TRAFFIC TOXIC ZONE

Private cars and taxis pick up passengers coming off the Porter Airlines flights from early morning to late evening, bringing traffic congestion and safety problems to the Bathurst Quay neighbourhood.

In 2002, when officials of the Toronto Port Authority and Robert Deluce, soon to become the president of Porter Airlines, made presentations before the Toronto Economic Development Committee, they promised that most passengers coming to and from the island airport would travel by public transit. Since the Porter Airlines started operations out of the island airport in October 2006, this claim has been shown to be at best a pipe dream and at worst a fabrication.

To its credit, Porter Airlines provides buses that circle between the airport terminal on the city side of the Western Gap and Union Station. The only difficulty is that few people use those buses. Often they run completely empty or at most transport a handful of passengers.

Many taxis and cars idle their engines, adding to air pollution.

The vast majority of passengers travel to and from the airport by taxi or private car. Scores of taxis now line up on Eireann Quay (formerly Lower Bathurst Street), their engines idling, pumping polluted air into the environment as they wait for a fare. Others speed down the street as fast they can to drop off a passenger at the terminal.

The Bathurst Quay community is a high-density neighbourhood made up of condos, co-ops and mixed-income housing. Many children live in the neighbourhood, and there are a number of public facilities in the immediate area.

• The Harbourfront Community Centre is on the corner of Eireann Quay and Queen’s Quay.
  
  
• Two schools (an elementary school and a high school) are built as part of the community centre complex.
  
  
• A daycare centre is located on the east side of Eireann Quay.
  
  

At city council meetings, Porter executives promised that most passengers would arrive and leave the airport by public transit, but the majority travel in cars or taxis.

• Another daycare is located at 650 Queen’s Quay.
  
  
• Little Norway Park borders Eireann Quay.
  
  
• The newly opened Ireland Park is located just off Eireann Quay beside the water.
  
  
• Plans are being made to turn the Canada Malting silos into the Toronto Museum.

All of the visitors, people living in the neighbourhood and the users of these public facilities have been badly affected by the high level of traffic generated by the island airport. The traffic, along with the air and noise pollution from the aircraft, is turning the neighbourhood into a toxic zone.

At city council meetings, Porter executives promised that most passengers would arrive and leave the airport by public transit, but the majority travel in cars or taxis.