Toronto Lower Simcoe Ramp | ?m | ?s | City of Toronto

kotsy said:
^ hilarious

Seriously, though. Seems like a waste of materials and time to put a shoulder there.
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I agree, but that just might be the design standard they are using. A shoulder is a good place to put in broken down vehicles, cop cars / pulled over vehicles, snow storage, etc. It could also be converted to a through lane later on possibly. Also if there is a collision / breakdown on one of the through lanes, traffic could be rerouted via the shoulder to bypass it.
 
Haljackey said:
I agree, but that just might be the design standard they are using. A shoulder is a good place to put in broken down vehicles, cop cars / pulled over vehicles, snow storage, etc. It could also be converted to a through lane later on possibly. Also if there is a collision / breakdown on one of the through lanes, traffic could be rerouted via the shoulder to bypass it.
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Surely that is exactly why there are shoulders and having them- where there is room - on ramps seems like a good idea to me as those without one seem to get blocked by accidents or breakdowns all the time.
 
Why are there three lanes for this off ramp? They aren’t turn lanes, because they all have arrows pointing straight ahead only. This seems excessive, given existing congestion on the streets that will have to accommodate all this traffic.
 
pman said:
Why are there three lanes for this off ramp? They aren’t turn lanes, because they all have arrows pointing straight ahead only. This seems excessive, given existing congestion on the streets that will have to accommodate all this traffic.
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Because they need to be able to "store" the vehicles coming off of the highway at each red light cycle. Lengthening the ramp is one way to do it, but widening it is another.

Dan
Toronto, Ont.
 
smallspy said:
Because they need to be able to "store" the vehicles coming off of the highway at each red light cycle. Lengthening the ramp is one way to do it, but widening it is another.

Dan
Toronto, Ont.
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Actually widening rather than lengthening a ramp is a terrible way to perform this function. Why? The flow of cars off the ramp and onto Harbor St. will be 150% greater than what it would be if they went to with two through lanes and one turning. If Harbor doesn’t have the capacity for this, or if the light cycle isn’t very short, there will be a big backlog up the ramp.
 
pstogios said:
Actually widening rather than lengthening a ramp is a terrible way to perform this function. Why? The flow of cars off the ramp and onto Harbor St. will be 150% greater than what it would be if they went to with two through lanes and one turning. If Harbor doesn’t have the capacity for this, or if the light cycle isn’t very short, there will be a big backlog up the ramp.
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Let's all remember that this replaced the York/Bay/Yonge ramp. This will re-instate the capacity to permit traffic to exit the Gardiner and get onto York/Bay/Yonge, with the difference being how; York is via Harbour and a left instead of a corkscrew ramp, right turns onto SB Bay are via Harbour instead of off the ramp, and Yonge is the same.

Being able to turn onto Simcoe was supposed to be a bonus feature, but clearly they haven't installed that. You will also get to go NB on Bay via Harbour now, versus going around the block or something, which is an efficiency gain. And to top it all off, we get the added benefit of improved public realm for non-drivers, local residents or visitors: a bike lane, bright sidewalks, and a new park.

So a wider, shorter ramp was a great capacity change-up, and comes with net benefits in terms of driver convenience and city building. Still going to be a gong show at peak times but 'tis the folly of induced demand.
 
I wonder with how the ramps are configured soon if it would make sense to flip York and Simcoe one ways and extend it toward to Harbour or Queens Quay. That way all traffic going south ends up at the onramp at York, and all traffic going north is going up simcoe. Richmond and Adelaide'd it if you want to call it that.
 
smallspy said:
Because they need to be able to "store" the vehicles coming off of the highway at each red light cycle. Lengthening the ramp is one way to do it, but widening it is another.

Dan
Toronto, Ont.
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This is going to be a permanent shit show. This ramp has nowhere near the storage capacity of the ramp it replaced. The curb lane of th east-bound Gardiner will be permanently crippled at this ramp other than at 3:00 AM.
 
November 22, 2017:
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TransitBart said:
This is going to be a permanent shit show. This ramp has nowhere near the storage capacity of the ramp it replaced. The curb lane of th east-bound Gardiner will be permanently crippled at this ramp other than at 3:00 AM.
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The ramp + 3 dedicated lanes all the way to Bay will have similar or greater capacity than the old setup. Furthermore, the new setup will offload traffic more efficiently than the the old York loop.
 
Why not LEDs?

Or to make things more fun you could have the LEDs change colour like on the CN Tower. Would be a nice inviting theme for tourists entering downtown from roadtrips.
-Heck, install changing LEDs below the whole elevated Gardiner to spruce up the place.
 
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