Traffic congestion along Highway 26 through Thornbury continues to plague the Town of the Blue Mountains (TBM).
“The problem has been ignored for far too long,” said TBM Mayor Alar Soever, adding that the past few months have exacerbated the issue due to an increase in the local populations because of COVID-19.
A video captured by resident Alan Shisko at 4 p.m. on Thursday Sept. 24 shows the traffic stalled in Thornbury beginning at the Highway 26 and Bruce Street North intersection and continuing past Landsdowne Street North.
As a municipality, Soever says there is only so much TBM can do as the roadway is under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Transportation (MTO), and that there are a lot of traffic issues that feed into the problems in Thornbury.
“This is only going to be solved regionally,” Soever said. “What we need to do is look at the regional transportation network. For that reason, we have made progress at the county level, and they will also be pushing for an integrated regional transportation strategy.”
The hope is that the regional transportation strategy would examine the flow of traffic on a larger scale, beginning in the GTA and moving across Simcoe, Grey and Bruce county borders.
“When someone is driving up from the GTA, they generally have no idea what county they are in or where the county lines are. It doesn’t matter to them. What matters is the flow of the traffic,” he added.
Over the past few months, Grey County has been actively monitoring the traffic volumes on alternative routes that people may be taking to avoid passing through Thornbury.
In particular, Soever says County Road 31, near County Road 91, through the Duntroon Quarry saw a large increase in traffic compared to last year.
“We saw about a 22 per cent increase from last year,” Soever said. “That tells me people are using these alternate routes to get away from the congestion.”
He adds that TBM has been in contact with the MTO about the issue and that progress is being made, but slowly.
“There is a plan to have the Minister, or her parliamentary assistant, come up for a tour to look at this issue,” he said.
