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www.insideHALTON.com | OAKVILLE BEAVER | Thursday, November 28, 2013 | 10 What's needed -- local jobs, housing and roads that work continued from p.6 "I am exhausted by the time we finish dinner, making evening activities and family board games problematic," she said. The Petznicks story The Petznicks, too, have limited time for friends, family and activities on weekdays. Molly and the boys arrive home between 6 and 7 p.m. with Cory returning at about 8 p.m. These make for long, busy weekdays. "It's hard to get anything done around the house," said Petznick. "We are really limited to weekends in terms of having a life outside of work, school and the kids' sports." Motorists travelling along area highways, including the QEW and highways 403 and 401, move at a snail's pace. During rush hour, there are an estimated 250,000 vehicles idling on the Queen Elizabeth Way (QEW) through Burlington alone, according to Bruce Zvaniga, Burlington's transportation director. Traffic is bumper-to-bumper with a number of vehicles opting to navigate the municipal street network to get to their destination. The spillover traffic wreaks havoc on local roads. The corridors that run parallel to the QEW in Burlington, including Harvester Road to the south and the North Service Road to the north, are jammed during peak hours. When there's a crash or incident on the provincial thoroughfare, traffic congestion on Burlington streets worsens. "Burlington bears the brunt of that provincial traffic looking for an outlet," said Zvaniga. The same goes for Waterdown, where a collision on Hwy. 6 can snarl traffic through the heart of the Victorian village and in Flamborough's settlement areas for hours. Municipal road networks simply weren't designed to accommodate the volume drivers now experience. "They weren't built to do that," said Zvaniga. Milton roads experience similar pressures. According to Paul Cripps, Milton's director of engineering services, the biggest traffic issues on the town's roads stem from blockages on Hwy. 401. "When that happens, all the other roads, the Derrys and the Britannias, become overloaded because people are still trying to get over in that direction and the capacity just isn't there for them," he said. An increase in the number of vehicles per household is partly to blame for traffic congestion, as are Toronto's housing prices, said Darren Scott, a professor at McMaster University and associate director of the school of geography and earth sciences. As young professionals are looking to settle down and purchase homes, they are looking west of the city, where homes are more affordable. In search of homes "There are a lot of people who are moving from Toronto to Hamilton, to Flamborough, to the outlying regions, looking for cheaper houses," said the McMaster researcher, whose work focuses on travel behaviour and transportation studies. The Petznick family, including dad Cory, mom Molly and boys Joshua and Cole, commute to work and school every day. They are up at the crack of dawn and out of the house by 6:30 a.m. in an attempt to beat traffic. | photo by Eric Riehl ­ Oakville Beaver (Follow on Twitter @halton_photog) Sixty per cent of the people who work in Oakville come from outside Oakville, I think around 62 per cent of the local population leaves Oakville every day to go to work in another community. What we have long championed is bringing the jobs to Oakville. Once we have higher density and more jobs here, we can get more people off the road and public transit begins to make more sense. Oakville Chamber of Commerce president John Sawyer This, however, results in a higher number of commuters that must travel into the Big Smoke and other communities within the Greater Toronto Area. "You see that these commuting links, they are increasing over time," said Scott. Len Collins, of Burlington, who avoids travelling on the QEW at all costs, believes that many people would prefer to live where they work, but the housing market makes this difficult. As they settle into communities like Milton and Flamborough, they are left facing a daily commute. "They aren't willing (to commute), they are forced to," he said. "I think they want to be closer to work but economics dictate that." Halton Region Chair Gary Carr chalked up some of the issues affecting Halton to a past philosophy that saw development as a first priority and road networks as a second. "Prior to 2006, what was happening was, we'd had a tremendous amount of growth, but we really weren't putting the roads in place so we are playing catch-up now for all those years," he said. "We changed that philosophy...Before they get any approval to build any new development, we make sure the roads are put in." Waterdown is still playing catch up. In June 2002, the Province of Ontario approved an Official Plan Amendment, which gave developers the go-ahead to build out their projects -- 6,500 new housing units, home to more than 15,000 new residents. Infrastructure to accommodate the future growth of the community and influx of vehicles on local roads wasn't in place at the time. Development of north/south and east/west transportation corridors isn't expected for years. "What the city had wanted was for the development to be phased to tie in with the building of the new east/west and north/south corridors," said Flamborough councillor Judi Partridge. "The OMB (Ontario Municipal Board) ruled against the city and approved the developers to just do full build out." The current traffic conditions through Waterdown can best be described as "horrendous," said the politician. "I can't think of a better word to describe it." Halton spending cash on roads In Halton, the value of building appropriate road networks has been realized. Carr said regional spending increased from $50 million in 2006 to $289 million in 2013. The Region's investments far exceed Toronto's road budget, which is $100 million this year. "In the past, this never happened. They would put the residents in and then years later they would increase the capacity," said Carr. As neighbouring municipalities grapple with traffic management issues, Dan Cozzi, Oakville's director of engineering and construction, said the town's road system is operating quite well, with no congestion on locally-owned roads. He acknowledged there are some challenges on some of the arterial roads, but noted only one intersection, located at Speers Road and Cross Avenue, has delay lengths considered by the municipality to be intolerable. The Town, he said, is working to deal with this problem. The problem of traffic congestion has many dimensions, according to Oakville Chamber of Commerce president John Sawyer. Living long distances away from work is one such aspect. Local jobs needed in Oakville With the high cost of housing in Oakville, people with jobs in the town have to commute in from places like Hamilton, where more affordable housing is available, he noted. "Just like 60 per cent of the people who work in Oakville come from outside Oakville, I think around 62 per cent of the local population leaves Oakville every day to go to work in another community," said Sawyer. "What we have long championed is bringing the jobs to Oakville. Once we have higher density and more jobs here, we can get more people off the road and public transit begins to make more sense." -- See the Oakville Beaver next Thursday for the second part in this three-part series.