Toronto’s recently-appointed Chief Congestion Officer Andrew Posluns outlined the city’s new congestion management plan on Friday, as the city braces for an influx of visitors for the upcoming 2026 FIFA World Cup.

The City’s new plan has five key pillars:

• Reducing the impact of construction by shortening road closures and improving neighbourhood co-ordination.
• Expanding traffic management through more traffic agents and upgrades to the Congestion Management Centre.
• Improving transit reliability by upgrading signals to prioritize buses and streetcars.
• Using smarter technology such as smart signals and intelligent intersections to better manage real-time traffic and forecast disruptions.
• Shifting how people travel by providing more and better options, including transit and cycling, to help reduce the number of cars on the road.

While the plan has a forward-looking lens, Posluns stressed that it’s already reaping rewards on the city’s roads.

“The Congestion Management Plan continues to drive down travel times in the city,” he said. “As Chief Congestion Officer, I am excited that this year’s plan goes further than ever before …”

The City says it has already shortened construction-related roads closures by 2.4 days on average, and sped up service on Line 5 and 6.

Toronto has also deployed more than 100 traffic agents to key intersections to improve traffic flow and prevent gridlock.

And according to Posluns and Mayor Olivia Chow, that’s just the start.

“Toronto continues to grow, and we are taking a coordinated, city-wide approach to keep people moving,” Chow said. “By bringing construction, transit, and traffic management together, we are reducing disruptions, improving reliability, and delivering faster, more predictable trips across the city.”

Chow provided evidence of the City’s push to expediate construction disruptions — announcing that two major projects were winding down weeks ahead of schedule.

The intersections of College and Bay streets and Queen Street East and Broadview Avenue, will both reopen tonight after work was fast-tracked.

Chow said she empathized with Torontonians who face daily frustrations due to traffic.

“We’ve all been stuck on the Gardiner, staring at the same buildings for minutes on end, sitting in traffic bottled up by construction zones taking up too many lanes,” she said.

“That frustration is real and we’re fixing it. Toronto is moving in the right direction.”