Roads: Gardiner Expressway

[Steve X]

Honestly I think the traffic planners have ZERO connection to reality, when the eastern ramp existed look how long it took for traffic to turn left onto carlaw? The genius planners say all that traffic plus the dvp traffic who would have to turn again and go onto an on ramp would take less than 4 mins? Just like closing 3 out of 4 lanes on lakeshore was “only” supposed to add 8 mins and added 3-4 hours to people’s trips

The trick was to spot the length of the queue when coming down the ramp. Make a lane change to the right and a quick manoeuvre onto Logan if clear and use Commissioners to get on Carlaw.

Then to avoid lengthy delays on Carlaw cause everyone is making a left to Eastern those days, you either use the lane way right after Lakeshore or make a left onto Lakeshore and use Morse St. Getting onto Queen however could be quite a challenge in rush hour with all those traffic on Eastern.

Anyways, the ramp is gone and so is all the highway traffic onto Carlaw. Phew

The highway originally ended at Leslie with a loop to northbound Leslie avoiding the left turn. Which we all know became a parking lot for….. streetcars.
That Carlaw ramp is suppose to be temporary till the tear more of the Gardiner apart.

I do wish they built a temporary ramp from the DVP to eastbound Eastern. It would relief traffic from the overused Jarvis ramp.

 

[picard102]

What makes Torontonians so much more special than Windsorites?

Toronto contributes more than Windsor to the province and country as a whole.

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

This is great news for Toronto and once again shows that, despite Torontonians bitching about Ford, he is the best Premier the city has ever had.

Conversely, this upload will be viewed with distain from other 13 million Ontarians that don't live in Toronto. Toronto is in it's financial mess mostly due to it's own bad tax policy by having the lowest property taxes in the province. They refuse to tax themselves appropriately and then when they can't pay their bills they go crying to Queen's Park to bail them out.

What about places like Windsor that had the EC Roy Expressway uploaded to them by the province? Are they too going to get a similar break from QP? Don't count on it. What makes Torontonians so much more special than Windsorites? Does Windsor not have bills to pay and the highway to maintain?

This is what pisses Ontarians off about Toronto and how QP seems to consider it's needs somehow more important than all the other municipalities in the province. Same goes for transit. Toronto and the GTAH get their LRT lines built for free while Ottawa & Kitchener have to put up a good chunk of their own money as does London with it's BRT.

I don't know, you can tell me how much the province and the feds dropped for the battery plants at Windsor and London.

AoD

 

[duty free]

This is great news for Toronto and once again shows that, despite Torontonians bitching about Ford, he is the best Premier the city has ever had.

Conversely, this upload will be viewed with distain from other 13 million Ontarians that don't live in Toronto. Toronto is in it's financial mess mostly due to it's own bad tax policy by having the lowest property taxes in the province. They refuse to tax themselves appropriately and then when they can't pay their bills they go crying to Queen's Park to bail them out.

What about places like Windsor that had the EC Roy Expressway uploaded to them by the province? Are they too going to get a similar break from QP? Don't count on it. What makes Torontonians so much more special than Windsorites? Does Windsor not have bills to pay and the highway to maintain?

This is what pisses Ontarians off about Toronto and how QP seems to consider it's needs somehow more important than all the other municipalities in the province. Same goes for transit. Toronto and the GTAH get their LRT lines built for free while Ottawa & Kitchener have to put up a good chunk of their own money as does London with it's BRT.

are you serious? tell Ontarians that Toronto is over 20% of Canada's economy.

what's the difference between Toronto and Windsor? Windsor is irrelevant. that's the difference. nobody goes to Windsor unless it's to leave Canada.

 

[lenaitch]

In terms of policing, etc - I imagine there will be transition provisions where the City continues to provide services for a certian amount of time.

No doubt. I will just be interested in seeing how long that transition period is. The OPP struggles to keep recruiting up with natural attrition.

On the other side of the deck, watch for the discussions at council or the policing services board when TPS asks for more bodies and they face the response of 'what about the positions that were freed-up'.

It can't be cheap to plow, police, and perform general maintenance on the highways.

It is expensive. It's even more expensive when costs can't be rolled into or at least mitigated by the general policing, ploughing, etc. costs of the surrounding community.

 

[felix123]

@Northern Light helpfully pointed out that the Province won't be widening them - so that eliminates that option. I really don't think an HOV lane on the DVP would be the worst thing, however, especially since one already partially exists. Potentially increase occupancy levels to 3+ or bus only, even.

in terms of interchange modernization, I'm thinking about interchanges like Eglinton and particularly Lawrence, which will be the last full cloverleaf interchange in the province in a few years one the last few on the 401 are replaced. The 401 interchange desperately needs some tweaking as well.

E.C. Row is still primarily used by traffic within Essex County - it should be a County road, but I'm not so sure about the merits of it being a provincial facility.

The Linc and RHVP in Hamilton are absolutely provincial facilities however and should really be uploaded.

Has anyone seen any enforcement of the existing 2+ HOV lanes in the past few years? I have not, and regularly see lots of SOBs - I mean SOVs - in that lane when I drive on the 403.

 

[Admiral Beez]

Has anyone seen any enforcement of the existing 2+ HOV lanes in the past few years? I have not, and regularly see lots of SOBs - I mean SOVs - in that lane when I drive on the 403.

Except for speeding I don't think I've seen TPS or OPP enforce any vehicular laws whatsoever.

 

[innsertnamehere]

 

[innsertnamehere]

Has anyone seen any enforcement of the existing 2+ HOV lanes in the past few years? I have not, and regularly see lots of SOBs - I mean SOVs - in that lane when I drive on the 403.

there are exceptions for vehicles who pay for a permit (https://www.ontario.ca/page/high-occupancy-toll-hot-lanes) and for EV vehicles - which likely explains a lot of those SOV you see in the HOVs. Personally I see semi-regular HOV enforcement on the 403 and QEW.

 

[allengeorge]

there are exceptions for vehicles who pay for a permit (https://www.ontario.ca/page/high-occupancy-toll-hot-lanes) and for EV vehicles - which likely explains a lot of those SOV you see in the HOVs. Personally I see semi-regular HOV enforcement on the 403 and QEW.

I’m with @felix123. Anecdotally, driven the 403 and seen quite a few scofflaws.

 

[turbanplanner]

It would be great to have bus lanes on the Gardiner/DVP to help with GO buses getting into/out of DT.

Wouldn't really help with the exits though

 

[turbanplanner]

This is great news for Toronto and once again shows that, despite Torontonians bitching about Ford, he is the best Premier the city has ever had.

Conversely, this upload will be viewed with distain from other 13 million Ontarians that don't live in Toronto. Toronto is in it's financial mess mostly due to it's own bad tax policy by having the lowest property taxes in the province. They refuse to tax themselves appropriately and then when they can't pay their bills they go crying to Queen's Park to bail them out.

What about places like Windsor that had the EC Roy Expressway uploaded to them by the province? Are they too going to get a similar break from QP? Don't count on it. What makes Torontonians so much more special than Windsorites? Does Windsor not have bills to pay and the highway to maintain?

This is what pisses Ontarians off about Toronto and how QP seems to consider it's needs somehow more important than all the other municipalities in the province. Same goes for transit. Toronto and the GTAH get their LRT lines built for free while Ottawa & Kitchener have to put up a good chunk of their own money as does London with it's BRT.

The taxes are pretty appropriate when you include the garbage fee and LTT.

 

[JasonParis]

d the EC Roy Expressway uploaded to them by the province? Are they too going to get a similar break from QP? Don't count on it. What makes Torontonians so much more special than Windsorites? Does Windsor not have bills to pay and the highway to maintain?

These two Toronto municipal expressways are unique in the sense that almost half of their users aren't even from the municipality. So they really always should have been provincial (and a large chunk was until Mike Harris). The municipal highways in Ottawa, Hamilton, and Windsor are probably well north of 75% in terms of users coming from their own jurisdiction (although, I don't have the numbers).

 

[innsertnamehere]

These two Toronto municipal expressways are unique in the sense that almost half of their users aren't even from the municipality. So they really always should have been provincial (and a large chunk was until Mike Harris). The municipal highways in Ottawa, Hamilton, and Windsor are probably well north of 75% in terms of users coming from their own jurisdiction (although, I don't have the numbers).

I would agree for Ottawa and Windsor, but am more doubtful of Hamilton. Hamilton’s expressway connects SW Ontario to Niagara - my bet is the “outside of municipality” percentage is similar, and the “trips without destinations or starting points in the municipality” number is actually much higher than the DVP and Gardiner, which at the very least would have most trips ending in Toronto even if they didn’t begin there. Hamilton’s expressways serve lots of trips which go right through without stopping.

 

[just east of the creek]

These two Toronto municipal expressways are unique in the sense that almost half of their users aren't even from the municipality. So they really always should have been provincial (and a large chunk was until Mike Harris). The municipal highways in Ottawa, Hamilton, and Windsor are probably well north of 75% in terms of users coming from their own jurisdiction (although, I don't have the numbers).

With due respect in regards to your opinion re municipal highways around Hamilton, I think you are incorrect. The flows of traffic (often stop and go traffic) up and down the peninsula, along the 403 from Burlington to Branford, would suggest otherwise. I suspect you are much closer in your observations re Windsor and Ottawa.