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Roads: Gardiner Expressway

maybe a bit of hyperbole there. Regardless, projects like the 400 widening or 401 widening to Kitchener are in the billions, and the environmental assessments completely threw off GO improvements in parallel corridors as negligible.
 
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This article will be ignored by the suburban councillors and the mayor.

Kansas City Will Take a Serious Look at Removing Downtown Highway

From link.

Rochester just wrapped up the conversion of part of its Inner Loop highway into a surface street, another highway removal is underway in New Haven, and freeway teardowns are in play in many other American cities.

Now you can add Kansas City to the list of places getting serious about removing a grade-separated highway to save money, improve walkability, and open up downtown land for development.

Eric Bunch at BikeWalkKC says the regional planning agency for the two Kansas Cities (Missouri and Kansas) is studying the removal of a section of I-70:

The study will propose several potential alternatives for the future of the Buck O’Neil (formerly the Broadway Bridge), the north leg of the Downtown KCMO freeway loop, and the elevated I-70 lanes into Downtown KCK.

Consultants for the project will likely evaluate the feasibility of tearing down the I-70 lanes between Columbus Park (KCMO) and Downtown KCK, setting Kansas City up to join the growing national trend of urban freeway removal.

Freeways once brought connectivity and convenient shipment of goods into urban centers and they made travel by car easier. But they also brought poor air quality noise pollution to densely populated areas. But even more, they proved to be extremely destructive to the communities they pass through, scarring historic neighborhoods and cutting off connectivity for residents.

If the complete removal of this section of I-70 proves to be feasible, the opportunities for catalytic, legacy projects abound.

  • Improved Walkability: The street grid between Downtown Columbus Park and River Market could be restored.
  • Development Potential: The trench that carries the north loop lanes contains hundreds of acres of prime downtown real estate that could be redeveloped into pedestrian/bike friendly uses.
  • Catalytic Trail Project: Imagine reusing the elevated lanes between the River Market and Downtown KCK as an elevated bicycle and pedestrian trail. Look at the impact of The Big Four Bridge in Louisville, KY.
More recommended reading: Bike Portland reports that local officials are using emergency measures to curb speeding on a dangerous road. And Daniel Kay Hertz points out that, contrary to popular perception, a lot of kids live in Chicago.
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Screen-Shot-2017-02-17-at-9.34.37-AM.png

The days might be numbered for this section of downtown highway in Kansas City. Image: Urban Land Institute Kansas City

Screen-Shot-2017-02-17-at-9.35.51-AM.png

Without the highway, the street grid can be stitched back together. Image: Urban Land Institute Kansas City
 
I'm not car centric - however that does not compare to Toronto at all. There is another freeway 1km south of there, and eithier end of that stretch is still connected to another freeway.
 
W. K. Lis said:
This article will be ignored by the suburban councillors and the mayor.

Kansas City Will Take a Serious Look at Removing Downtown Highway

From link.


Without the highway, the street grid can be stitched back together. Image: Urban Land Institute Kansas City
Click to expand...

For those that have not been to KC. The downtown has freeways on 4 sides. Basically boxes in a 20x10 block area. If you remove 1 side of the box you just have to travel another 2 miles to get around this closure (all on freeways).

In Toronto the equivalent would be removing the 409 and everyone has to go via the 427/401 as a diversion.

And land is cheap so I'm guessing KC will increase capacity of the other freeways.

So RIGHTFULLY ignored in Toronto.
 
muller877 said:
For those that have not been to KC. The downtown has freeways on 4 sides. Basically boxes in a 20x10 block area. If you remove 1 side of the box you just have to travel another 2 miles to get around this closure (all on freeways).

In Toronto the equivalent would be removing the 409 and everyone has to go via the 427/401 as a diversion.

And land is cheap so I'm guessing KC will increase capacity of the other freeways.

So RIGHTFULLY ignored in Toronto.
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The Gardiner east of Jarvis Street is used by about 56000 cars a day (see https://www1.toronto.ca/City Of Tor...Road safety/Files/pdf/24hourvolumemap2013.pdf). This is about the same as the 504 King streetcar. I think it is very rare to demolish highways that busy and would cause severe traffic problems if implemented. If anyone can find the traffic volumes of the section of Gardiner east of DVP that was torn down in 2001 that would be helpful. As far as I know the traffic volumes were far lower on that section.

Almost all of the examples of highway demolition I can think of are highways that are far less busy than the Gardiner (such as highways in Niagara Falls NY and Rochester NY), highways that collapsed and were never replaced (San Francisco CA) or highways that were replaced with tunnels (Boston MA and Seattle WA). The only busy highway I can think of that was demolished is one in Seoul, South Korea though it probably helps that there are many other freeways in Seoul and far more subway lines.

Even closing the Voie Pompidou in Paris (not a highway, but a busy road that runs along the Seine) has been very controversial and led to a major increase in traffic congestion all over the city.
 
TrickyRicky said:
Don't worry. The Gardiner hybrid is safe. Patrick Brown will divert resources by cancelling all lrt lines and divert the funds to this project.
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Nonsense. Presumably he can add so he's going to find the limitations as severe as the current government absent more taxes. He's in a very difficult spot as the philosophical bent of the party will give him indigestion over taxes/revenues. Yet cancelling anything will make the lives of 905 residents even more hellish. 401 at Milton, anyone?
 
innsertnamehere said:
If you think MTO experts are gunna recommend removal your losing it. MTO regularly dismisses transit investment as "non feasible" as the costs would be $150 million, then turns around and recommends a $2 billion highway expansion instead. MTO sure as hell isnt going to rip down a freeway for "city building iniatives" or "the public realm". They care exclusively about vehicle LOS, which would be seriously harmed by demolition.
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What is LOS above?
 
level of service, or how congested it is. Engineers use a letter grade to determine the level of congestion / service, and time widening projects around when it starts to reach a "failing" grade. DVP and Gardiner have long been far above the recommended LOS, especially the DVP.

also the province is widening the 401 to milton by extending the collector express lanes in the next few years.
 
Uploading the Gardiner and DVP to the province would have many benefits:
  • An end to closures of the Gardiner and DVP for weekend maintenance (the province manages to avoid doing this with any provincial expressway although lanes and ramps are frequently closed at night)
  • An end to closures of the Gardiner and DVP for events
  • Better maintenance of the Gardiner and DVP
  • Finally widening the DVP and the DVP/401/404 interchange
Uploading Lake Shore between Humber River and DVP would also be a very good idea for similar reasons, because it is essentially a highway with traffic lights.
 
andrewpmk said:
Uploading the Gardiner and DVP to the province would have many benefits:
  • An end to closures of the Gardiner and DVP for weekend maintenance (the province manages to avoid doing this with any provincial expressway although lanes and ramps are frequently closed at night)
  • An end to closures of the Gardiner and DVP for events
  • Better maintenance of the Gardiner and DVP
  • Finally widening the DVP and the DVP/401/404 interchange
Uploading Lake Shore between Humber River and DVP would also be a very good idea for similar reasons, because it is essentially a highway with traffic lights.
Click to expand...

The events closures could still happen, if they go to province and beg nicely. Because of the lack of breakdown lanes or shoulders on the Gardiner and/or Don Valley, weekend closures may still be needed (unless they can somehow glue on shoulders). Any widening depends upon who owns the land and if space is available. Uploading Lake Shore Blvd. will not be considered, because it is a local regional road.
 
The province would definitely say HELL NO and they city hall to increase their property taxes. They are not interested in having the OPP patrol more roadways either.
 
W. K. Lis said:
Three examples of why Toronto should designate them as "regional" roads with "regional road numbers": 2, 5, 11, etc.
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No they shouldn't. The point of regional roads in the 905 is to distinguish which roads are the responsibility of the individual municipalities and which roads are the responsibility of the regional municipality. Yonge Street, for example, is RR 1 north of Steeles. That's not meant to make Yonge Street easier to identify. It's just done to clarify that York Region is responsible for operating and maintaining the road, rather than seven different cities, towns and townships each operating a little segment of it.

That system isn't really relevant in Toronto. Even pre-amalgamation, Metro wasn't responsible for any local roads. The only roads they were responsible were the DVP, Gardiner, Black Creek Drive and Allen Road.
 
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