Ontario Highways

[sonysnob]

View looking north from the King/Vaughan Road overpass towards King Road:

https://www.asphaltplanet.ca/ON/hwy_400_images/400_cl_41_north_NB_Aug26_42x28.jpg

[haljackey]

Originally Posted by sonysnob

View looking north from the King/Vaughan Road overpass towards King Road:

How well are those HOV transfer areas utilized? I see way too many drivers disrespecting the HOV stripe and weaving in and out like it's a regular lane. Seems like a waste if not enforced and/or with some kind of barrier separating it.

(cool pic thanks for sharing)

[sonysnob]

Compliance with these exit lanes is pretty typical for other segments of HOV lanes. The majority of drivers follow the lane markings, but there are a non-insignificant number of drivers who don't.

Drivers often sometimes use the access lane to overtake slower vehicles.

Other, newer, sections of the 400 north to Highway 9 are marked with the typical HOV lane access points as other highways, so it doesn't seem like the MTO has found this pilot project to be particularly worthwhile.

Depending on what the outcome is of the work that is ongoing to reduce the enforcement hours of Ontario's HOV lanes to rush hour only, there may be a desire to change how HOV lanes are marked on our highways in the future.

[haljackey]

Uhhhhh.... what?



https://www.reddit.com/r/toronto/comments/1vk4ui8/why_was_407_toll_at_taste_of_the_danfourth/

[haljackey]

2026 highway plan is out

https://www.ontario.ca/page/ontarios-highway-programs

Large projects like the Highway 6 and 7 freeways still listed as 'upcoming expansions' (past 2030). Same with the Highway 400 extension

---

I have a question for the more 'expert' members here.



Highway 401 is already 6 lanes east of Highway 402, yet there is an expansion contract here that says '4 to 6 lane widening'.

Do you think an additional aux lane or something may be added between Highway 402 and Wellington Road? Or perhaps continue to the new aux lane being added between Wellington and Highbury?

Roughly half the traffic volume exits/enters at the 402 so it would be nice to have a dedicated exit/entrance lane to handle this movement.

[Djeffery]

When you come on to the 401 from the 402, the left lane of the 402 becomes the third lane of the 401 and it just continues on from there. They are going to widen the 401 to the west, and when you enter the 401 from the 402, you will have to merge left into the 3 continuous lanes. The same as the westbound 403 to 401 at Woodstock. The 403 left lane formed the new third lane 401 towest until they widened the highway to the east.

It's possible they could continue that 402 left lane as a 4th lane all the way to Wellington, and if they are doing the work anyway, they might as well, but it would probably say so in that plan.

[Innsertnamehere]

The plan is for an aux lane from the 402 to Wellington Rd, yes.

Highway 7 is ramping up in Kitchener, MTO has recently issued a design contract for the interchange with 85 with a 2028 construction start date. The highways plan isn’t always that accurate, especially if looking more than 1 year out. It tells us more or less with certainty what will be happening in 2027.. but beyond that it can change up.

The Morriston Bypass is still a while off, but MTO has recently purchased most of the property for it, so it is still slowly moving.

[haljackey]

Originally Posted by Innsertnamehere

The plan is for an aux lane from the 402 to Wellington Rd, yes.

Curious if you have a source for this at all? I looked all over and can't find anything. This why I asked

I'd say with the aux lane being built between Wellington and Highbury, that '4th' lane should stretch all the way between Highbury and the 402. They rebuilt all the over/underpasses in recent years to support this, but I guess we'll see what happens.

[FrostyMug]

Originally Posted by haljackey

2026 highway plan is out


---

I have a question for the more 'expert' members here.


Highway 401 is already 6 lanes east of Highway 402, yet there is an expansion contract here that says '4 to 6 lane widening'.

Do you think an additional aux lane or something may be added between Highway 402 and Wellington Road? Or perhaps continue to the new aux lane being added between Wellington and Highbury?

Roughly half the traffic volume exits/enters at the 402 so it would be nice to have a dedicated exit/entrance lane to handle this movement.

This appears to be the first phase of widening the 401 to six lanes beyond the 402 interchange headed towards Windsor. I believe the current plan is eventually to widen that entire two lane stretch which goes to past Chatham to six lanes from the current four.

[sonysnob]

The 401 widening is a design build contract that was advertised about a month ago for a project that should be awarded in 2027.

Because it's a design build contract, construction will follow and run in tandem with various detail design elements.

The project will run from west of Union Road to east of Wellington Road. The reason the contract runs to east of Wellington Road is likely just because the 401 will need to be resurfaced as far as that point. The 401 will be resurfaced to the western extend of the project through Pond Mills and Highbury.

[haljackey]

Originally Posted by sonysnob

The 401 widening is a design build contract that was advertised about a month ago for a project that should be awarded in 2027.

Because it's a design build contract, construction will follow and run in tandem with various detail design elements.

The project will run from west of Union Road to east of Wellington Road. The reason the contract runs to east of Wellington Road is likely just because the 401 will need to be resurfaced as far as that point. The 401 will be resurfaced to the western extend of the project through Pond Mills and Highbury.

So the only enhancement this will give the 401 east of the 402 interchange is just a fresh coat of asphalt- no extra/aux lane from 402 to Wellington?

[sonysnob]

It seems likely to me that an auxiliary lane will get extended from the 402 to the Wellington off-ramp in the eastbound direction.

But no, no widening through Wellington or east of Wellington.

[Djeffery]

Would there really be any benefit to adding that lane to Wellington though? It's not like it's a large volume of traffic coming from the 402 to Wellington, there's probably more (and likely a lot more) Wellington traffic coming from the 401. I mean, like I said above, if they were doing some type of major work between the 402 and Wellington, it would make sense to just extend that lane, but if all they are doing is repaving that stretch, it's needless spending at this point.

[haljackey]

Originally Posted by Djeffery

Would there really be any benefit to adding that lane to Wellington though? It's not like it's a large volume of traffic coming from the 402 to Wellington, there's probably more (and likely a lot more) Wellington traffic coming from the 401. I mean, like I said above, if they were doing some type of major work between the 402 and Wellington, it would make sense to just extend that lane, but if all they are doing is repaving that stretch, it's needless spending at this point.

Just gives you more room to merge on the 401 coming from the 402

2024 traffic data:
401 WELLINGTON RD IC-186 HWY 402 IC-183 2.660 66,100
401 HWY 402 IC-183 WONDERLAND RD IC 180 3.861 34,000

Roughly 50% of the 401's volume enters/exits at the 402.

Right now one of the 402 lanes becomes third 401 lane. If both 402 lanes end with this 'expansion', it seems kinda stupid as you have 3 lanes for 401, and 0 for 402. If you at least make one of the 402 lanes an aux to Wellington, you have some more distance to move over. Also if coming from the 402 and exiting at Wellington you won't have to merge except if you are in the rightmost 402 lane.

If the EB Wellington exit was a double lane exit, you wouldn't have to change lanes on the 401 if in the rightmost lane before the 402 merger.

----

But anyway, was just curious why this stretch was in the contract. It's probably the most even traffic split in the province, so would be nice if the 402 connection didn't get worsened by the 6 laning of the 401 west of here.

---

...Also showing that the 403 merger in Woodstock isn't as drastic, having both 403 lanes end is ok here. Having a aux lane run from Norwich Ave to 403 would be nice, but there's more distance between the interchanges vs Wellington/402.
OXFORD HWY 2 IC-238 HWY 403 IC-235 2.560 54,500
HWY 403 IC-235 OXFORD RD 59 IC-232-NORWICH AV-WOODSTOCK 3.370 77,600

[Djeffery]

Originally Posted by haljackey

Just gives you more room to merge on the 401 coming from the 402

2024 traffic data:
401 WELLINGTON RD IC-186 HWY 402 IC-183 2.660 66,100
401 HWY 402 IC-183 WONDERLAND RD IC 180 3.861 34,000

Roughly 50% of the 401's volume enters/exits at the 402.

Right now one of the 402 lanes becomes third 401 lane. If both 402 lanes end with this 'expansion', it seems kinda stupid as you have 3 lanes for 401, and 0 for 402. If you at least make one of the 402 lanes an aux to Wellington, you have some more distance to move over. Also if coming from the 402 and exiting at Wellington you won't have to merge except if you are in the rightmost 402 lane.

If the EB Wellington exit was a double lane exit, you wouldn't have to change lanes on the 401 if in the rightmost lane before the 402 merger.

----

But anyway, was just curious why this stretch was in the contract. It's probably the most even traffic split in the province, so would be nice if the 402 connection didn't get worsened by the 6 laning of the 401 west of here.

---

...Also showing that the 403 merger in Woodstock isn't as drastic, having both 403 lanes end is ok here. Having a aux lane run from Norwich Ave to 403 would be nice, but there's more distance between the interchanges vs Wellington/402.
OXFORD HWY 2 IC-238 HWY 403 IC-235 2.560 54,500
HWY 403 IC-235 OXFORD RD 59 IC-232-NORWICH AV-WOODSTOCK 3.370 77,600

I'm assuming those traffic numbers are both directions? Is there more broken down data to show much traffic enters the 401EB from the 402? I doubt there is data to show much traffic exits onto Wellington that came from the 402 compared to the 401 west of that. Also, per your earlier comment that the opening of the GHIB might change this traffic split (an opinion sonysnob dismissed a few years ago), if there is more coming from the 401 and less from the 402, adding another lane that goes direct from the 402 onto Wellington just makes it that much more difficult for 401 traffic to get onto Wellington, especially when you will have a bunch of people in that lane from the 402 realizing at the last second that they need to jump over to the left.

Who knows, I guess we will see when they release some type of drawing. Maybe, as you say with that third lane coming from the 402 now, the merge lane from the 402 might have to stretch that much further east that it makes sense to just have it join directly to the Wellington exit lane.

[sonysnob]

Both westbound lanes end from the 403 in Woodstock and traffic moves just fine.

The 401/402 merge will be just fine as well.

[Loco101]

Originally Posted by haljackey

How well are those HOV transfer areas utilized? I see way too many drivers disrespecting the HOV stripe and weaving in and out like it's a regular lane. Seems like a waste if not enforced and/or with some kind of barrier separating it.

(cool pic thanks for sharing)

YES, exactly that!!

I drove along the 400 this week and saw lots of drivers using the HOV lanes to pass. I also can't stand how aggressive some drivers are in the HOV lane. I was in it driving 125 km/h in a maximum 100 zone and people were getting upset at me while tailing me. The maximum speed still applies in that lane. There was plenty of room to drive in the regular lanes and go faster.

The HOV transfer areas are badly abused. Many used them to pass others in the HOV lane or even the regular lanes. I also agree that more enforcement and some type of barrier is needed.

[Djeffery]

Like wise, there apparently was enough room for you to stay in the regular lanes. That's the main problem with left lane sitters is they think their speeding is good enough for everyone else.