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Roads: Ontario/GTA Highways Discussion

So after a couple of days of using the 427 extension... my observations: the Bolton truck traffic makes starting & ending at Major Mac. pretty miserable if you are using the highway 50 route.

SB highway 50 has a single left turn lane onto Major Mac, and truck traffic piles up during rush hour like crazy as everyone is trying to get to the start of the 427.
Coming home, getting off at Major Mac quickly leads you to a massive traffic jam, as there is only one right turn lane from WB Major Mac to NB Highway 50. Same story with massive truck traffic. Even the straight through to Coleraine (the highway 50 bypass) gets backed up... It's supposed to be truck-free, but is only one lane in each direction. Too many cars attempt a left at Countryside Dr (no dedicated left turn lane here!) which backs traffic up real bad too. .
 
Student99 said:
So after a couple of days of using the 427 extension... my observations: the Bolton truck traffic makes starting & ending at Major Mac. pretty miserable if you are using the highway 50 route.

SB highway 50 has a single left turn lane onto Major Mac, and truck traffic piles up during rush hour like crazy as everyone is trying to get to the start of the 427.
Coming home, getting off at Major Mac quickly leads you to a massive traffic jam, as there is only one right turn lane from WB Major Mac to NB Highway 50. Same story with massive truck traffic. Even the straight through to Coleraine (the highway 50 bypass) gets backed up... It's supposed to be truck-free, but is only one lane in each direction. Too many cars attempt a left at Countryside Dr (no dedicated left turn lane here!) which backs traffic up real bad too. .
Click to expand...
So ... Building roads creates congestion? Who would have thought of it? It's totally not called induced demand!
 
Student99 said:
So after a couple of days of using the 427 extension... my observations: the Bolton truck traffic makes starting & ending at Major Mac. pretty miserable if you are using the highway 50 route.

SB highway 50 has a single left turn lane onto Major Mac, and truck traffic piles up during rush hour like crazy as everyone is trying to get to the start of the 427.
Coming home, getting off at Major Mac quickly leads you to a massive traffic jam, as there is only one right turn lane from WB Major Mac to NB Highway 50. Same story with massive truck traffic. Even the straight through to Coleraine (the highway 50 bypass) gets backed up... It's supposed to be truck-free, but is only one lane in each direction. Too many cars attempt a left at Countryside Dr (no dedicated left turn lane here!) which backs traffic up real bad too. .
Click to expand...
I came to that conclusion as well when I took it on the day it opened. That's why I posted my alignment suggestion for en extention to Mayfield.
 
dullturtle06 said:
So I was thinking that the 410 should be extended north to Orangeville. heading on highway 10 I've been seeing crazy amounts of traffic. Does anyone know if the MTO is planning an extension, especially if the GTA West highway gets scrapped by the feds (which they absolutely should).
Click to expand...
It absolutely should. I've not heard of any offical plans to do so though.
 
DirectionNorth said:
So ... Building roads creates congestion? Who would have thought of it? It's totally not called induced demand!
Click to expand...
That's not induced demand, at best this is shoved demand, now instead of all of the trucks congesting Highway 50 at around Highway 7, all of it has been pushed up to Major Mackenzie. There is a lot more to network design than if there is a highway or not, how does the highway feed into to nearby roads? Are you forcing all traffic onto a bunch of left turn lanes that back traffic up? Looks like that's what's happening in this case and is a case of shoddy design.
 
ARG1 said:
That's not induced demand, at best this is shoved demand, now instead of all of the trucks congesting Highway 50 at around Highway 7, all of it has been pushed up to Major Mackenzie. There is a lot more to network design than if there is a highway or not, how does the highway feed into to nearby roads? Are you forcing all traffic onto a bunch of left turn lanes that back traffic up? Looks like that's what's happening in this case and is a case of shoddy design.
Click to expand...
I'm in a mood these days ...

I agree that nothing changed on surrounding roads and it was sh!tty design work there.
 
Student99 said:
So after a couple of days of using the 427 extension... my observations: the Bolton truck traffic makes starting & ending at Major Mac. pretty miserable if you are using the highway 50 route.

SB highway 50 has a single left turn lane onto Major Mac, and truck traffic piles up during rush hour like crazy as everyone is trying to get to the start of the 427.
Coming home, getting off at Major Mac quickly leads you to a massive traffic jam, as there is only one right turn lane from WB Major Mac to NB Highway 50. Same story with massive truck traffic. Even the straight through to Coleraine (the highway 50 bypass) gets backed up... It's supposed to be truck-free, but is only one lane in each direction. Too many cars attempt a left at Countryside Dr (no dedicated left turn lane here!) which backs traffic up real bad too. .
Click to expand...
They should've integrated it better into Hwy 50. Maybe something like this:
1632403481362.png
 
Student99 said:
So after a couple of days of using the 427 extension... my observations: the Bolton truck traffic makes starting & ending at Major Mac. pretty miserable if you are using the highway 50 route.

SB highway 50 has a single left turn lane onto Major Mac, and truck traffic piles up during rush hour like crazy as everyone is trying to get to the start of the 427.
Coming home, getting off at Major Mac quickly leads you to a massive traffic jam, as there is only one right turn lane from WB Major Mac to NB Highway 50. Same story with massive truck traffic. Even the straight through to Coleraine (the highway 50 bypass) gets backed up... It's supposed to be truck-free, but is only one lane in each direction. Too many cars attempt a left at Countryside Dr (no dedicated left turn lane here!) which backs traffic up real bad too. .
Click to expand...

Those problems are planned to be addressed relatively soon, or at least the Highway 50 problem. York Region is planning to widen Highaway 50 to 6 lanes through that stretch in 2024.. so still a few years off. I'm surprised they didn't add a second left turn lane sooner though. I wouldn't be surprised if that intersection is accelerated. The right turn problem probably isn't going to go away entirely though, at least until Coleraine Drive gets upgraded. Not sure on the timing of that one. York Region will probably build a right turn merge which will increase throughput, but not eliminate that issue.

But yea, not great. I'm sure getting to Bolton is still much faster than before the highway though..

The 427 extension is probably the closest thing to a freight-supportive road infrastructure investment you can get, same with anything involving Coleraine Drive and Highway 50. The amount of truck traffic on those roads is insane. You can't just fix it with transit.
 
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DirectionNorth said:
So ... Building roads creates congestion? Who would have thought of it? It's totally not called induced demand!
Click to expand...
more like the traffic patterns were shifted onto infrastructure not designed for it.

The previous Highway 50-427 connection at Highway 7 has a right turn merge lane and double left turn lane to deal with the volumes. Now a lot of the traffic has been shifted north to Major Mackenzie. While Major Mack has been widened from it's previous rural sideroad condition, the intersection with Highway 50 hasn't been touched. So major highway level volumes are running through an intersection designed for very, very low traffic volumes. So yea, It doesn't work.

Once the intersection is rebuilt to deal with the actual volumes to be expected, it'll work much better.
 
treplow said:
It absolutely should. I've not heard of any offical plans to do so though.
Click to expand...
Highway 10 operates generally fine from the few times I've driven it.. And that's some very, very sensitive environmental land through there. I can see why MTO isn't really planning to extend the 410.

The most I could is is 10 turning into a RIRO at some point like 35/11. Same thing with Highway 6 from Waterdown to Guelph.
 
innsertnamehere said:
Those problems are planned to be addressed relatively soon, or at least the Highway 50 problem. York Region is planning to widen Highaway 50 to 6 lanes through that stretch in 2024.. so still a few years off. I'm surprised they didn't add a second left turn lane sooner though. I wouldn't be surprised if that intersection is accelerated. The right turn problem probably isn't going to go away entirely though, at least until Coleraine Drive gets upgraded. Not sure on the timing of that one. York Region will probably build a right turn merge which will increase throughput, but not eliminate that issue.
Click to expand...
Agree here.
innsertnamehere said:
But yea, not great. I'm sure getting to Bolton is still much faster than before the highway though..
Click to expand...
Probably.
innsertnamehere said:
The 427 extension is probably the closest thing to a freight-supportive road infrastructure investment you can get, same with anything involving Coleraine Drive and Highway 50. The amount of truck traffic on those roads is insane. You can't just fix it with transit.
Click to expand...
innsertnamehere said:
Looking into it a bit more, it appears that long term Peel Region is actually planning for an interchange at Highway 50/Major Mack...


Thats.. Interesting.

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I think that having Major Mak go directly onto a 4-lane Coleraone is better. You don't need a turn then.

That Brampton document is confirming my suspicions that they are sprawlifying that area.
 
innsertnamehere said:
Highway 10 operates generally fine from the few times I've driven it.. And that's some very, very sensitive environmental land through there. I can see why MTO isn't really planning to extend the 410.

The most I could is is 10 turning into a RIRO at some point like 35/11. Same thing with Highway 6 from Waterdown to Guelph.
Click to expand...
im thinking of like highway 115 type extension. 4 lanes, small footprint following the existing highway 10 with a concrete median but still controlled access. The environmental impact would be very limited. Like i really hate the huge grass medians for 400 series highway, its such a waste of land (like the bradford bypass).
 
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