Quote:
Originally Posted by haljackey
+1 over London. 
An interesting thing about the E.C. Row is that it took forever to build. About a year per km, which makes it one of the longest highway construction periods of all time.
Also it's crazy how the E.C. Row is disconnected with the rest of the highway system... it doesn't have any major interchanges along it's entire length but that will change once the Windsor-Essex Parkway (401 extension to Detroit) is completed.
It's a pretty good commuter and connector/through link in Windsor. Koodos to them for having the foresight to plan and build such a thing.
-Still, compared to Detroit (which Windsor is part of the metro area), its highway network is pretty small, but more isn't always better. |
Yes you're right, it did take forever to build the EC Row Expressway, construction at the time was plagued with continual workers strikes (in Windsor? surprised?)
There are a few interesting flaws with the expressway, and there are only 2 on ramp/off ramp interchange points that are up to Ontario 400 series highway standards, Lauzon Parkway & Huron Church.
Bear with me here while I try to explain it's deficiencies.
If you are ON the epxressway heading towards downtown, say you're starting at the very east end (where the highway changes to Ont. Highway 22) You can NOT exit to Jefferson if you're going west, you can only get on. This forces people to exit @ Lauzon Parkway and take service roads to get to Jefferson. This might not seem odd, but you CAN exit on to Jefferson if you're going east (very tight off ramp with speed of 40kph). You can enter EC Row from Jefferson if you are going west, but you can not enter EC Row from Jefferson if you are going east (you must take a service road to Lauzon Parkway to enter EC Row).
Chew on that for a minute.
I'm not a highway expert, so I'm sure you guys have names for these different types of interchanges.
Secondly with the exception of the 2 interchanges listed above (Lauzon Parkway & Huron Church) all other on ramp and off ramp scenarios are similar with the exception of Walker Rd and Dougall.
If you want to get on the expressway at say, Dominion, and you want to go east and you're heading towards the river you just get in the right hand lane and turn on to the on ramp, but if you want to do the same thing at Dougall and you're facing towards the river why you have to get into the left lane and make a left turn up a circular ramp to merge. This screws alot of people up who aren't familiar with the set up.
The Walker road area actually has collectors for a kilometre or so that run between Walker and Central on both sides. So if you get on EC row @ Walker and you're heading east you actually cruise along the collector up until Central and then merge on to EC Row. And if going west can get off at Central and ride the collector to Walker.
My other point about the exressway is that in some sections (mainly between Howard and Dougall) there are exits and entrances that are much too close to one another, causing some strategic weaving in and out of cars to safely enter or exit.
Secondly there are quite a few on ramps that are done on an up hill like Dougall, Howard and Jefferson. This causes some problems because either A) people don't hit the gas enough so by the time they hit the top of the hills to merge with 100kph traffic they're only doing between 60-85kph OR their jalopy of a car doesn't have enough oomph to get up to 100kph by the time it's necessary to merge.
Prev
I just hate spending resources and ruining other people's quality of life just to prevent the unpreventable... just like with airport security... none of the thwarted attempts at smuggling/terrorism thus far have been credited to any screening measure.
Linear Mode
