Preventing further accidents: improving Halifax traffic following morning gridlock

Hours of early morning gridlock Tuesday morning shut down many of the major routes into peninsular Halifax. 

The MacKay Bridge was closed, a stalled vehicle backed up traffic on the MacDonald Bridge and accidents and collisions on the highways into the city has experts calling for immediate action.

“I think it underscores how vulnerable we are in terms of our road networks,” says Ahsan Habib, a transportation professor at Dalhousie University.

Habib says alternative methods of transportation need to be found to address the growing congestion on our roads.

“I think we need to start using our water better, more ferry services. We need bus rapid transit as I mentioned, we need more frequent feeder service for the bus service arterials and maybe even revisiting this commuter rail option.”

Especially with the province setting a goal of achieving a population of 2 million people by 2060. Habib says the options to get people onto the peninsula are limited.

“We need to not only address the current need of these gridlocks but also start thinking about the future when the population comes in, we might need a higher order of mass transit system.”

To get it done, partnering with the federal and provincial governments is a must.

Nova Scotia’s Joint Regional Transportation Agency is wrapping up a request for proposals to develop a long-term transportation plan that they say will address the growing population and climate change.

A statement to CTV says the plan will include the study of all modes of transportation for both people and goods in preparation for a period of unprecedented growth.

According to statistics from Nova Scotia’s Department of Finance, the province’s population grew by more than 28,000 residents between July 1 of 2021 and July 1 of 2022, that’s the most ever, meaning that period of unprecedented growth is already here.

The successful bidder on the province’s transportation plan is expected to be announced in the coming weeks.