The Globe and Mail today published an article titled, Fed up with traffic, contractors refuse to work in Vancouver, which stated:
[Vancouver] homeowners are facing the high cost of renovation and maintenance as tradespeople either opt out of working in the city entirely, or charge extra for having to go there.
A big reason for the premium cost of hiring the trades is the city’s traffic, contractors say. Vancouver traffic is so congested, and so time-consuming, it makes working there a losing proposition.
Over 200(?) high-rise condo/office towers have been built within a two-kilometre radius of the CN Tower in the past 17 years. Many more high-rise condos have been built throughout the city. In addition to the vehicle congestion, this non-stop construction causes seemingly endless road restrictions.
Statistics Canada reported that the population of Toronto from 2011 to 2016 grew by an average of about 448 people per week and that is considered slow. The Toronto population is expected to grow by about 50% over the next twenty-three years. That’s over 1,000 people per week.
Congestion and No Parking
A one-way 24-km trip into Toronto’s downtown or midtown area takes me 50 to 90 minutes depending on the time of day. And I live inside city limits.
Who doesn’t love $40 parking? Some downtown parking lots now charge per 15-minutes ($4.00 to $5.00 per 15 minutes of parking).
It’s not just vehicle congestion and streets blocked by construction. Moving around on foot with lots of photo equipment is also a pain. Have you tried to go through a revolving door with a large rolling cart or nine-foot rolls of background paper?
Did you know that some multi-level parking garages have tiny elevators which barely hold a handful of people? This means your roller cart won’t fit. So you have to lug your gear around and around every level of the parking complex to get to street-level.
Many office buildings don’t have their own parking garage so you have to park several blocks away. It’s always an adventure transporting your gear along a crowded downtown sidewalk, especially in the rain or snow.
Some buildings have service elevators (thank you very much) and some don’t. Carrying nine-foot rolls of paper up eight flights of stairs can be good exercise.
Do photographers turn down jobs to avoid traffic congestion?
I’ve turned down small commercial jobs and some corporate events in Toronto’s downtown over the past three years simply because it wasn’t worth the time and trouble of driving and parking downtown. I haven’t turned down any jobs outside of Toronto.
As much as possible, I try to schedule jobs to avoid rush-hour driving. The rush “hour” in Toronto is about 3-1/2 hours each morning and afternoon.
A quick check with three other photographers, two who live in the city and one who lives 80 km away, showed that they, too, have turned down small jobs because of not wanting to drive downtown.
I’ve found two other photographers who have a $100 to $200 surcharge for any customers in the downtown area of Toronto.
For photographers who work in or near a large city, do you turn down small jobs simply to avoid traffic congestion?
