TORONTO, Ont. — According to David Bradley, president of the Ontario Trucking Association (OTA), gridlock is costing all Canadians billions of dollars a year.

“An efficient and viable transportation system is integral to the social, economic and environmental health of all Ontario communities,” he says. “(Gridlock) is choking our economy, wasting fuel, adding to smog, and generally making people’s lives miserable.”

In an attempt to find consensus on practical solutions to the problem, the OTA has released a discussion paper during a speech yesterday morning at the Canadian Urban Institute Conference.

The OTA paper, entitled Relieving Traffic Congestion, tries to include the broad range of possible solutions and asks a number of questions: Who should be responsible for transportation planning?; How will we pay for expansion of the system’s capacity?; How can we maintain the free flow of traffic?; How can we support the municipal road system?; How do we reduce demand by expanding mass transportation systems?; What else can we do to reduce demand?; and, What can we do to reduce congestion due to truck traffic?