{"id":520187,"date":"2026-03-07T10:29:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-07T10:29:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/520187\/"},"modified":"2026-03-07T10:29:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-07T10:29:11","slug":"downtown-toronto-could-see-up-to-15-more-cars-during-fifa-world-cup-city-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/520187\/","title":{"rendered":"Downtown Toronto could see up to 15% more cars during FIFA World Cup, city says"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Text<\/p>\n

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Estimated 4 minutes<\/p>\n

The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve the results.<\/p>\n

The City of Toronto has released the first details of its plans to deal with traffic during the 2026 FIFA World Cup, which it predicts could add 10 to 15 per cent more vehicles to major downtown roads.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Each host city has to submit a mobility plan to FIFA for review by the end of March, meaning Toronto\u2019s full plan is still in the works. But documents that will go before the executive committee Tuesday shed some light on how a city notorious for its traffic plans to deal with it during one of the largest sporting events in the world.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The city is looking at banning on-street parking on major corridors, a moratorium on construction projects impacting key routes and the temporary closing of on and off-ramps to the Gardiner Expressway, according to a letter from Paul Johnson, the city manager, on the committee\u2019s agenda. <\/p>\n

The expected increase in traffic comes from modelling done by the transportation department, Johnson said, though his letter doesn\u2019t specify which streets might see the brunt of that influx. <\/p>\n

The city is already at a point where any addition to traffic will have an impact, according to Eric Miller, a professor specializing in transportation engineering at the University of Toronto.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cYou add one per cent of traffic, you get more than one per cent congestion, given where we are in terms of congestion. If it was empty, 10 to 15 per cent wouldn\u2019t matter,\u201d said Miller.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cBut you reach a threshold where it starts to become painful. And after that, more and more pain.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

WATCH | CBC sits down with Toronto’s new congestion czar:\"\"<\/p>\n

Meet the man tasked with helping reduce Toronto’s congestion <\/p>\n

The city has hired a new traffic czar to help tackle Toronto’s congestion challenges. CBC’s Lane Harrison sat down\u00a0with\u00a0Andrew Posluns to chat about his new role.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The city will host six matches during the World Cup, five in June and one in early July, at Toronto Stadium, the temporary name for BMO Field during the tournament. The stadium will welcome 45,000 people, while the fan festival at Fort York National Historic Site and the Bentway will be able to hold 20,000 people.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Efforts to reduce impact on residents near stadium<\/p>\n

Miller said he has faith that the city\u2019s transportation staff know what they\u2019re doing. He says scaling back construction projects, adjusting traffic lights based on demand and prohibiting street parking are all good things.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The street parking ban would happen on match days and would include an enforcement plan, \u201cto monitor and clear any vehicles that stop or park illegally,\u201d according to the document before the executive committee. The city would also limit parking around Toronto Stadium and in its nearby neighbourhoods, to try and minimize impact on local residents..\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe trouble is, that will only find you so much,\u201d Miller said of all the initiatives. He says a robust public transit plan also needs to be part of the equation.\u00a0<\/p>\n

At a TTC board meeting in early February, the transit agency outlined its plans for increased service during the tournament, specifically on the 29 Dufferin bus and 504 King, 511 Bathurst and 509 Harbourfront streetcar routes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI really think that the big story is it’s an opportunity,\u201d Matthias Sweet, co-director of the TransForm research lab at Toronto Metropolitan University, said of transportation management during the World Cup.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The City of Toronto has already accelerated the installation of transit priority lanes on Dufferin and Bathurst streets for the tournament. Sweet said the mobility challenge presented to the city presents opportunities for it and its residents to try new things.\u00a0<\/p>\n

WATCH | The bus lane debate at city hall last summer:\"\"<\/p>\n

Toronto one step closer to bus-only lanes on Dufferin, Bathurst streets<\/p>\n

Toronto’s executive committee has approved a plan to install priority lanes for buses and streetcars on parts of Bathurst and Dufferin streets ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup. But as CBC’s Lane Harrison explains, support for the controversial lanes is far from unanimous. <\/p>\n

\u201cFor individuals that aren’t used to using transit, they could very well be motivated to try something different in order to try to get to work or try to get to their daily activities on that day in order to avoid some of the traffic,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sweet added that unlike a regular Toronto FC game at the stadium, for example, many of the World Cup\u2019s attendees will be staying in hotels downtown as opposed to commuting in from other parts of the Greater Toronto Area.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome people might have a huge experience of what that 10 to 15 per cent [vehicle increase] might mean, because that’s not distributed across the entire network equally,\u201d Sweet said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd some people are going to experience it much less and may not even notice.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 4 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":520188,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194291],"tags":[49,48,3302],"class_list":["post-520187","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-toronto","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-toronto"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/520187","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=520187"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/520187\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/520188"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=520187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=520187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=520187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}