City council will investigate if a pair of stalled mega-projects can help solve London’s traffic problems in the future.
On Tuesday, council directed staff to restart the Discover Wonderland Environmental Assessment (EA) for widening Wonderland Road to six lanes (between Southdale Road and Fanshawe Park Road), and asked the mayor to talk with the provincial government and neighbouring municipalities about a ring road.
The decisions followed a lengthy debate about how Londoners will move around the city as it grows.
“This motion is backtracking from previous decisions that we made that were environmentally sound,” argued Councillor Sam Trosow about widening Wonderland Road. “I think it would also show a disregard for our climate goals.”
The Discover Wonderland EA was paused by city council in 2021.
City engineers did not recommend adding two more traffic lanes in the 25-year Mobility Master Plan (MMP), because modelling showed it would only attract more traffic to the corridor.
Commute times for drivers would only improve marginally, but transit times would double by 2050.
However, council directed that the Discover Wonderland EA should resume and also consider an analysis of converting those new lanes into Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) routes in the future.
Meanwhile, the mayor will speak with the provincial government and neighbouring municipalities in Middlesex County about their appetite for a ring road to improve the movement of people and goods throughout the region.
It’s a concept that has resurfaced several times over the last 60 years.
The upcoming talks will focus on connections around the north and west of the city that would connect to Veterans Memorial Parkway and Highway 401.
The mayor has been clear that the province would have to agree to pay to build and operate the ring road.
Councillor Anna Hopkins added, “My understanding is that it’s going to be in the county. I will keep my vote supporting that because it’s worth a conversation, but I want to stress again, it is not the ring road of the 1980s in our city.”
