‘It took us 30 minutes to go a block’: Will Ferrell on Toronto traffic

Fame may have its perks, but it won’t get you out of a traffic jam during the morning rush hour in Toronto.

Making their way to the Toronto International Film Festival on Wednesday, Will Ferrell said traffic delayed his and co-star Harper Steele’s commute by at least half an hour.

“It took us 30 minutes to go a block,” Ferrell told Etalk. “It was rough,” said Steele.

Both hail from Los Angeles though, “so we’re used to it,” Ferrell added.

The Will & Harper co-stars aren’t the first notable visitors to comment on the city’s traffic problem.

In July, Irish singer and former member of One Direction Niall Horan had to ditch his car and walk to Scotiabank Arena for his own concert because the traffic was “too bad” downtown.

“The traffic’s too bad in Toronto, so we’re walking to the venue,” Horan can be heard saying in a video posted to Instagram detailing his short trip on foot to the stadium.

About two weeks later, an Australian race car driver headed to the Ontario Honda Dealers Indy nearly missed his press conference due to traffic. He too had to ditch his vehicle.

“I actually rented a bike to get here on time and then ran the rest of the way,” Lochie Hughes told reporters.

Traffic has long been a problem for Toronto, one that the city says its working to address. On Thursday, Mayor Olivia Chow told reporters that the new congestion management plan has been successful so far in reducing gridlock, pointing to improving travel times for drivers and transit riders in some of the city’s most congested areas.

“We do know that the economic impact of congestion – $11 billion a year – is severe, which is why we’ve been working relentlessly and tirelessly to improve the traffic and find ways to get people moving faster,” Chow said at the news conference, held at the busy intersection of Front Street and Spadina Avenue.

Trumpeting faster recent travel times on Spadina Avenue, the Gardiner Expressway and King Street – all routes which have sparked the ire of transit riders and motorists recently – Chow said the city’s efforts to manage congestion “are working.”