Weekend traffic was so bad that the Toronto Marathon was faster than a highway

A video circulating on social media shows the scene on Sunday facing east over the Gardiner Expressway from a condo just east of Spadina and Bremner, showing westbound traffic moving at a crawl as runners travel slightly faster along Lake Shore Boulevard below.

Many took to the comments section to voice their frustration about gridlock in the city, and the planning behind large-scale events that require road closures.

"The whole downtown was one big road block worst due to marathon… no planning, many streets blocked," said one commenter, adding "Toronto is a joke."

Others argued that a Sunday morning is pretty much the best time to plan such an event, like one who wrote, "it's done on a Sunday, which has the lightest traffic of any day of the week. That's all you really need."

Another argued that "cars get prioritised the other 364 days a year, but still that's not enough for people," adding, "there will always be drivers whining, so we should stop listening to them and taking them seriously."

One reply noted that "they plan the marathon a year in advance and start advertising it months in advance. People had months to plan around the marathon."

Still, the vast majority of comments were from locals seemingly caught off-guard by the event, and voicing frustrations at the City for the location and timing of the marathon.

"The City officials in Toronto have the common sense of a gnat," wrote one commenter.

"There is brutal traffic already, factor in bike lanes etc and they allow this type of stuff to close streets and highways," they continued, adding, "talk about the pollution, hundreds of idling cars. Is there nowhere else to hold a race?"