For most, March Break in Toronto means carefree days away from school. For commuters who travel along Don Mills Road and Eglinton Avenue, it spells clogged roadways, delayed buses and frayed nerves.
For the past few days parents and kids have been flocking to the Ontario Science Centre to take advantage of reading week programs, with exhibits about physics, chemistry and the history of technology and video games.
As a result, traffic has piled up in both directions along Don Mills Road as motorists attempt to access the Science Centre parking lot.
It’s the busiest time of year, attracting about 10,000 people a day, said Julia Bennett, the supervisor of media relations at the Science Centre.
“We are helping to ease traffic as best we can. We hired two traffic officers to assist us, one on each end of the Science Centre parking areas, and those officers work closely with five to six extra staff members we assign outside beyond the usual outside security staff,” she said.
Despite the extra measures however, some commuters say more needs to be done.
Bus rider Hannan Mohammed said TTC was struggling to cope with traffic by moving bus stops further down the road, but those efforts were falling short, mostly because people waiting for the bus were not aware of the moves.
“What they need to do is put a sign that says please go to the next stop because people go to the bus stop where there is no sign, this causes them to miss the bus because they are waiting in the wrong area,” said Mohammed.
“They are not aware that the stop has been moved; they only have signs for the temporary stops. They don’t have a signs that says this stop is out of service,” he said.
TTC spokesman Danny Nicholson said signs were put up prior to the events at the Science Centre because the TTC expected heavy traffic and longer wait times for bus schedules.
“The original sign was put up at stops but something must of happened, it was either taken down or blown away,” said Nicholoson.