Following up on the Gardiner Expressway renovation project with commercial vehicle insights

The Gardiner Expressway, one of Toronto’s primary throughways, has been under construction since late March 2024. We used aggregated commercial vehicle telematics data from Altitude by Geotab to understand how this construction has impacted travel times in Canada’s largest city, which also happens to be the third largest city in North America. While most major metropolitan areas in North America have their share of congestion, especially during commuting hours, the extensive renovation project on the Gardiner has caused major increases in the time it takes to travel through Toronto. 

The Gardiner Expressway strategic rehabilitation plan includes six different areas of construction, one of which has already been completed and two of which are currently underway. Significant renovations began in late March 2024 and Altitude by Geotab published an assessment of the impact of that construction last year. In April, a new round of construction began, further impacting traffic on the Gardiner. We studied how travel times have evolved over the past year and will explain how much extra time commuters can expect to spend in traffic. 

The map below shows the section of the Gardiner Expressway that we considered in our analysis.

What the data is saying about the Gardiner 1-year later

While some drivers may be able to get by without having to drive the entire length of the Gardiner shown in the map above, our analysis was focused on how long it takes to go from one end to the other. We considered vehicles traveling eastbound during the peak morning hour (7:30 a.m. – 8:30 a.m.) and westbound in the afternoon (4:30 p.m. – 5:30 p.m.). We also looked at eastbound and westbound travel times during the middle of the day (11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.). The tables below show average observed travel times on the Gardiner during various time periods:

• Before construction began in 2024 – While the Gardiner was still congested before construction began in 2024 and vehicles often moved slower than the speed limit during peak hours, this time period had much faster observed travel times compared to after construction.
• The first 3 weeks of construction in 2024 – Our analysis showed that the first three weeks of construction had the slowest observed travel times compared to any other weeks of 2024.
• The rest of 2024 (excluding the winter holidays) and the beginning of 2025 – Our analysis showed that travel times on the Gardiner improved slightly after the first three weeks of construction in 2024; however, average times were still much higher than they had been prior to construction.
• The first three weeks of the new construction that started in mid-April 2025 – So far, the new construction has caused travel times to increase once again, similarly to how they did when construction first began in 2024, resulting in an average morning peak travel time of 40 minutes from the pre-construction 23 minute commute.

Dates	Morning peak, eastbound: Average observed travel time	Afternoon peak, westbound: Average observed travel time
Jan. 8 – Mar. 22, 2024 (before construction)	23 minutes	25 minutes
Mar. 25 – Apr. 12, 2024  (first three weeks of construction in 2024)	39 minutes	39 minutes
Apr. 15 – Dec. 20, 2024 and Jan. 6 – Apr. 12, 2025 (ongoing construction in 2024 and 2025)	33 minutes	35 minutes
Apr. 13 – May 2,  2025 (first three weeks of construction in 2025)	40 minutes	38 minutes

 

Fortunately, if the pattern from 2024’s construction activity holds, there may be some small reprieve (in the realm of five minutes or so) coming for Toronto drivers, as the first few weeks of construction give way to the new normal. 

A deeper dive into the best and the worst along the Gardiner 

Last year, we found that during peak commuting hours some areas of the Gardiner were experiencing increased travel times of around 250% compared to before construction started.  This year, we found that the most congested sections of the Gardiner experience a delay of about 230% while traversing the whole segment of the Gardiner between Highway 427 and Cherry St generally takes 2x as long as before construction (corresponding to a 200% change). A more detailed comparison to last year’s findings is shown below:

Section of the Gardiner	Travel time before construction	Travel time at the beginning of construction in 2024	Travel time at the beginning of new construction in 2025
Humber River to Strachan Ave	8 minutes	20 minutes	24 minutes
Jarvis St to Dufferin St	11 minutes	25 minutes	30 minutes

The impact of the 2024 Gardiner construction continues to affect surrounding streets, with travel times remaining high. Lake Shore Boulevard, for instance, which parallels the Gardiner, has shown a persistent 30% average increase in travel time over the last 14 months.

While some commuters and commercial vehicles with flexible schedules may be able to travel on the Gardiner during the middle of the day, instead of during peak hours, travel times have also increased mid-day. The table below shows that a mid-day, westbound trip that used to take 11 minutes now averages about 21 minutes (91% increase) due to construction. 

Dates	Mid-day, eastbound: Average observed travel time	Mid-day, westbound: Average observed travel time
Jan. 8 – Mar. 22, 2024 (before construction)	11 minutes	11 minutes
Mar. 25 – Apr. 12, 2024  (first 3 weeks of construction in 2024)	16 minutes	25 minutes
Apr. 15 – Dec. 20, 2024 and Jan. 6 – Apr. 12 , 2025 (ongoing construction in 2024 and 2025)	18 minutes	21 minutes
Apr. 13 – May 2,  2025 (first 3 weeks of construction 2025)	21 minutes	21 minutes

 

No matter how we slice and dice the data, the conclusion remains clear that construction on the Gardiner has had a significant, negative impact on commuters and commercial vehicles who can now expect to spend an average of 2x as much time on the Gardiner compared to pre-construction travel times. 

Develop smarter traffic management strategies with Altitude’s mobility insights

Traffic patterns and overall travel times continue to be impacted as a result of the Gardiner Expressway’s construction processes. With the roadwork expected to continue throughout the next year, drivers should plan for significant delays along their commutes, especially when  large sporting events, concerts or other community events come to town.

To similarly study construction’s effects on your region’s traffic movement and create smarter congestion solutions, choose Altitude. Our turnkey mobility analytics platform enables you to surface real-world commercial vehicle trends, measure changes in traffic flows and deduce where improvement is most needed. Study roadwork’s impacts on driver behaviors and where the most common bottlenecks are happening with Altitude to promote safer, smoother traffic flows along your network. 

Learn more about how Altitude can help you solve unique traffic challenges and improve road safety for all by reaching out to us.