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Roads: Ontario/GTA Highways Discussion

Thinking about the Honda Indy Lake Shore closure that begins tonight. Is there any way that Lake Shore Boulevard could be shifted south a bit around Exhibition Place? A new Lake Shore would be built about 20m south of the current one in the Ontario Place parking lot. Then, the current alignment of Lake Shore (north of the new Lake Shore) would become a racetrack. That way, it would be possible to have Honda Indy without closing Lake Shore, and possibly other events as well. This would be expensive, but it is probably possible.
 
Haljackey said:
Oh absolutely, if you have the money to build it and drivers have the patience to sit through years of construction and retrofits to configure the thing. Plus NIMBYs that will complain that the 4 level high monster would be urban blight.

Could look something like this one in Houston, I-10 being the 401:
https://www.google.ca/maps/@29.784512,-95.5632596,1045m/data=!3m1!1e3
Click to expand...

Actually if you go a bit further east down the I-10 there is an even more complex interchange with the I-610 as there are ramps from the middle HOV lanes as well as the normal outer lane off ramps. This is what the 404/DVP/401 interchange could be if you think about it. Ramps from/to 401 Express and Collector lanes, and ramps for normal and HOV lanes on the 404/DVP. And ideally each would join the merging highway more or less as their own on ramps, rather than merging with (and the ensuing reduction in lane capacity) other ramps.
Examples:
- Southbound 404 regular to Westbound 401 Express
- Southbound 404 regular to Westbound 401 Collector
- Southbound 404 HOV to Westbound 401 Express
- Southbound 404 HOV to Westbound 401 Collector
and on and on...
A sim city players dream... LOL
 
Woodbridge_Heights said:
A sim city players dream... LOL
Click to expand...
More like Cities : Skylines. SimCity doesn't (didn't) have enough functionality to make this kind of interchange (and the graphics are bad).

Speaking of city building games, I made this copy of the interchange a while back in Cities : Skylines. I might make one that would be my "ideal interchange".

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Has any serious consideration ever gone into renaming Ontario's 400-series highways?

I think politically it would probably be unpopular (at least at first), but the current system doesn't really make sense either. I'm thinking a system of odd numbers for north-south corridors and even for east-west would be the most sensical. Starting at 1 and through to 17 (currently). Maybe put an "ON" in front of each one too. So for instance, the 401 could be the ON2.

It would also be nice to concurrently accentuate their *real* names too (i.e. Macdonald-Cartier Freeway, etc.)
 
I don't believe the 401 is called the Macdonald-Cartier freeway anymore actually. The signs have been removed as they wear out.
 
Personally I'd much prefer a naming convention where for example E-W highways were given odd numbers and N-S highways given even numbers, however that goes against Ontario's historically practice of naming a highway after a nearby, lower, highway that the route was intended to replace/relieve. Think 410 and hwy 10, 427 and hwy 27. I don't really care either way for giving them actual names, I think the secondary naming such as Macdonald Cartier hwy for the 401 works.
 
Woodbridge_Heights said:
A sim city players dream... LOL
Click to expand...

Leo_Chan said:
More like Cities : Skylines. SimCity doesn't (didn't) have enough functionality to make this kind of interchange (and the graphics are bad).
Click to expand...

Challenge accepted. I made the 401-400 a while ago:

23269149944_398dc3de30_o.jpg


Full size https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/779/23269149944_398dc3de30_o.jpg

innsertnamehere said:
I don't believe the 401 is called the Macdonald-Cartier freeway anymore actually. The signs have been removed as they wear out.
Click to expand...

It's still called that officially, just not signed anymore due to cost
 
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Woodbridge_Heights said:
Personally I'd much prefer a naming convention where for example E-W highways were given odd numbers and N-S highways given even numbers, however that goes against Ontario's historically practice of naming a highway after a nearby, lower, highway that the route was intended to replace/relieve. Think 410 and hwy 10, 427 and hwy 27. I don't really care either way for giving them actual names, I think the secondary naming such as Macdonald Cartier hwy for the 401 works.
Click to expand...
I think MTO should just renumber all the conventional highways too. Everything is a mess after the PC and that guy... Mike Harris left with decommissioning all the highways.

I don't know what's the point of having the 400 series designation. We don't particularly have a lot of highways. It's confusing when Highway 410 becomes 10 and 417 becomes 17. Why not just number the entire 410 has highway 10? Most provinces would have done that.
 
Steve X said:
I think MTO should just renumber all the conventional highways too. Everything is a mess after the PC and that guy... Mike Harris left with decommissioning all the highways.

I don't know what's the point of having the 400 series designation. We don't particularly have a lot of highways. It's confusing when Highway 410 becomes 10 and 417 becomes 17. Why not just number the entire 410 has highway 10? Most provinces would have done that.
Click to expand...

And work with the municipalities to number the important through roads - especially those the province downloaded, but including some important long-distance roads that were never highways - like Airport Road, Elora Road, Brock Road, and Simcoe Street. Could have different shields for roads owned by the province and those owned by the municipalities, as long as the numbers are consistent.

County/regional road numbers don't mean very much these days in large parts of Southern Ontario.

Quebec actually has many of its Autoroutes sync with its primary routes - Autoroute 5 parallels Route 105, for example; same with Autoroute 85/Route 185 - A-85 is slowly replacing Route 185.
 
Goodwood road is another good one that is arguably a provincially important road that was never a provincial highway. It is literally a direct extension of 7A.

which road is brock road? the one in Pickering? That is primarily a Uxbridge-Pickering route, not really sure if its "provincial" in nature.

Then you have highways like highway 48 which really shouldn't be under provincial control south of Ravenshoe Road.. but still is. The province is long overdue for a "rationalization" of its highway network if you ask me. Some downloads, and a bunch of uploads form municipalities are in order.
 
JasonParis said:
Has any serious consideration ever gone into renaming Ontario's 400-series highways?

I think politically it would probably be unpopular (at least at first), but the current system doesn't really make sense either. I'm thinking a system of odd numbers for north-south corridors and even for east-west would be the most sensical. Starting at 1 and through to 17 (currently). Maybe put an "ON" in front of each one too. So for instance, the 401 could be the ON2.

It would also be nice to concurrently accentuate their *real* names too (i.e. MacDonald-Cartier Freeway, etc.)
Click to expand...


The ON2 idea would be a good idea--also apply it to Autoroutes 20 and 85 and NS/TCH 104 (NB is 2 already) too and restore the historic Hwy. 2 between Windsor and Halifax along the continuous freeway once 85 is completed. Also, extend the Macdonald-Cartier Freeway name along it as well. Macdonald and Cartier were the main Fathers of Confederation, and the freeway travels through all four of the original provinces; thus there's nothing Ontario-specific about that name.
 
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