In this file photo, vehicles makes their way into and out of downtown Toronto along the Gardiner Expressway in Toronto.Nathan Denette / The Canadian Press Are you an up-and-coming fair-weather basketball fan? You might want to get yourself some comfortable walking shoes—with the state of Toronto’s roads, and the team’s winning streak, the growing Raptors bandwagon ain’t going nowhere any time soon. Following the Eastern Conference victory Saturday night, fans everywhere were celebrating like never before. The honking traffic didn’t start driving around our mid-Toronto neighbourhood until after midnight, probably because the drivers simply couldn’t move before then. Recall this publication recently reported that 600 or so Toronto roads are getting the time-out this summer for around 140 km of roadworks. Consequently, Toronto’s current traffic functions as well as the Raptors’ defence circa 1998, or the Jays’ circa May 2019. Mind, you can’t accuse the city of not trying. This year, over $1 billion (a.k.a. Kawhi’s signing bonus) is being spent to remedy the situation. The gist? You probably won’t hear traveling called much throughout the finals in TO. Perhaps presciently, the Raps secured their first-ever finals run on the day following the kickoff of Hogtown’s annual Bike to Work Month. But with hilariously poetic timing, one of the city’s most vital bike paths, Bloor Street between Bathurst and Spadina, is being shredded today. The expected end date? Sometime in December. By then, invincibly optimistic Leaf fans (you know the sort) estimate their Buds will already have secured a spot in next year’s playoffs. So, what days will TO traffic reach its nadir, creating a Jurassic parking lot? Having won more games than Golden State this season, the Raptors enjoy home court advantage during these finals, which means at least two games will further clog our already Jurassic-ally clogged streets. The first game is this Thursday, May 30 at 9 pm; and the second three days later, Sunday, June 2, at 8 pm. If you worry that you or someone you love just ever-so-possibly may need to hurry to the hospital on either afternoon, evening or late night, consider arranging to be out of town. Or inflate the tire on your wheelbarrow because the ambulance is likely to be ambulatory. Now, not to get too far ahead of ourselves, but you also have to wonder what a victory parade would look like given the state of the city’s roads. There’s not much to compare it to: the closest we’ve got is the 1967 Leafs’ victory parade from the Gardens (which no longer exists) to City Hall (which was brand-new and actually capable of supporting fans on its now-crumbling grounds) to celebrate the Stanley Cup (which is what again?). A simple march from Scotiabank Arena to City Hall could be even more fraught. The population was 700,000 in 1967. Today it’s two million more than that. An undoctored screen capture of today’s road restrictions in Toronto. Steve Bochenek Will any parading Raps in size-20 kicks slip into one of the city’s as-yet unrepaired T-Rex-sized potholes and break an ankle? Stay tuned, sports fans! Don’t get us wrong. Of course, this victory is good for the city’s image. Tourism will flourish. And heaven knows Toronto’s long-suffering sports fans deserve a nod from God. But there’s one GTA collective who’ve suffered even more. We The Congested have endured a hell of a bad ride since long before Nick Nurse was even a candy striper, or Kawhi emitted his first awkward
Origin: #WeTheCongested: What do the Raptors’ wins mean for Toronto traffic?