersection, blocking pedestrian crosswalks, and performing aggressive manoeuvres such as
    1. northbound right turns on red from the northbound left-turn lane,
    2. running the red/amber light,
    3. U turns, and
    4. northbound and westbound left turns with pedestrians in the crosswalk.
    5. parking for student pickup/drop‑off interfered with the northbound approach to the intersection, forcing through and right-turning traffic into the northbound left-turn lane.

Over the three-year period ending December 31, 2011 there were nine collisions at this intersection. But since April 7 there have been three ‑ a cyclist was struck by a car that day and taken to hospital. On April 23 young woman was struck by a car at Bathurst and Queens Quay. She left in an ambulance. A third accident between two cars occurred just last Friday.

The meeting was told a hundred traffic tickets have been issued in the past month, as Toronto police step up enforcement activities at that intersection.

The Council decided to:

  • Prohibit northbound left turns from Eireann Quay to Queens Quay West at all times,
  • Prohibit northbound right turns from Eireann Quay to Queens Quay West when the  traffic control signal shows red,
  • Prohibit eastbound right turns from Queens Quay West to Eireann Quay when the traffic control signal shows red
  • Modify the pavement markings at the intersection of Queens Quay West and Eireann Quay/Bathurst Street by
    1. installing zebra markings on all four crosswalks,
    2. improving the bicycle lane markings on the westbound approach,
    3.  installing any additional guide lines required to assist motorists through the centre of the intersection, and
    4. delineating a new school bus loading zone immediately south of the intersection
  • Prohibit northbound left turns from Stadium Road to Lake Shore Boulevard West, from 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m., Monday to Friday, except Public Holidays.
  • Prohibit eastbound right turns from Lake Shore Boulevard West to Stadium Road, from 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m., Monday to Friday, except Public Holidays.
  • Prohibit heavy trucks at all times on Stadium Road, between Lake Shore Boulevard West and the south end of Stadium Road
  • Install a red light camera at the Bathurst Street/Queen’s Quay/Eireann Quay intersection
  • Narrow the Eireann Quay roadway at the south side of the intersection
  • Create seven short stay parking spaces for parent pick-up and drop-off for the two schools and day care centre at that intersection.

Speed bumps on Eireann Quay, approved for installation in August, 2010, but delayed by threat of legal action from the TPA, are now likely to be installed following a further round of consultation.

Parents and community members continue to stop traffic with banners in that intersection twice daily to protect their children.


Bully Bishop Airport

 Bully Bishop Airport strikes again, and again and again.  The noise that neighbours hear from the island airport is constant, with more than two hundred flights a day. They're loud, but mercifully, takeoffs and landings only last a few minutes, so the noise from airplane takeoffs and landings is brief.

  Louder than takeoffs and landings are engine maintenance run-ups on the ground. The airport blasts roaring engine noises at the neighbourhood from 7 am to midnight, every day of every year, including Saturdays and Sundays. There is no day of rest here.

 Toronto Island used to be a waterfront playground for the entire city. Now the airport is turning the central waterfront into an industrial zone, contributing to the decline of quality of life for Harbourfront residents, who are getting sick and tired, from too much noise and air pollution. Airport noise killed Ontario Place and now it's destroying the Music Garden. 

 The island airport was originally a temporary war measure. One could ask whose bright idea it was to keep an airport on former public parkland, and then let the airport expand beyond its borders, pushing people out of its way, and bullying an entire neighbourhood.

 It's worse than that though, for the island airport is a financial problem for the whole city,  and the entire country is contributing to the purchase of Porter planes. Who knows why?

 We could ask a few questions. ie. Why is a private company, financed by federal money, being given a monopoly lease on the most valuable land in the City of Toronto, when the federal Port Authority doesn't even pay its city taxes? Plus, we might also ask why a port authority manager earns more than the mayor. Maybe there's no answer for that.

 Amid the intrigues and legal arguments around the island airport, people sit in the Music Garden and look at Toronto Island longingly, wishing the airport would go away, so we can get back to enjoying Toronto Island as the city's favourite public playground.

 But the airport never goes away, and business is expanding. Someday this successful little airline's owners might sell shares to the public and make half a billion dollars profit, before selling controlling shares to American Airlines, and leaving the country forever.

 The dream of Toronto Island as a public park dies when it becomes a multi-millionaires' private club, controlled by foreign investors. Does anyone care what the public is losing?  Welcome to Toronto Waterfront but be warned, some areas may be closed to the public.

Still, the airport land lease is coming up for renewal in 2033, and anything can happen.

www.harbourfrontcommunity.info

Missing Approvals Impede TPA Airport Tunnel Project

Community AIR Press Release May 4, 2012:

A host of missing approvals is impeding the construction of the Toronto Port Authority’s pedestrian tunnel to the Island Airport.

Missing are:

·         Exemption from the City’s noise bylaw. The tunnel’s construction plan requires two shifts per day, but that requires an exemption. The power to grant the exemption is discretionary, and lies with local City Councillor Adam Vaughan. He has indicated very clearly that the community that elected him has spoken and does not want the exemption to be granted. He will honour those wishes.

·         Site plan approval for the replacement taxi staging and parking area. Community Council has now twice deferred its decision, citing the need for more reports, and the absence of any meaningful consultation with the community on this project.

·         Zoning approval for the planned concrete batching plant. The plant, intended to supply concrete for the tunnel was intended for land leased by the TPA from the City adjacent to the tunnel site. It is zoned G, but I2 zoning is required for such a plant, Toronto and East York Community Council was told on April 17. City officials confirmed to that Council that no application has yet been made for such approval.

·         An Environmental Assessment for the batching plant. Although an environmental assessment was conducted for the tunnel it contained no mention of the batching plant. Under the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act and the Canada Port Authority Environmental Assessment Regulations, the batching plant is a project that requires such an assessment.

“Either the TPA was so inept that it just dropped the ball on these approvals, or it just presumed the City – and the community it impacts – would oblige. Either way, it is clear that PCL, the tunnel’s contractor, is not impressed.” said Brian Iler, chair, CommunityAIR. “Will the taxpayers be on the hook again, if extra costs on this tunnel are incurred because the TPA dropped the ball – or thought it could just push these approvals through?”

 The TPA, a federal government agency, is used to getting its way. It has:

·         ignored parents’ pleas to fix the Island Airport traffic chaos that seriously jeopardizes the safety of children crossing the only access road to the Airport terminal

·         avoided paying, to the end of 2010,  $49M worth of property taxes to the City, as confirmed by City officials at the March 20 Community Council meeting

·         ignored legal constraints that limit the commercial use of the Island Airport to “limited STOL service” – the Q400 is not STOL, and its commercial operation now eclipses non‑commercial uses

·         delivered a misleading document to the US government that it relied upon to grant Porter permission to fly to US airports

·         extracted $48M from the City in a dubious lawsuit for land transferred from one public agency (the TPA’s predecessor) to another (the City’s economic development agency)

·         secured $35M compensation from the federal government for its cancelling the proposed Island Airport bridge, calculated on an assumption that without a bridge, commercial flights would decline to 120 from 167 per day. There are now 202 commercial. flights

The tunnel’s cost has escalated from an initially‑estimated $20M to, now, $82.5M.

An exchange with Transport Canada

Dear Robbi Jordan:

> Thank you for your reply to my Billy Bishop City Centre Airport
> question re Safety. In case you have any other requests, you should be
> aware that the site address has changed. It is now
> http://www.tc.gc.ca/eng/civilaviation/regserv/cars/part6-menu-2441.htm.
> After navigating through this site for almost two hours, I found that
> some information dated back to 1995 era and a Consulting with
> Canadians requested feedback by July 2010. I realize that the
> voluminous file is difficult to update, but somehow, somewhere, I
> should be able to find an answer to questions like "at what level does
> commercial passenger airport traffic proximity prove a potential
> hazard to large urban development?" or "does the pilot have the
> ultimate responsibility for diverting from regular path if sudden extreme weather presents?"
>
> When my office was in the Star building some years ago, I frequently
> walked along the waterfront to the Terminal Building, (not yet
> Harbourfront), had lunch at the Amsterdam cafe and watched flying
> lessons taking place at the Island Airport. It was always a pleasant interlude.
> However, over the past few years, the little airport which was never
> meant to have heavy traffic, has developed into a waterfront
> Frankenstein. I remember the SOAS in the 80's saying that the
> unprofitable airport's future was doubtful because jets would never be
> permitted and intensive development was planned along the waterfront.
> I now believe that with the extreme pressure from the TPA (an "arm's
> length autonomous" agent of the government to facilitate Porter's
> business, even to the point of having protective legislation removed,
> that anything could happen. Porter might want jets and the Transport
> Ministry might expropriate long-existing Toronto Island homes to
> create longer runways. Since the legislation preventing a fixed link
> to the Airport was removed, I no longer have any faith whatsoever in government protection.
>
> Now we have Harbourfront, condos, many businesses, along with
> innumerable high-rise condos just north of Queen's Quay.
> To me, increased air traffic poses safety problems. Even one plane
> off-course and crashing could cause unbelievable loss of life. An
> expanded airport is the wrong business in the wrong location.
>
> I hope that you realize that I am Toronto-born, have always loved the
> waterfront, even when unimproved, and have genuine apprehension about
> the future not only of the communities there, but of the
> irreplaceable, precious green oasis of the Toronto Islands. Thank you
> for having read this. I am convinced that if there were large public
> meetings, Toronto citizens would turn down both tunnel and airport
> expansion, as they always have.
>
> Shirley Bush

> ----- Original Message -----
> Subject: Your question to Transport Canada regarding Safety at Billy
> Bishop City Centre Airport, Toronto

 Dear  Ms. Bush:
>
> Thank you for expressing your concerns regarding the Billy Bishop
> Toronto City Airport. Transport Canada is responsible for
> transportation policies and programs. It ensures that air, marine,
> road and rail transportation are safe, secure, efficient and
> environmentally responsible. Aviation in Canada is regulated by
> Transport Canada under the authority of the Aeronautics Act and the
> Canadian Aviation Regulations (CARs). The CARs are available to the
> public at the following
> website:http://www.tc.gc.ca/eng/civilaviation/regserv/cars/menu.htm
>
> The CARs pertaining to general operation and flight rules are at:
> http://www.tc.gc.ca/CivilAviation/Regserv/Affairs/cars/Part6/menu.htm
>
> It is the responsibility of the pilot of an aircraft to ensure that
> each take-off and landing is conducted in a safe manner given existing
> environmental conditions and in accordance with the CARs. We have not
> received concerns from pilots operating at Billy Bishop Toronto City
> Airport.
>
> I hope this has addressed your concern.

 Regards,
> Robbi Jordan
> Communications Manager/gestionnaire de communications Civil
> Aviation/l'Aviation civile Ontario Region/Région de l'Ontario
> Transport Canada/Transports Canada

No plan to deal with traffic insanity

The people living near the island airport, growing in numbers as new condos rise, are suffering from the total lack of planning by the federal government`s Dept of Transport on the mainland for access to and egress from this downtown airport.  The bottleneck is between Lakeshore and the Western Gap which intersects Queens Quay west right at the point of access to the community`s centre and the Waterfront Schools. It is simply too late to make Bathurst wider between Lakeshore and Queens Quay west at this point, and yet the federal government`s agency, the TPA persist in bulldozing this pet project through the community. Everything they do to develop the commercial use of the airport makes the traffic congestion steadily worse, and its already become unsafe. Within the last month a bicyclist and a pedestrian have been hit by vehicles drooping off or picking up airline passengers. 

 Airline personnel and passengers, and lurking taxis and limos, occupy the few parking spots on the community`s streets, so that visitors of those who live in the precinct can only visit by taxi or by the TTC. The parking and congestion will be worse when summer arrives.

Anyone looking at the roads leading to the island airport would conclude that an offsite passenger pickup and drop off depot is the only answer to airport operations expansion, but nothing has been done to arrange such strategically located, essential infrastructure. Instead, almost $100 million will be spent to effectively increase the traffic to and from the island airport, without planning to do anything to alleviate the traffic on the ground.

This significant insanity seems as ungrounded a plan as the F35 acquisitions. We in the community understand the TPA are this month to announce further insane measures to develop its airport, which is despoiling the harbour of Canada`s Greatest Great Lakes City for the sake of a temporary convenience factor for downtown office workers and great inconvenience to the millions visiting the Harbourfront precinct for recreational and cultural purposes and those many thousands  who live within the precinct.

 If a passenger study were conducted, it would find that most passengers using this airport are downtown Torontonians spending travel dollars in other cities serviced by this airport, so almost a billion dollars of federal taxpayer funds is being spent to drive Canadian dollars  held by the private sector away from the GTA, rather than to the GTA, and some from Toronto to NYC, Chicago, Boston and so on.  What was the sense of that?

A waterfront resident


A small victory: Police now support parents protecting children from airport traffic

CommunityAIR press release, May 2, 2012

For the third week, parents and community supporters have twice daily assisted the crossing guard at the intersection of Bathurst and Queen’s Quay by holding banners to obstruct taxis and other Island Airport traffic that endanger their children as they cross this chaotic intersection to and from school.

After several unsympathetic encounters with police, we’re pleased to advise that the police attitude has changed entirely.

Kathryn Exner, a parent at Waterfront School, reports:

I thought that since I wrote about incidents at the intersection involving police "unpleasantness" last week during our banner initiative, I would write to update on what's been happening for the past three mornings.

Starting this past Monday, we've had the same officer come to our corner for the morning shift. And in contrast to the police who came last week, this fellow has been friendly, respectful, and so far supportive. We've received no reprimands for how we're handling our banners with the traffic and he told me that he's in favour of what we're doing.

Jackie (the Chair of the Waterfront School Parent Council) asked him several questions about his presence. He said he's been asked by his sergeant to be at the intersection every morning, not because of what we're doing but because of the dangerous traffic situations plaguing the intersection.

And since actions speak louder than words, I'm quite pleased to report that he ticketed three drivers in the last two days for infractions--one was a taxi who received a $181.00 fine for making a left-hand turn through the intersection on a red.

So it seems that at least for now, we've finally got the police presence at the intersection that we've been asking for, and not because of the Toronto Port Authority, but though our actions.

Not sure how long this will last but it seems a positive development.


CBC report: "Too Much Traffic"

CBC News reports on the steps residents and Waterfront School parents are taking to counter the traffic chaos generated by the Island Airport. You can watch it online at this link:




Link to this page at CBC: http://www.cbc.ca/video/#/Shows/1221254309/ID=2228007039

Residents protest increased traffic at island airport

From CBC News: www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/story/2012/04/27/toronto-airport-protest.html

Some people who live near Toronto's Billy Bishop Airport say they're fed up with all the traffic they have to deal with on a daily basis.

The airport is located on the Toronto islands, just south of downtown Toronto.

The residents say the taxi traffic is out of control and crossing the streets in the neighbourhood is getting more and more dangerous.

On Friday some parents joined the local crossing guard and held up a banner, which in turn held up traffic.

Kathy Exner, one of the protesters who has a child at the local daycare, explained that the congestion is making it dangerous for everyone.

"[Drivers are] running lights, cutting corners, children were almost getting hit," she said.

Daycare worker Jane Deng worries about crossing from the daycare to the park across the street.

"Lately it's been really scary," she said.

As well as the daycare there are two schools in the area.

Jeff Wilson, president and CEO of the Toronto Port Authority, which runs the airport, says measure are being taken.

He says the TPA has been working with city hall and local residents to calm the traffic down. There are more police officers in the area and more port authority security guards.

Wilson says there are also plans for an off-street taxi corral.

Who's calling the shots in our community?


I do not recall seeing Ambassador Taxi, Toronto Port Authority, Porter Airlines, nor Stephen Harper's names on the last Municipal Election Ballot - so, why are these entities calling all the shots about this community?

Suzanne Batinovic

"This officer's attitude is unacceptable."

Regarding the officer that reprimanded the parents holding the banner this morning:

The Toronto Police owe those volunteers an apology! Maybe the police should go do something useful with their time, instead of put down people who are trying to improve the neighborhood and save lives, and keep more people from being injured by motorists in their insulated steel bubbles. This officer's attitude is unacceptable. As condo board member at South Beach, this story disgusts me. How many more people need to be hit by a car at that intersection before people take things seriously?

Keep up the great work. You are truly serving the community by getting this message out. We all greatly appreciate it.

Amy