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Roads: Ontario/GTA Highways Discussion

Johnny Au said:
There's also a roundabout on Spadina, another roundabout at Old Park and Elm Ridge (in Forest Hill North), and two roundabouts along Broadway between Mount Pleasant and Bayview.
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They should make Queens Park a roundabout as well. The Wellesley through lane should only be for pedestrians and cyclists. Likewise get rid of the light at the North (pedestrians can cross 1/2 block south either at the crosswalk on the east or Hoskins on the west. The Queens Park parking lot can still be accessed via the ramp on the West (but a stop sign with cyclists and pedestrians having the ROW)
 
muller877 said:
They should make Queens Park a roundabout as well. The Wellesley through lane should only be for pedestrians and cyclists. Likewise get rid of the light at the North (pedestrians can cross 1/2 block south either at the crosswalk on the east or Hoskins on the west. The Queens Park parking lot can still be accessed via the ramp on the West (but a stop sign with cyclists and pedestrians having the ROW)
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Yes, Queen's Park is one of the largest roundabouts in Ontario in this case.
 
muller877 said:
They should make Queens Park a roundabout as well. The Wellesley through lane should only be for pedestrians and cyclists. Likewise get rid of the light at the North (pedestrians can cross 1/2 block south either at the crosswalk on the east or Hoskins on the west. The Queens Park parking lot can still be accessed via the ramp on the West (but a stop sign with cyclists and pedestrians having the ROW)
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That just increases jaywalking and make it more dangerous to access the park. Traffic is pretty fast already.
 
darth_freeman said:
East of Credit to 410 under construction now: http://www.401expansion-mississauga.ca/
West of Credit to Milton in procurement: http://www.infrastructureontario.ca/Hwy-401-Expansion/

New bridges will be built over Credit as part of the 2nd project for the WB & EB collector lanes, while the existing bridge serves as the express lanes.
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Wrong highway. Was wondering about the Credit River BRidge for the QEW, not the 401. Looks like insertnamehere had the answer.
 
wopchop said:
Wrong highway. Was wondering about the Credit River BRidge for the QEW, not the 401. Looks like insertnamehere had the answer.
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Whoops. Check out this site for more info: http://www.qewcreditriver.ca/ with detailed drawings here: http://www.qewcreditriver.ca/Documents.html

Unfortunately the only lane that will be immediately added is a continuous lane EB from Mississauga Road to Hurontario. HOV will have to wait until a significant continuous stretch is done, probably mid 2020s.
 
lol BlogTo. I love how they cite a tweet with one like as proof of something. It's also funny because the interns writing BlogTo's articles are probably living downtown where they never need the 407. No one's denying it's expensive, but it's not like transportation of any kind is free: TTC and GO fares can get pricey over the course of a year. Taking GO from somewhere in Toronto to work downtown is $2,800+ (it will be more from Brampton, Sauga, Markham etc) over the notional 250 work days. A medium distance on the 407 (let's say 400 to 404, my route) is roughly $4,500 a year. And you can always manage costs with the 407: I take it 3 times a week tops and only in PM peak. As for the outrageous bills - that's a problem and I hope the affected people resolve it - but how many horror stories have we all heard about banks and insurance companies? It's not like this is inherent to the 407.
 
Panontario said:
Have you ever considered that he actually never properly closed the account, and his ex-wife been using his old transponder. Instead of going after 407, he should be going after her. Just a theory. We always quick to jump on big companies. But from my experience, customer is not always right.
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The question is why it took so long to report the bill.
 
Leo_Chan said:
The question is why it took so long to report the bill.
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Who knows? Maybe this been going for a long time. Maybe he had numerous phone calls from the collection agencies, and only now went to the media. I am not saying that he is wrong or that 407 is correct. But lets consider alternative explanations.
 
Construction Begins On Highway 427 Expansion in Vaughan
Province Keeping People Moving, Creating Jobs and Growing the Economy
May 1, 2018 9:30 A.M.
Ministry of Transportation

Ontario has begun construction on the expansion of Highway 427 through York Region, to help improve traffic flow, create jobs and support economic growth.

Kathryn McGarry, Minister of Transportation, and Steven Del Duca, MPP for Vaughan, were in Vaughan today to break ground on the Highway 427 expansion. The highway will be extended by 6.6 kilometres from Highway 7 to Major Mackenzie Drive, and widened to 8 lanes from Finch Avenue to Highway 7.

Once completed in 2021, High Occupancy Toll (HOT) lanes with electronic tolling will also be installed on Highway 427 in both directions from south of Highway 409 to north of Rutherford Road—approximately 15.5 kilometres. No existing general purpose lanes will be removed to accommodate HOT lanes.

Improving highways to keep traffic moving is part of the government's plan to support care, create opportunity and make life more affordable during this period of rapid economic change. The plan includes free prescription drugs for everyone under 25, and 65 or over, through the biggest expansion of medicare in a generation, free tuition for hundreds of thousands of students, a higher minimum wage and better working conditions, and free preschool child care from 2 ½ to kindergarten.

Quick Facts
  • Ontario is investing $616 million in the expansion of Highway 427 in Vaughan.
  • HOT lanes encourage people to carpool, help manage congestion and provide more options to travellers.
  • The average daily traffic on Highway 427 between Finch Avenue and Highway 407 ETR is expected to grow from approximately 115,000 vehicles per day to more than 137,000 by 2021.
  • In 2017-18, Ontario is committing more than $2.5 billion to repair and expand provincial highways and bridges across the province.
  • Ontario is making the largest infrastructure investment in hospitals, schools, public transit, roads and bridges in the province’s history. To learn more about what’s happening in your community, go to Ontario.ca/BuildON.
 
Hopkins123 said:
It's truly a tale of two campaigns: Wynne's almost exclusively pitching to just the City of Toronto; Ford's even going after regions the Conservatives haven't won in ages.

And as an aside, it's a national embarrassment that the TransCanada isn't a full highway right across the country like America's Interstate system. I've been hearing from the early McGuinty days that they'd upgrade the highway from Ottawa to the Manitoba border yet here we are.
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Why build a separated highway between Manitoba and Quebec when it’s cheaper and faster to go through the USA on roads that you didn’t build and don’t pay to maintain? :D
 
Leo_Chan said:
Why build a separated highway between Manitoba and Quebec when it’s cheaper and faster to go through the USA on roads that you didn’t build and don’t pay to maintain? :D
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Customs reasons often.

But anyone who has driven the 500 km from Thunder Bay to Kenora is well aware that the existing 2-lane highway is vastly under-utilized in peak season - with two parallel rail lines, I'm not sure we want to do something that would increase fossil fuel emissions over more environmentally-friendly railways and pipelines.
 
Hopkins123 said:
And as an aside, it's a national embarrassment that the TransCanada isn't a full highway right across the country like America's Interstate system. I've been hearing from the early McGuinty days that they'd upgrade the highway from Ottawa to the Manitoba border yet here we are.
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In what way is it a national embarrassment? Freeways across expanses as vast and empty as northern Ontario are extremely rare, even in the United States. I don't think you're really considering the scale of what you're proposing. A freeway across Ontario would require about 1900 km of new or expanded highway though mostly rugged, sparsely populated wilderness. As a comparison, the entire length of the 401 isn't even half that. Hell, our entire 400 series network is barely that long (1972 km to be exact). Our first freeway was built in 1931, so it's taken 87 years to build that much. So essentially you're saying the fact that we haven't built in 15 years what previously took almost a century, through our most rugged and isolated region no less, is a national embarrassment. I think it's safe to say that I disagree.

The United States has something like 8 or 9 times our population and is the most extreme builder of freeways in the world. That's not a model we want to copy. Countries that are more comparable to Canada have no freeways crossing them. There are no freeways connecting the lengths of the Nordic countries. No freeways crossing the Outback or the Amazon or Siberia. The countries those regions are part of build freeways to connect cities in the most populated areas, corridors where the capacity that they offer is actually needed. There's nothing embarrassing about that.

What tends to be done on important highways in remote regions is selective widenings, 2+1 designs, frequent passing lanes, etc. That's the model we should be following for the remote parts of the Trans Canada Highway, not trying to copy what they have in the US.
 
MisterF said:
The United States has something like 8 or 9 times our population and is the most extreme builder of freeways in the world. That's not a model we want to copy. Countries that are more comparable to Canada have no freeways crossing them. There are no freeways connecting the lengths of the Nordic countries. No freeways crossing the Outback or the Amazon or Siberia. The countries those regions are part of build freeways to connect cities in the most populated areas, corridors where the capacity that they offer is actually needed. There's nothing embarrassing about that.
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In all fairness: the US has 7+ transcontinental railroads and 4 transcontinental freeways (I 10, I 40, I 80, I 90), and all are extremely well utilized. The difference is that the US has many little small cities throughout the country that don't really warrant a railway connection. The freeways allow for flexibility in transport which are important. Also, Germany has a much higher density of freeways crossing their country and still have an amazing rail system. You can have both.

We shouldn't be against building freeways between cities, they allow for flexibility. What we should be against is building freeways within cities, where commuting should be by higher order transit. That being said, Ontario doesn't need a full-fledged control access highway when Interstates 90 and 80 are just south and allow for faster travel times to western canada. What needs to be addressed is the fact that there is only one access between the west and east of Canada in ontario and if that access fails, the country is literally divided.
 
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