Being a professional in this sort of biz, I can honestly say that the CAA thingy is a cheap publicity stunt. It is essentially meaningless. There are plenty of ways to ascertain the correct answers to CAA's question, but they don't want that. They want another stupid vox populi PR gimmick that has no scientific underpinning. If folks saw what the truly worst roads were, they would be quite surprised.
Most people here don't understand this, but most rail overpasses are primarily controlled by the railroad, not the City, and they are generally not enthusiastic about sinking cash into widening road crossings.
As for the widenings that you speak of? $40 mil as a first guess.
Quote:
Originally Posted by haljackey
Despite the recent widening/upgrades between Huron University College and Richmond Street, Warncliffe/Western Road has been named London's worst road and the 16th worst in the province, according to the CAA.
Link to source: http://www.caasco.com/community/worst-roads/top-20-worst-roads.jsp
The recent reconstruction is nice, but it doesn't help the fact that the road still bottlenecks north of Western and near Horton Street. These are primarily due to the old rail overpasses that are not long enough to accommodate a wide roadway.
Next time you drive between Oxford Street and Patt's lane, look at more than the road. There isn't even a sidewalk on one side, and the sidewalk on the other side very narrow and is right at the curve. What a great way to impress people coming to Western. 
The road needs to have 4 through lanes the whole way from Lambeth with enough land protected to widen it to 6 lanes in the future.
Maybe bus lanes are a good idea too between Dundas and Lambton, as the amount of bus traffic on that stretch is high. Another alternative is LRT, possibly having a line in a new median. Bike lanes are an absolute must.
The road surface isn't very good for the majority of its length either. I drive from Westmount to Western a lot and most times I'll just take Wonderland as it is a safer drive dispute Warncliffe being the faster route for me.
What other roads suck? |