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Roads: Ontario/GTA Highways Discussion

And in 5 years you could:

  1. Widen DVP to 10 lanes SB to Lawrence
  2. Widen DVP to 8 lanes SB to Eglinton
And so forth. Not going to solve anything and will not happen.
 
Edward Skira said:
And in 5 years you could:

  1. Widen DVP to 10 lanes SB to Lawrence
  2. Widen DVP to 8 lanes SB to Eglinton
And so forth. Not going to solve anything and will not happen.
Click to expand...
Wow another snarky anti-Highway widening post, what a surprise.

The province is adding many lane-kms of highway each year to keep up with the GTA's booming growth. Everyone complains about the "404-401" interchange, meanwhile the city refuses to do any improvements in this area.
 
Toronto's freeway network is small compared to other cities in North America around it's size.

This means that what it does have needs to be efficient as it can be. Adding an extra through lane or two on 404/DVP at 401 would help get more people through the interchange. Lanes would then taper off on DVP either exiting at interchanges or simply ending.

Would these new lanes instantly fill up when complete? Of course! If you build it, they will come, and Toronto is growing at a pretty good pace. Having this extra capacity immediately utilized to its max means it's benefit will be an instant boost to the area.

If you only have minimal money to help combat congestion, work on bottlenecks such as this. Makes the whole system faster.
 
Haljackey said:
Toronto's freeway network is small compared to other cities in North America around it's size.

This means that what it does have needs to be efficient as it can be. Adding an extra through lane or two on 404/DVP at 401 would help get more people through the interchange. Lanes would then taper off on DVP either exiting at interchanges or simply ending.

Would these new lanes instantly fill up when complete? Of course! If you build it, they will come, and Toronto is growing at a pretty good pace. Having this extra capacity immediately utilized to its max means it's benefit will be an instant boost to the area.

If you only have minimal money to help combat congestion, work on bottlenecks such as this. Makes the whole system faster.
Click to expand...

You know what else would help ease DVP congestion? A proper relief line from Sheppard.
 
innsertnamehere said:
they are some of the oldest freeway structures in the province, if not the oldest. Highway 2A was the first fully controlled access highway in the province, and as ShonTron said, the bridge structures date from the 1930's.
Click to expand...

in the '30's they first built dual carriageways in Ontario. In Whitby (where the bridges are), Scarborough and Woodstock. The small piece of Hwy 2 at the east end of Woodstock (to Eastwood) is still in its original form.

The QEW came a year or two after these 3 stretches were built.
 
Cootes Drive in Hamilton near McMaster is also build in the '30s but they weren't built as "superhighways" (freeway).

QEW was upgraded for many decades before it became a up-to-standard freeway.
 
darth_freeman said:
Are there any studies or documents out there that do some analysis regarding how many users GO Transit would gain on each route with RER?
Click to expand...
I'm sure that has been studied but I'm not personally familiar with the background work. The Metrolinx website has a lot of information; maybe it has what you're looking for.

BurlOak said:
Which side?

I think we have built more planned subways than freeways - so I assume you mean the one side is strongly towards subway.
Click to expand...
The city of Toronto alone (not including the suburbs) has about 120 km of freeways, which is nearly double the length of the subway system.
 
MisterF said:
I'm sure that has been studied but I'm not personally familiar with the background work. The Metrolinx website has a lot of information; maybe it has what you're looking for.


The city of Toronto alone (not including the suburbs) has about 120 km of freeways, which is nearly double the length of the subway system.
Click to expand...
I was comparing city owned freeway to city transit.

If you count provincial highways (401, 400, 404, 427), then I suppose you should count provincial transit (GO lines) as well.
 
Toronto has some of the lowest amount of kms of freeway per capita in North America. I'm sure that statistic would also be true about transit. Low on both accounts.
 
BurlOak said:
I was comparing city owned freeway to city transit.

If you count provincial highways (401, 400, 404, 427), then I suppose you should count provincial transit (GO lines) as well.
Click to expand...
Fair enough, I was just responding to the post about subways. Either way, the idea that there should be some sort of balance between rail and freeways has no merit. Freeways are an ineffective, counterproductive, and destructive way to move people around an urban area. We don't need more than the DVP and Gardiner entering downtown.

toaster29 said:
Toronto has some of the lowest amount of kms of freeway per capita in North America. I'm sure that statistic would also be true about transit. Low on both accounts.
Click to expand...
The fact that we have so few freeways in the central part of Toronto is a good thing. There should be a much greater density of subways (and regional rail) than freeways. The American model, which has almost every city core carved up by freeways, should be avoided. The European model, which tends to have a couple freeways approaching the core but rarely carving right through it, is much more effective.

We don't need to plan our cities a certain way just because we're in North America. There are plenty of things about Toronto that aren't typically North American (ie. American), like the popularity of downtown living, the predominance of high rises throughout the suburbs, and the demand for transit.
 
America cities were doing horrible things back then. They were ripping apart historical buildings, demolishing people's homes and dividing neighbourhoods to get their freeways in. Imagine the Spadina Expressway got build right down to the Gardiner. What is Chinatown would look like Allen/Lawrence. Europeans would never accept that.
 
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