Quote:
Originally Posted by Bluenote
I use the perimeter daily for business. I'm quite aware of its short comings.
But GUNN road should never have been allowed to join the perimeter. Same as Pipeline. This beleif that every stupid little road needs to join is 1950's thinking. And sure you can argue the traffic on those two roads is stupid now and will get worse. And why is that? Because they were allowed to join I the first place and that spurred a huge industrial park at GUNN and then homes and new developments on and around Pipeline. Had those two never been allowed to cross the Perimeter the issue would not be here.
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Actually most of the Gunn Rd development existed long before the northeast Perimeter. The issues behind why Gunn Rd is the way it currently is are much deeper than road design so we will skip that here. Gunn Rd was allowed access partly for political reasons and partly as an interim access point until the east side corridor was built.
In terms of roads that never should have had access to the Perimeter St Annes top my list. Even going back to the time of the original Perimeter it would never be free flowing inside the city it has always been close to 59 and unlike both St Marys and Pipeline it is
not a PTH outside the Perimeter. Speaking of, as Pipeline
is a PTH outside the Perimeter same as St Marys, Inkster and Henderson is
definitely would meet the criteria for at least a diamond interchange and access to the Perimeter. St Anne's, Kennaston and Waverly though, not so much.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bluenote
As for this pipe dream of east west corridor. I'm sorry. OakBank doesn't warrant a new highway and bridge and overpass. Especially when places like St Nob has been waiting for a bypass for ever. Same as Headingly. Same as #2-#3 needing something other then lights.
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Go drive HWY 15 at peak traffic times and then come back and post about the area now warranting a new highway. In addition to the high volume of traffic HWY 15 has
more of the most dangerous rail crossing in Canada than all of Winnipeg. The "new" Oak Bank highway would serve as a replacement for HWY 15 between 206 and 101, allowing the closing of those dangerous rail crossings, and align with the overall northern east-west corridor. It has actually been on the books for 25+ years now and public consultations on proposed routes have even been done in the past. From memory it has been in discussing for a similar length to the Headingley bypass and longer than the St Norbert by pass and the 2/3 intersection improvements. Heck the #1/Yellowhead intersection improvements also would predate 2/3 which is relatively new in the scope of highway improvement projects.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bluenote
Wilkes is an easy fix. You just make the ramps longer. Extend them further south before they turn back on the perimeter and then you can have nice off and on ramps. No need for a 50 million dollar bridge there. Just some basic roadwork.
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Sure longer ramps solves the
current Wilkes access issues but the scope of the whole project is much deeper than that. If the plan is for six lanes on the Perimeter and the recent of the Roblin bridge to the north of Wilkes proves that then more than just realigning ramps needs to be done at Wilkes as the current span has a maximum of four lanes. It likes means building a whole new bridge there, and over the Red and rebuilding the Pembina overpass and that is without dropping a dime on new grade separations. Personally I think new grade separations would have bigger payoffs that additional lanes.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bluenote
St Mary's is horrible to enter. It's at an angle already so you don't really have a clear view of the semis speeding through there. And then about 50 feet of merge lane.
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St Mary's, as it is today, is a trivial fix if the issue is length of merge lanes. Similar to Wilkes, as you pointed out, make the merge lanes longer. With a protected run on the right side of traffic for right turns you would get a better view of the traffic you are merging into and could better time your entry. For left hand turns the existing traffic lights already tell you when it is safe to consider entry and per common traffic laws you don't proceed until it is fully safe to do so.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bluenote
As for traffic counts. Yes the higher counts are on the north. But the north has the most free flowing part of the perimeter. The south however isn't. It's ridden with lights and most east west traffic goes the south route. That's a lot more semis then the north and semis don't stop to well. So a proper traffic study on semis vs some passengers cars escaping to tax cheating esp and wsp are needed. Amd let's not forget that the south is growing way faster the. The north now. So studies done even 5 years ago are way off.
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If the north is the most free flowing part of the Perimeter if anything the province should lean heavily into that and make it fully free flowing. If traffic coming west on the TransCanada hit the Perimeter and knew the north route was fully free flowing the commercial traffic would go that way. Diverting the commercial traffic away from the south Perimeter would help reduce those traffic counts.
Some of the commercial traffic on the south Perimeter though cannot easily be worked around though due to access to the main north-south routes and Brady Landfill. Keep in mind though most commercial garbage is already heading north of the city to BFI's private landfill.
In there were honest concerns over commercial v personal vehicle traffic on sections of the Perimeter it would be possible to setup a traffic study to obtain this. If there isn't an available public study and it was viewed and being truly important a group of volunteers could be trained and undertake this study by sitting at key points and counting vehicles.
Regarding your perception of "tax cheats" in ESP and WSP, let's remember the Perimeter is a
provincial highway, not a City of Winnipeg road. That said the issues from ESP and WSP are similar to La Salle and Oak Bluff and the need for improvements to 2/3 you mentioned earlier.
As for the general growth in the city, you might be surprised by how fast the city is growing. I know Seven Oaks is the
only school division in Winnipeg that is seeing net increases in their student population. None of the divisions in south Winnipeg have that issue. Care to link to some population growth numbers of back your claims that the south is growing way faster than the north?