London Roads

[jammer139]

Another fine example of City Hall vision and planning expertise they just started this week on removing the tree stumps and digging for the new bike path on Cheapside St between Richmond and Colborne. The city initially sent notice letters to residents end of July saying work would begin first week of Sept. Well 7 weeks came and went and they only now started. Originally this project was to have started this past spring.

[bolognium]

Hot take round these parts, but I'm grateful London doesn't have an expressway running through it. Most urban expressways helped enable car-oriented suburban sprawl, ruined neighbourhoods and natural areas, and created neighbourhoods with poor permeability.

One of the London proposals back in the day was for an expressway running the length of the east branch of the Thames (like a mini DVP) from Highbury to downtown. Fuckin thank god that never happened.

Urban expressways are yesterday's solution to traffic. Younger demographics are much more interested in public transportation, denser neighbourhoods, active transportation, walkability, etc. Far fewer millennials and Gen Zs are driving. It's the older generations that are still addicted to their cars and dream of a ringroad.

[Djeffery]

I would have liked to see how the city would be with the former proposal of the 402 arcing across the northern edge of London. Would be interesting to see how development would have gone. Ilderton would probably be today's Hyde Park and Lambeth not even part of London. Wonderland could have been a north/south expressway and we could have LRT down the length of Oxford with protected transitways north and south off of that. Maybe even an LRT loop of Hamilton/Horton/Springbank to Wonderland to maybe Sunningdale and over to Highbury with a connecting N/S route from Arva-ish down through downtown to the 401.

One of the London proposals back in the day was for an expressway running the length of the east branch of the Thames (like a mini DVP) from Highbury to downtown. Fuckin thank god that never happened.

We see the start of that idea with the Horton St Extension.

[MolsonExport]

Originally Posted by bolognium

Hot take round these parts, but I'm grateful London doesn't have an expressway running through it. Most urban expressways helped enable car-oriented suburban sprawl, ruined neighbourhoods and natural areas, and created neighbourhoods with poor permeability.

One of the London proposals back in the day was for an expressway running the length of the east branch of the Thames (like a mini DVP) from Highbury to downtown. Fuckin thank god that never happened.

Urban expressways are yesterday's solution to traffic. Younger demographics are much more interested in public transportation, denser neighbourhoods, active transportation, walkability, etc. Far fewer millennials and Gen Zs are driving. It's the older generations that are still addicted to their cars and dream of a ringroad.

I mostly agree, but it is a royal pain the ass for those living in North London (i.e., where most development is occurring) to get down to the 401/402. I fucking hate driving down the length of Wonderland Road, and there is no real alternative (Except going way up to say, Medway, then cutting across town to Clarke/VMP...little if any time is saved this way). Even Guelph has the Hanlon. The Highbury micro freeway is a joke. It would have been best to route the 402 well north of London (e.g., between Sunningdale and Medway roads). It is sort of weird for people visiting London to exit onto 402 (what looks like the end of the city), then get off on Wonderland, only to reenter the developed part of the city). Wellington is another weird street: straight and stroad-like from the 401 until about Baseline, then a winding street through to downtown, then it just peters out completely. There are so few East-West and North-South throughways.

[jammer139]

If you live in northend London and are heading east towards KW, GTA then it makes zero sense to drive south thru London to get to the 401. It's far easier to drive east thru Innerkip and make your connection to the 401 there. Why drive south thru nearly 20kms of London just to get to the 401 and drive NE up the 401?

[Djeffery]

North from London to Medway Rd, east to and through Thorndale to highway 59, turn right, go to the next stop sign at county road 33 and turn left, go to the end at Innerkip and turn left and follow that to the 401 at exit 250 (formerly known as Drumbo Road). This is the route I usually take back to Woodstock during my workday if I'm in north London as well (except I don't turn left at 33, I go straight south into Woodstock). You can usually make really good time going this way. Once you get past the lights at Clarke Rd, you have lights at Nissouri Rd going in to Thorndale, a 4 way stop at highway 19, a stop sign at Embro Rd and a stop sign at 59 and hardly any traffic.

If one were interested in going to Kitchener or Waterloo, follow the same, except turn left onto 59, right at the stop sign at Hickson, left on cty rd 5, and left on highway 7/8 at New Hamburg where it quickly turns into the 4 lane expressway. No need for the 401 from North London at all.

[jammer139]

I often take Evelyn Rd which starts behind the Airport. Take Huron St to Robin Hill Rd and get on Evelyn Rd and its a straight run thru to the NE corner of Woodstock and minutes outside Innerkip.

[Djeffery]

Originally Posted by jammer139

I often take Evelyn Rd which starts behind the Airport. Take Huron St to Robin Hill Rd and get on Evelyn Rd and its a straight run thru to the NE corner of Woodstock and minutes outside Innerkip.

I live just off of that road in NW Woodstock now and it's my main route to London now. If I'm going to east or south London, I take Evelyn, then cut down to Dundas on Fairway, which is where the 2 lanes turns into 4. Then either straight in to east, or down Shaw to Catherine to 74 to Hamilton or the 401 depending where in the south. I wouldn't go that way to get to the 401 from north London because you are doing a fair bit of backtracking north and south to get around the lake. From NW London, you'd want to take Sunningdale to get to east London to avoid the mess that is Fanshawe Pk Rd all the way across, and then you have to come all the way back down to Huron on Clarke/VMP. Then up and around the airport on Robins Hill and back south again to Evelyn. So if you are already that far north at Sunningdale, might as well go one more street and take Medway and go all the the way across the country side. I could even make the case that to get to the 401E at this point, it would be just as easy to get to Cedar Creek Rd (hgihway 97, exit 268) as it would be to go down to Innerkip, as the 401 is still 10 km from that point too. And if for some reason, Kitchener or Waterloo was your destination from north London, the backroads would be a no brainer over the 401. The Waterloo Costco is the closest to my house and I have the benefit of saying I went through Punkeydoodle Corners to get there lol.

[MolsonExport]

thanks for the tips. I will try some of these out (I have done the back road to KW a couple of times).

[tyeman200]

Originally Posted by jammer139

If you live in northend London and are heading east towards KW, GTA then it makes zero sense to drive south thru London to get to the 401. It's far easier to drive east thru Innerkip and make your connection to the 401 there. Why drive south thru nearly 20kms of London just to get to the 401 and drive NE up the 401?

I think the issue is, why should someone who lives in North London have to do this to get to the highways? Seems unfair to them.

I live in South London, I can access the 401 or 402 in less than 10 minutes thanks to Exeter Road.

[Djeffery]

Originally Posted by tyeman200

I think the issue is, why should someone who lives in North London have to do this to get to the highways? Seems unfair to them.

I live in South London, I can access the 401 or 402 in less than 10 minutes thanks to Exeter Road.

I don't understand the logic of this post. Unfair? You live where you live. You can't be close to everything. What if you wanted to go to a play in Stratford, how is it fair to you that it will take you twice as long to get there as someone who lives in Masonville. Even if there was a freeway across the north and east side of London to the 401, it would still be quicker to Waterloo through the back roads.

[jammer139]

Calls for action to address this part of Riverside Dr near the cemetery due to all the crashes. They finally installed traffic lights at Beaverbrook a couple of years ago because that intersection was a disaster due to the traffic volumes. Ideally Riverside Dr should be widened to a full 4 lanes all the way west to Sanatorium Rd. It's a classic example of alternating 2 lane to 4 lane bad design and long over due for rebuild.



https://london.ctvnews.ca/calls-for-action-after-another-crash-shuts-riverside-drive-1.6639260

[haljackey]

Originally Posted by jammer139

Calls for action to address this part of Riverside Dr near the cemetery due to all the crashes. They finally installed traffic lights at Beaverbrook a couple of years ago because that intersection was a disaster due to the traffic volumes. Ideally Riverside Dr should be widened to a full 4 lanes all the way west to Sanatorium Rd. It's a classic example of alternating 2 lane to 4 lane bad design and long over due for rebuild.



https://london.ctvnews.ca/calls-for-action-after-another-crash-shuts-riverside-drive-1.6639260

I imagined the west BRT leg using Riverside possibly. The road was set to be widened one way anyway so if you made that extra lane for BRT you could get a route from downtown (Queens bridge) to Wonderland. You could then get some BRT on Wonderland north to Oxford or Sarnia and south to perhaps Westmount mall.

Doesn't hit the university, but they're anal about it.

[jammer139]

Exeter and White Oaks Rd to be closed this week for new sewer installation.


https://london.ca/newsroom/exeter-road-w...vember-13-20-sanitary-sewer-installation

[inimrepus]

Does anyone know what they are doing at Gainsborough and Aldersbrook? They started construction on it today and the sign says the construction is going to last until May, but I can't find anything about the work on the cities website.

[CanadianTalk]

Originally Posted by inimrepus

Does anyone know what they are doing at Gainsborough and Aldersbrook? They started construction on it today and the sign says the construction is going to last until May, but I can't find anything about the work on the cities website.

Likely a traffic signal rebuild. I also can't find anything on the city's interactive construction map, but it does appear on the 2023 construction map pdf file.

https://london.ca/sites/default/files/20...tion%20Projects%20Map_March%202023_0.pdf

[jammer139]

Integrated Transportation advisory committee document about the Queen and English intersection issues and request for info on the 26 upcoming 2024 intersection rebuilds.


https://pub-london.escribemeetings.com/filestream.ashx?DocumentId=104647

[jammer139]

Far too many London area roads are designed to be as deadly as possible. Traffic engineers have known how to build roads safer for decades. Maybe we should hire some of those to build safety into our road system.


https://london.ctvnews.ca/how-many-more-...ges-on-commissioners-road-east-1.6648101

[jammer139]

Richmond and Fanshawe intersection to fully open. Enjoy over the winter months as the plan is to rebuild Richmond and Sunningdale in 2024.



https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/london/bu...s-after-months-of-construction-1.7050545

[jammer139]

St Thomas to add another roundabout.


https://lfpress.com/news/local-news/st-t...roundabout-despite-citys-updates-to-plan