Roads: Highway 401 Widening - Highway 8 to Highway 410 (MTO, U/C, Planned)

[jamincan]

It appears that the eastbound express lanes between James Snow and the 407 will be opening soon. Painting is done through the split east. The point where they merge together again still needs to be adjusted and repainted, but I expect that won't happen until the express lanes are actually opened.

 

[crs1026]

Simply because it's the leftmost lane. People assume it is going to be the fastest / passing lane because of this.

I agree with the above statements however. Having a 2+1 setup in the express where trucks can use both general lanes is going to aggravate a lot of people- not just the speed demons / aggressive drivers. The express should have been 3+1 with the leftmost general lane restricted to trucks. If you're saying that's too many lanes for what's needed here, then perhaps they could have stripped a collector lane (just 2) for the extra express lane. Sure that may make for tight collector traffic but the highway may probably flow better.

...But I am not an expert in this field. However I am curious if the experts even approve of the finalized 2+1 HOV design for the express. I think this may have been simply done for political reasons as the former Liberal government wanted all new widening projects to include HOV lanes. A 3+1 HOV express was probably too expensive for them and didn't fit under existing structures (the support columns), and HOVs don't really make sense in the collectors. This was the only way to do it unless you replaced all the overpasses that were already designed in mind for collector-express. That would have added cost, complexity and construction time to the project, not to mention wasted infrastructure as these overpasses still have a lot of lifespan left.

There is "entitlement" all over the place. HOV drivers feel special, so they feel they can drive faster than the other lanes (the HTA still applies, so 130 in the HOV lane ought to be the same offense as 130 in any other lane. But in practice, OPP will ignore HOV speed so long as drivers keep their spacing and don't weave. HOV side is a riskier place for a traffic stop, anyways.)

Truckers feel entitled to jockey for an extra 3 or 4 km/h over a slower truck, which is the problem..... if they use both lanes you have the hazard of trucks changing lanes alongside or in front of overtaking autos, and once in the left lane cars may bunch up behind them, leading to impatience and further bad judgement. (eg cars then trying to pass on the right, or enter the HOV lanes in the wrong places)

Maybe they could figure out a sprayer that puts a mist of tranquilisers over the road so that drivers relax and lose the impatience and aggressiveness. ;-)

- Paul

 

[Coruscanti Cognoscente]

I am curious how this 2+1 setup will work. But I’m mostly in the collectors in this area because my exit is Mavis. But I do see the potential for problems due to all the trucks.

A big problem is the weaving at the Mavis westbound exit. You have the right lane which exits onto Mavis and people realize at the last minute and have to shift over to the left. At the same time you have all the people from the express changing over multiple lanes to the right to exit at Mavis. I have seen many close calls here including from trucks. At the very least they should have a big arrow painted on the right most lane so they they know the lane is exiting (like 410 north at Bovaird or 401 east at Yonge). Not sure how much that’ll help though with this poorly thought out section.

 

[Haljackey]

I am curious how this 2+1 setup will work. But I’m mostly in the collectors in this area because my exit is Mavis. But I do see the potential for problems due to all the trucks.

A big problem is the weaving at the Mavis westbound exit. You have the right lane which exits onto Mavis and people realize at the last minute and have to shift over to the left. At the same time you have all the people from the express changing over multiple lanes to the right to exit at Mavis. I have seen many close calls here including from trucks. At the very least they should have a big arrow painted on the right most lane so they they know the lane is exiting (like 410 north at Bovaird or 401 east at Yonge). Not sure how much that’ll help though with this poorly thought out section.

Hmm yes that seems like a short amount of runway. On WB 401 taking the transfer built between Hurontario and Mavis means you gotta get over like 4 lanes in a small stretch. That seems difficult to do in heavy traffic. You could take the transfer way back at Pearson instead to give yourself a longer distance to get over.

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Maybe they could figure out a sprayer that puts a mist of tranquilisers over the road so that drivers relax and lose the impatience and aggressiveness. ;-)

Well in other areas of the world they have small markers in the buffer zones, or even a concrete slab similar to island medians for larger roads

 

[mtomo]

I am curious how this 2+1 setup will work. But I’m mostly in the collectors in this area because my exit is Mavis. But I do see the potential for problems due to all the trucks.

A big problem is the weaving at the Mavis westbound exit. You have the right lane which exits onto Mavis and people realize at the last minute and have to shift over to the left. At the same time you have all the people from the express changing over multiple lanes to the right to exit at Mavis. I have seen many close calls here including from trucks. At the very least they should have a big arrow painted on the right most lane so they they know the lane is exiting (like 410 north at Bovaird or 401 east at Yonge). Not sure how much that’ll help though with this poorly thought out section.

As I said earlier, make the Hurontario exit from the express "Hurontario and Mavis"

Also, the 401 westbound express lanes from Creditview to Winston Churchill are open as of yesterday

 

[Haljackey]

As I said earlier, make the Hurontario exit from the express "Hurontario and Mavis"

There is a express exit on 401 WB that goes to Hurontario only. It does not go to Mavis.

You could 'redneck' in a transfer here but it would be quite messy

Google Maps

Find local businesses, view maps and get driving directions in Google Maps.

www.google.com

The grade/slope of the Hurontario exit is also higher up from the collectors so you would need to rework this whole 4 lane offramp a bit to level things out a bit as well.

 

[Undead]

Hmm yes that seems like a short amount of runway. On WB 401 taking the transfer built between Hurontario and Mavis means you gotta get over like 4 lanes in a small stretch. That seems difficult to do in heavy traffic. You could take the transfer way back at Pearson instead to give yourself a longer distance to get over.

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Well in other areas of the world they have small markers in the buffer zones, or even a concrete slab similar to island medians for larger roads

View attachment 439101

View attachment 439093

I bet Toronto mad lads would drive over that.

 

[Haljackey]

I bet Toronto mad lads would drive over that.

GTA V vibes

(Go 12.5 mins in)

 

[timio]

Hmm yes that seems like a short amount of runway. On WB 401 taking the transfer built between Hurontario and Mavis means you gotta get over like 4 lanes in a small stretch. That seems difficult to do in heavy traffic. You could take the transfer way back at Pearson instead to give yourself a longer distance to get over.

Not much different than EB at Leslie. Better to move over at Yorkdale than attempt to wait until Bayview.

 

[drum118]

As I said earlier, make the Hurontario exit from the express "Hurontario and Mavis"

Also, the 401 westbound express lanes from Creditview to Winston Churchill are open as of yesterday

Not surprise that the WB express lanes are open as they were ready when I shot the area a few days ago

Will not get a chance to use the new WB express lanes tomorrow as there is no collector to express flip where I will be getting on. It will be fun to see how the narrowing works for traffic at Winston Churchill.

 

[Coruscanti Cognoscente]

Not much different than EB at Leslie. Better to move over at Yorkdale than attempt to wait until Bayview.

I just don't understand why they'd build something so sub-par. I always exit at the 410/Dixie exit anyway (and Google Maps even recommends it) but a lot of people follow the signs that say Mavis and do wait until the last minute to switch over. You can guarantee there'll be an accident at some point.

Although why Hurontario has a direct exit from Express and it's not shared with Mavis is anyone's guess.

 

[drum118]

Nov 15
Based on my first trip westbound on the new Express lanes, trucks will be an issue once they know it now open. It only open To James Snow as the CN Halton Sub overpass is not finish.

No access to Winston Churchill from the express lanes, west of the Mavis and Mississauga transfer lanes.

The eastbound express should be open in Dec with parts of it open before the end of the month. Crews work on the barrier wall between the 2 express lanes with a number of location missing. More on this in my next posting.

The focuses was doing its thing and why I don't like doing moves with the DSLR, but have no choice until the replacement for the Sony camara show which could be 2023.

Full length

Fast

 

[drum118]

Nov 15
It took me twice the time to go eastbound in the collators lanes a few hours after my westbound trip on the new express lanes. The westbound lanes were dealing with an accident at this time and backup.

The real slow down was just before Winston Churchill to the east of Mississauga Rd and about the same when I saw it going westbound. Weather wasn't helping the slow going.

As you can see, a lot of work to be done for the eastbound express lanes.

I see the DSRL will only allow 5 gig per video with this one being splice together.

Full 22 minutes

Fast 6 minutes

 

[Transportfan]

I'm surprised to see attraction and services signs here. I thought MTO policy was not to have them in core-express system areas.

Tip: Drum, you should record zoomed out to wide, and set to manual focus to stay in focus in wet snow.

 

[drum118]

I'm surprised to see attraction and services signs here. I thought MTO policy was not to have them in core-express system areas.

Tip: Drum, you should record zoomed out to wide, and set to manual focus to stay in focus in wet snow.

Thanks for the tip. I was zoom out some what as I was trying to not catch my car. I thought about using manual, but wasn't sure what the effect would been since I have not done videos in the past used an DSLR for various reason.

As for the signs, I noticed a number that are new to an HOV and lost as to why until I see them in action.