Toronto Pinnacle Lakeside (Phase 1) | 174.86m | 54s | Pinnacle | Hariri Pontarini

Same as 2023. A mostly empty Gardiner East that is costing us most of our capital budget!

I too continue to be amazed that a highway is empty when you demolish the ramp that half of the cars using it normally use!
Most people that used those ramps are stuck in the logjam that is the Jarvis exit that isn't in this photo and the next exit is Bayview almost 6km away. Plus, schools are still out and a lot of people are still on holidays as my 20 min commute this morning would show, typically 30-35min.

I apologize, but it is really frustrating to keep having these comments on traffic levels from a photo. It'd be like me saying the Gardiner is always rammed and never moving and show only this snapshot of the road.

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(Taken from the front page article this week)


Glad to see this finally moving forward though!!!
 
Yes, folks...please take the Hamilton 16 from Toronto Union Bus Terminal during rush hour, and tell us just how "unused" The Gardiner is, lol...

...I mean, the bus is oft at a stand still not because the driver is taking lots of coffee and doughnut breaks along the way. /sheesh
 
Yes, folks...please take the Hamilton 16 from Toronto Union Bus Terminal during rush hour, and tell us just how "unused" The Gardiner is, lol...

...I mean, the bus is oft at a stand still not because the driver is taking lots of coffee and doughnut breaks along the way. /sheesh

We're talking about the Gardiner East!

Anyways, it's usually me hijacking the threads to laugh about how unused the Gardiner East is. And although it sees the odd traffic jam, it's also true that hardly anybody uses it. It could be the least used downtown raised expressway anywhere in the world.
 
We're talking about the Gardiner East!

Anyways, it's usually me hijacking the threads to laugh about how unused the Gardiner East is. And although it sees the odd traffic jam, it's also true that hardly anybody uses it. It could be the least used downtown raised expressway anywhere in the world.
So highways are only worthwhile if they're congested messes? East Gardiner is one of the only portions of any highway in the city that actually isn't over capacity i.e. functions as intended, for a majority of the time. And it's not going to cost the city a single penny to maintain anymore.
 
We're talking about the Gardiner East!

Anyways, it's usually me hijacking the threads to laugh about how unused the Gardiner East is. And although it sees the odd traffic jam, it's also true that hardly anybody uses it. It could be the least used downtown raised expressway anywhere in the world.
Yes - but as discussed, it’s because the Gardiner east of Jarvis as it stands right now doesn’t really go anywhere. Before the lakeshore ramps were demolished it had far higher traffic volumes, barely below that of the western Gardiner (it being 8 vs 6 lanes for the rest of the highway meant it was generally less congested however).

The highway under normal conditions has an average daily traffic count of around 120,000 - hardly empty. I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s closer to 60,000 today because of the lakeshore ramp demolition however, which is indeed way under capacity for an 8-lane expressway. 120,000 is not under capacity though.

It’s empty because the city forced it to be empty by making it so it’s not useful for a lot of trips.

The hybrid Gardiner with the new lake shore ramps at Cherry is properly designed for the volumes it will carry, as east of Cherry it will reduce to 4 lanes for the DVP connection.
 
We're talking about the Gardiner East!

Anyways, it's usually me hijacking the threads to laugh about how unused the Gardiner East is. And although it sees the odd traffic jam, it's also true that hardly anybody uses it. It could be the least used downtown raised expressway anywhere in the world.
Every time I have ever been downtown Toronto, I've been stuck in a traffic jam on the gardener but definitely is not underused
 
Every time I have ever been downtown Toronto, I've been stuck in a traffic jam on the gardener but definitely is not underused
And generally to have a congested mess westbound, you need some east bound traffic to generate those westbound flows. So under-utilized, maybe not, but currently
perhaps so past Jarvis, excluding those heading for the DVP.
 
I too continue to be amazed that a highway is empty when you demolish the ramp that half of the cars using it normally use!

If half the people can use a single ramp leading to a traffic light then Gardener was overbuilt at 3 through lanes for the other half.
 

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