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Roads: Ontario/GTA Highways Discussion

JasonParis said:
Your post seems to ignore the enormous public safety issue a pedestrian had in trying to squeeze through the traffic entering a highway on-ramp in order to simply cross the street.
Click to expand...
Also extremely dangerous for cyclists. The cyclist could be doing everything precisely 'by the book' (admittedly rare, I'm an 'old school' cyclist who follows the law) and easily be killed or worse. And it's not just 'on-ramps', it's any turn-off, as most motorists fail to indicate their turn approach.

Some cyclists insist on the 'taking their lane' approach to assert that they are going straight ahead. Even Russian Roulette is safer...I dismount, and look the motorists squarely in the eye and cross as a pedestrian. Still very dangerous, but many motorists demure to your right of way when looked at directly. That's because they have a sense of conscience when being glared at...sometimes.
 
JasonParis said:
Your post seems to ignore the enormous public safety issue a pedestrian had in trying to squeeze through the traffic entering a highway on-ramp in order to simply cross the street.
Click to expand...

I am aware of that. It wasn’t a true pedestrian crossing. Some streets just shouldn’t have pedestrian crossings everywhere. Never mind highway on ramps. Are we in the business now of placing pedestrian crossings everywhere?

If we do want to have a pedestrian crossing there, and I do see the value in that, this half-ass solution is a terrible one. The crossing and on ramp should be segregated - raise or bury one of them.
 
ShonTron said:
I think the majority of people that actually live in Joe Cressy's ward are better served by the pedestrian crossing. The south end of Spadina Avenue has been a disaster for pedestrians, who are unable to cross Spadina at Front or Bremner/Fort York and until just recently, Lake Shore Blvd on the west side of Spadina. It was designed long before City Place was really a thing, when Spadina was simply a traffic sewer. It's still not ideal - on the east side, pedestrians are presented with a sign to "wait for gap" at the end of a curved Gardiner off-ramp and given no right-of-way. But it's a start.

I'm just annoyed by how long it took.

Long term plans include a new pedestrian bridge above Spadina Avenue just north of Lake Shore to provide a linear park link. But work on that hasn't started yet.
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I live in the area and I have crossed Lakeshore on the east side of Spadina thousands of times without incident, I have never been inconvenienced. I have also used the on ramp to the Gardiner thousands of times, and so have my visitors, and placing this half-baked crossing here will inconvenience me and those visitors. It will also lengthen in time the disaster that is Spadina in the afternoon hours.

It is a highway on ramp for crying out loud. Where have we ever placed a pedestrian crossing across an on ramp?!?

If we really need a crossing here, the ramp and the crossing should be separated.

I’ve heard rumblings that the entire Spadina-Gardiner-Lakeshore intersection will be redesigned but of course Cressy doesn’t talk about this, push it, or facilitate this in any way.
 
^ Is it any wonder that Toronto's pedestrian and cyclist fatalities are not only very high, but continuing to increase when pedestrians are faced with this?
1545952694389.png

https://www.google.ca/maps/@43.6390...4!1sAS6eDWGrdMOIqe16Ghvm0g!2e0!7i16384!8i8192

What's needed isn't a timed stop light, it's a crosswalk. Would you want your kids crossing at this point? How about your mother or wife?
I can't think of a clearer indication where Toronto's street priorities exist, and it's analogous to a tailpipe.
1545952348046.png
Click to expand...
https://www.google.ca/maps/@43.6391...4!1sqJY0ZDwH4c-f3JpusKwQ4w!2e0!7i16384!8i8192

Other side is not much better, but at least in this case traffic has stopped for pedestrians.


https://globalnews.ca/news/4173939/spadina-pedestrian-trap-lake-shore-city-of-toronto/

This Intersection Takes More Than Eight Minutes to Legally Cross
 
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markhamdevelopments said:
So the schedules to add those ramps exist??
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No.
Those ramps would be for new traffic movements. That puts them under the moniker of "Expansion". These projects only get a timeline when they are announced by the government.
Rehabilitating or replacing a bridge, counts as "maintenance and rehabilitation" of the existing highway network and is the timeframe for this is determined by MTO staff when it's appropriate to do (maybe a bit of political influence). In this case, a new bridge was built over Ford, and new bridges will be built over the QEW EB to 403 NB ramp, but these were considered to be required to stage the traffic so that all lanes could be retained during the work. Despite this, they do have a purpose in the new interchange configuration, but they counted as "maintenance and rehabilitation" and not "expansion".
 
BurlOak said:
No.
Those ramps would be for new traffic movements. That puts them under the moniker of "Expansion". These projects only get a timeline when they are announced by the government.
Rehabilitating or replacing a bridge, counts as "maintenance and rehabilitation" of the existing highway network and is the timeframe for this is determined by MTO staff when it's appropriate to do (maybe a bit of political influence). In this case, a new bridge was built over Ford, and new bridges will be built over the QEW EB to 403 NB ramp, but these were considered to be required to stage the traffic so that all lanes could be retained during the work. Despite this, they do have a purpose in the new interchange configuration, but they counted as "maintenance and rehabilitation" and not "expansion".
Click to expand...
Are they extending the HOV lanes from Trafalgar to Winston Churchill?

Are they also going to widen that stretch of NB 403 between the QEW and 407? It should be widened to 6 lanes.
 
Bojaxs said:
Are they extending the HOV lanes from Trafalgar to Winston Churchill?

Are they also going to widen that stretch of NB 403 between the QEW and 407? It should be widened to 6 lanes.
Click to expand...
Nope. counts as expansion.

The 403 between QEW and 407 will actually have 4 lanes NB (once the QEW WBL to 403 NBL ramp is built) and 3 lanes SB.


See Southern Ontario Highway Program (SOHP).
Planning for the Future (no dates assigned)
  1. QEW: Trafalgar Rd. to Winston Churchill Blvd., HOV, Peel
  2. 403: QEW to Hwy 407, Halton and Peel
First one is the QEW HOV lanes. Second is the 403 portion (which won't be HOV). From the previous link - these lanes have already had the EA done. It's just a matter of having the money and the political will. In this case, they broke the Ford Drive bridges into several phases and those have to be completed (~2021) before they can start on anything more otherwise multiple contractors would be tripping over themselves.

I believe this upcoming year, they will rebuild the WBL. The following year (2020) the EBL will be replaced. The ramp to 403 will be a rehabilitation of 2 years with 2 narrow lanes open each year done in parallel with the Ford bridges. This contract will end with QEW traffic returning to the proper EBL and WBL bridges.
This leaves "Phase 3" (a separate contract) to be the replacement of the 403 SBL to QEW WBL bridge (which is actually carrying mainline QEW WBL traffic but will be empty at the end of the Phase 2 contract). Once this is replaced, it will carry the the 403 SBL to QEW WBL ramp again. The north-most bridge (that was constructed about 2 years ago and which is currently carrying that ramp) will carry a sort of mini-Collector lane associated with exits and entry to/from Winston Churchill and Ford.
 
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innsertnamehere said:
The one that allows people getting on at Shepard to get onto the DVP
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Yeah, that’s the same one I said.

While we’re on the the topic of DVP access from Sheppard, should this connection even exist in the current configuration, as it requires changing 2 lanes and adds traffic to an already overcapacity and congested access. If I were to remove this connection and add a new one, I’d add a new elevated ramp that directly connects with the ramp after the 401 E/W ramp split, removing the connection from regular 404 accessing it. Of course, this would cost a lot and not worth it until MTO decides to reconfigure the entire 404/401/DVP interchange, but that’s not in the 10 year plan.
 
I think the issue is that if you delay the lights for pedestrians on the ramps to the Gardiner, that causes traffic backlogs that causes further pedestrian and car issues at other intersections.

I think it makes far more sense to have the ramps on South Jarvis, York and Spadina to have free flow access to the Gardiner and have the pedestrian walkways separated.

That would allow for much more free-flowing traffic rather than a huge mass of cars south of king street thru most of the day in the city and make crossing those areas better for pedestrians.

I just find it comical how people think forcing cars to sit through traffic is a smart idea lol.
- Loss productivity
- bad for the environment
-keeps those areas very dangerous for pedestrians.
 
steveintoronto said:
^ Is it any wonder that Toronto's pedestrian and cyclist fatalities are not only very high, but continuing to increase when pedestrians are faced with this?
https://www.google.ca/maps/@43.6391...4!1sqJY0ZDwH4c-f3JpusKwQ4w!2e0!7i16384!8i8192

Other side is not much better, but at least in this case traffic has stopped for pedestrians.


https://globalnews.ca/news/4173939/spadina-pedestrian-trap-lake-shore-city-of-toronto/

This Intersection Takes More Than Eight Minutes to Legally Cross
Click to expand...


Those kinds of pedestrian crossing should be separated from traffic completely really. Because if you make those crossing focus only on pedestrians, is it really that much better than the entire area is now full of cars idling and stuck in traffic impacting other intersections.
 
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