Roads: Roundabouts

[drum118]

The Sq One Roundabout and the New Sq One Dr Road in front of Sheridan College is to open on or about 2:30 pm on Monday Aug 22. This will also include the extension to Confederation Dr.

Peel police will be on site to deal with any issues that may rise.

The City is installing a number of cameras to watch and review the operation of the Roundabout and look at where changes have to be made if things go wrong or don't work out.

The concrete circle is for trucks who may have to use it as well the pavement road to make the turns.

The sub base pavement has been lay with top coat to be done this week.

A lot of concrete for sidewalk and the centre medium still has to be pour.

There will be layover parking on Duke of York in front of Sheridan College for both direction and that's a mistake.

The other 3 Roundabouts to be built on Duke of York have no timetable. Based on the outcome of this Roundabout will tell the City how to build the other ones.

It will be interesting to see how the 4 way stop work in place of the 3 way one at Zellers. There is to be no stop light for this stop as it will backup onto the Roundabout. Based on the current traffic flow, I expect to see backup onto the Roundabout at times.

 

[superman]

The Sq One Roundabout and the New Sq One Dr Road in front of Sheridan College is to open on or about 2:30 pm on Monday Aug 22. This will also include the extension to Confederation Dr.

Peel police will be on site to deal with any issues that may rise.

The City is installing a number of cameras to watch and review the operation of the Roundabout and look at where changes have to be made if things go wrong or don't work out.

The concrete circle is for trucks who may have to use it as well the pavement road to make the turns.

The sub base pavement has been lay with top coat to be done this week.

A lot of concrete for sidewalk and the centre medium still has to be pour.

There will be layover parking on Duke of York in front of Sheridan College for both direction and that's a mistake.

The other 3 Roundabouts to be built on Duke of York have no timetable. Based on the outcome of this Roundabout will tell the City how to build the other ones.

It will be interesting to see how the 4 way stop work in place of the 3 way one at Zellers. There is to be no stop light for this stop as it will backup onto the Roundabout. Based on the current traffic flow, I expect to see backup onto the Roundabout at times.

FOUR consecutive roundabouts on a relatively short and slow road. Geez.

 

[Anth]

I'll be surprised if this is anything other than a disaster. Driving skills are already incredibly poor in the area and the last thing it needs are roundabouts.

 

[Marko]

I'll be surprised if this is anything other than a disaster. Driving skills are already incredibly poor in the area and the last thing it needs are roundabouts.

Agreed. This is a trendy experiment that I think will likely and at the single roundabout, with the other 3 shelved.

It might make sense in a suburb or even subdivision, but this area is being greatly intensified over the coming years and a series of single lane roundabouts on what will be a busy throughfare is like you say, a disaster in the making.

 

[nfitz]

I'll be surprised if this is anything other than a disaster. Driving skills are already incredibly poor in the area and the last thing it needs are roundabouts.

If driving skills are so poor, then wouldn't this avert disaster? At traffic lights, you don't get many collisions, but when you do, there have been occasions that people die. You tend to get more fender benders at roundabouts ... but deaths are unusual.

Surely at an intersection, disaster would be a death. And you'd get less deaths with roundabout. How are you thinking it would be a disaster?

 

[gweed123]

If driving skills are so poor, then wouldn't this avert disaster? At traffic lights, you don't get many collisions, but when you do, there have been occasions that people die. You tend to get more fender benders at roundabouts ... but deaths are unusual.

Surely at an intersection, disaster would be a death. And you'd get less deaths with roundabout. How are you thinking it would be a disaster?

Exactly. It takes people around two times going through one to figure it out. Once the first week or so is over, the traffic flows much more smoothly than a signalized intersection.

My only problem with this is that the implementation of them was not over a larger area, so more people would have experience with them. The more people who know how to use them, the more people will be asking for them.

I remember late last year they were talking about putting in a roundabout along St. Joseph Blvd in Orleans (east end of Ottawa). The residents were up in arms about it (the usual "planners don't know what they're doing! Blah blah blah"). The vast majority of people now like it, and a lot are asking for more in the area.

I say put one in every neighbourhood, and within a few months the opposition to them will dissapear. People don't like them only because they don't have experience with them.

 

[EMP1729]

Duke of York isn't a major thoroughfare. The whole point of the roundabouts is to have less car traffic along Duke of York. The area surrounding city hall is supposed to be a pedestrian friendly area.

 

[nfitz]

Exactly. It takes people around two times going through one to figure it out.

Indeed. I can't remember the last time I goofed a roundabout - even one I hadn't seen before. I screwed up at a traffic light I've used many times the other day ... edged too far forward during the flashing green ... and the car in front of me delayed so long, that the light went green, and I couldn't move across the lanes ... so I was partially blocking a lane. And then I was watching the opposing traffic so carefully looking for a gap, I failed to notice the traffic light turn yellow, that the first gap I saw, I realised the light was already red ... and I had to hustle through as it was already turning green in the opposite direction.

Pretty minor, but one more mistake, and I'd have caused a major collision.

 

[Anth]

The problem is that Duke of York is a lot busier than one would think since it links the 403 with Square One via Centre View/Mavis. The next closest interchange is over at Hurontario.

Speaking as a local resident, no one seems to understand how even a four-way stop works so I'm not optimistic about this experiment. I agree with gweed that it wouldn't be a big deal if roundabouts were more common across the GTA, but the fact is they aren't.

Hopefully I'm wrong.

 

[gweed123]

The problem is that Duke of York is a lot busier than one would think since it links the 403 with Square One via Centre View/Mavis. The next closest interchange is over at Hurontario.

Speaking as a local resident, no one seems to understand how even a four-way stop works so I'm not optimistic about this experiment. I agree with gweed that it wouldn't be a big deal if roundabouts were more common across the GTA, but the fact is they aren't.

Hopefully I'm wrong.

Statistically, 4 way stops have much higher accident rates than roundabouts do. At 4 way stops it's only convention that dictates who has the right of way (the person on the right if all cars arrived at the same time). At a roundabout, it's pretty clearly defined, because one car is in the circle and one isn't.

And I say again: give it a week. A week after it opens, people will forget that these roundabouts were ever even an issue.

 

[confusion]

I think the perfect location for a new roundabout would be at Queen's Park Cresent (west side) and Wellesley St West.

Thoughts?

 

[nfitz]

Do you mean the east side of Queen's Park Crescent? There's grade separation on the west side.

 

[gweed123]

If anywhere in downtown, it can't really be on a street that has a streetcar route. I can't really see a roundabout working too well with a streetcar.

They could perhaps work on more secondary streets like Sherbourne, Gerrard, or Harbord.

 

[nfitz]

If anywhere in downtown, it can't really be on a street that has a streetcar route. I can't really see a roundabout working too well with a streetcar.

Works fine in many other cities:

Salt Lake City
http://maps.google.ca/maps?q=salt+l...id=GM71QUJmEN07FTYqUQdpWw&cbp=12,97.39,,0,7.3

Wolverhampton, England - can see the streetcar!
http://maps.google.ca/maps?q=St+Geo...=gY6ek9yjwlART9dsaeEoLw&cbp=12,144.05,,0,0.54

Melbourne
http://maps.google.ca/maps?q=Melbou...cLIXI6mnMh2BF8CEPVsw0g&cbp=12,203.25,,0,0.41]

http://maps.google.ca/maps?q=Melbou...WNIWViG8tH1dQw&cbp=12,172.88,,0,2.57&t=h&z=19

Nantes

 

[Marko]

The problem is that Duke of York is a lot busier than one would think since it links the 403 with Square One via Centre View/Mavis. The next closest interchange is over at Hurontario.

It's not that it's a major thoroughfare, but it's on the western boundary of one of the busiest malls in the country. There is a new college campus going in, a hotel and convention center and eventually more intensification of the east side of DoY. It will grow to be far busier than it is now, is my point. It's probable that you'll make it from one end to the other faster with the circles, but that's not the issue. It's the eventual number of vehicles trying to use DoY at one time, and this:

Speaking as a local resident, no one seems to understand how even a four-way stop works so I'm not optimistic about this experiment. I agree with gweed that it wouldn't be a big deal if roundabouts were more common across the GTA, but the fact is they aren't.

Hopefully I'm wrong.

Same here. I have no problem with them myself, but the majority of Mississauga drivers I'm less sure of. I don't know that it will work well during peak shopping periods, events in the Square, or when 2 or 3 times as many vehicles need to use DoY than currently do. There will eventually be another 100,000 residents being added within a 4 block reach of this street, and more of that 'Downtown 21' development after all, and Duke of Yord is smack in the middle of it all.