London Roads

[middeljohn]

A proper link to Strathroy and St. Thomas would do wonders. I absolutely despise driving to St. Thomas after dark. No street lights, only one lane per side, lots of curves, asshole tailgaters. Strathroy isn't as bad since it's more a straight route, but still not desirable. Neither of these need to be freeways, but having them widened to 4 lanes, and the route to St. Thomas straightened, would do wonders.

[MolsonExport]

Strathroy is not that far from the 402. And it has only 13500 people. How many people actually do the commute, and why?

[K85]

Strathroy - Urban Area - 14,221 pop. [2011]

And I do. I work for a school board, and have been travelling there more and more recently. I take the 402 so my drive isn't exactly hard, and moving to elsewhere in the city wouldn't be that difficult either. I think a link to either would be silly.

[manny_santos]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

Strathroy is not that far from the 402. And it has only 13500 people. How many people actually do the commute, and why?

A good friend of mine lives between Strathroy and Kerwood, and commutes to downtown London daily for his job (though he's laid off for the winter). Sometimes he uses the 402, sometimes Highway 22, which is arguably faster to get to downtown London. He has talked about moving to London, but he hasn't done it yet.

[middeljohn]

At least have a couple passing lanes so people aren't forced to go into the opposite lane.

On another topic, what's the AADT for Highbury? I can't find it anywhere. Wellington is about 50,000 in some spots, Wonderland 45,000.

[manny_santos]

Originally Posted by middeljohn

At least have a couple passing lanes so people aren't forced to go into the opposite lane.

On another topic, what's the AADT for Highbury? I can't find it anywhere. Wellington is about 50,000 in some spots, Wonderland 45,000.

45,500 between Commissioners and Hamilton Roads.

[Pimpmasterdac]

The new 401/Highbury overpass is set to have at least 6 lanes for Highbury when built. Highbury has the ability be widened to 6 lanes from south of the Thames to Wilton Grove if ever needed. But can't see the city widening either Wellington or Highbury to 4-lanes all the way to St. Thomas. Not a priority to London, and would be quite costly.

[middeljohn]

Originally Posted by manny_santos

45,500 between Commissioners and Hamilton Roads.

Where did you find that? I used 17 years of accumulated Google skills and couldn't find anything.

[manny_santos]

Originally Posted by middeljohn

Where did you find that? I used 17 years of accumulated Google skills and couldn't find anything.

It's on London CityMap, the legacy version.

[middeljohn]

Adelaide/CP, you really are a joy. I wanted a subway sandwich, and the one on Dundas/William.was police-taped off, so I had to go to the one on Adelaide/Cheapside and got this delay lol. On the way back I weaved like a mofo to avoid getting caught at red lights and the rail crossing again lol.

• Video Link

[Pimpmasterdac]

The city has started planning for the widening of Wonderland Rd. from Southdale to the 401. The general idea seems to be for Wonderland to be widened to 6 lanes from Southdale to 402, then 4 lanes from 402 to 401. Wonderland is already quite congested with all the big box stores, and City predicts gridlock in no time.

The proposed plans are quite different though than typical widening plans. The current preferred plan would create a grand boulevard along Wonderland. It would have 2 through lanes, a frontage road to access the big box stores, separated bike lanes and finally dedicated on-street parking on each side. There would be 3 medians, one separating each direction and one separating through and frontage lanes, and would require a 54 metre ROW.

There are other options that range from a median separated 6 lane road, to 6 lane roads with on-steet parking taking up lanes on off peak hours. Doesn't seem to be any time schedule when it will all be done, but city is getting its ass in gear getting the plans going

Wonderland Rd Overview: http://www.london.ca/residents/Environment/EAs/Pages/Wonderland-Road-South.aspx
Widening Options: http://www.london.ca/residents/Environme...Displays%20Final%20140122%20Part%202.pdf

[manny_santos]

Originally Posted by Pimpmasterdac

The city has started planning for the widening of Wonderland Rd. from Southdale to the 401. The general idea seems to be for Wonderland to be widened to 6 lanes from Southdale to 402, then 4 lanes from 402 to 401. Wonderland is already quite congested with all the big box stores, and City predicts gridlock in no time.

The proposed plans are quite different though than typical widening plans. The current preferred plan would create a grand boulevard along Wonderland. It would have 2 through lanes, a frontage road to access the big box stores, separated bike lanes and finally dedicated on-street parking on each side. There would be 3 medians, one separating each direction and one separating through and frontage lanes, and would require a 54 metre ROW.

There are other options that range from a median separated 6 lane road, to 6 lane roads with on-steet parking taking up lanes on off peak hours. Doesn't seem to be any time schedule when it will all be done, but city is getting its ass in gear getting the plans going.

Wonderland Rd Overview: http://www.london.ca/residents/Environment/EAs/Pages/Wonderland-Road-South.aspx
Widening Options: http://www.london.ca/residents/Environme...Displays%20Final%20140122%20Part%202.pdf

Awesome idea. Wonderland Road really is the principal gateway to the western side of London, and will be more so once the interchange at the 401 is built. It would be good to have a grand boulevard as a gateway to that part of London, which would be an improvement over what's there now as well as Wellington (save for the section just south of Downtown), Highbury, and VMP. Other Ontario cities don't have particularly great roadways into the city from 400-series highways either...Kingston has a surprisingly disappointing gateway from the 401, aside from it being named after our first Prime Minister.

The idea of 3 medians is something I can't say I've seen in Ontario on any arterial roads, but it does appear in other countries. Mexico City's Paseo de la Reforma comes to mind. It is common in some smaller Mexican cities as well, though it is not done well in some places.

[MrSlippery519]

Originally Posted by Pimpmasterdac

The city has started planning for the widening of Wonderland Rd. from Southdale to the 401. The general idea seems to be for Wonderland to be widened to 6 lanes from Southdale to 402, then 4 lanes from 402 to 401. Wonderland is already quite congested with all the big box stores, and City predicts gridlock in no time.

The proposed plans are quite different though than typical widening plans. The current preferred plan would create a grand boulevard along Wonderland. It would have 2 through lanes, a frontage road to access the big box stores, separated bike lanes and finally dedicated on-street parking on each side. There would be 3 medians, one separating each direction and one separating through and frontage lanes, and would require a 54 metre ROW.

There are other options that range from a median separated 6 lane road, to 6 lane roads with on-steet parking taking up lanes on off peak hours. Doesn't seem to be any time schedule when it will all be done, but city is getting its ass in gear getting the plans going

Wonderland Rd Overview: http://www.london.ca/residents/Environment/EAs/Pages/Wonderland-Road-South.aspx
Widening Options: http://www.london.ca/residents/Environme...Displays%20Final%20140122%20Part%202.pdf

I would love to see a frontage road type plan, should be all the way from Wharncliffe to Southdale.

Only issue I see with the plan is the date...2033 ouch

[MolsonExport]

re: Wonderland Rd. 6 lanes is needed (NOW) from Southdale Rd to Fanshawe Park Rd, not from Southdale to 402. Unless of course they want to sprawl all the way to 402 (more of the usual London-style approach to spreading too little butter on an expanding piece of bread). Christ this city drives me crazy.

[Pimpmasterdac]

My understanding on why it's being started in the south is that the City wants to create an attractive enterance to the west end of London, hopefully look better than Wellington. The master plan for Wonderland is 6 lanes from Southdale to Fanshawe, but the north end is more tricky to widen. Guy Lombardo bridge, CN underpass and CP overpass will need extensive work to accommodate any widening. Either way Wonderland will need to be done soon, a matter of the city catching up and having the funds for all the delayed infrastructure..

[MolsonExport]

wide roads where nobody is, and narrow roads where everybody is. The London way.

[haljackey]

I doubt it will all be done at once, but it would be easier/cheaper to do so.

Expanding Wonderland from 2-6 lanes from Exeter to 402 right now is overkill, so I'd expect 4 first and then 6. The 402 overpass is just 2 lanes wide so that will have to be replaced/twinned/expanded.

I'd like to see 4 lanes here by the time the 401 interchange opens, but I have serious doubts about it.

[MrSlippery519]

Originally Posted by haljackey

I doubt it will all be done at once, but it would be easier/cheaper to do so.

Expanding Wonderland from 2-6 lanes from Exeter to 402 right now is overkill, so I'd expect 4 first and then 6. The 402 overpass is just 2 lanes wide so that will have to be replaced/twinned/expanded.

I'd like to see 4 lanes here by the time the 401 interchange opens, but I have serious doubts about it.

I agree that is the most logical thing to do, London needs to have 4 lanes from the new 401 interchange (which should start this year right??) all the way to Exeter done by the time the new interchange opens.

From there I would like to see 6 lanes with the frontage road on either side from Exeter to Southdale. Of course this part of the plan will not happen right away.

[haljackey]

We likely won't see 4 lanes to the 401 for at least a decade as it would require doing something with the 402 overpass to make it wider. To me, that's fine as you would continue to use the 402 EB to get to the 401 EB. Most Londoners would only use the new one to access 401 WB.

Construction is to be complete by 2016. That was pushed back a year from 2015, likely due to the decision to build an underpass instead of an overpass. I saw some prep work in 2013... Mostly markers and whatnot of where the ramps will go.

There is also another study going on to either replace or remove the narrow Westminster Drive Overpass so the 401 can be 6-laned from the 402 to Wonderland or Highway 4.

[MrSlippery519]

I wonder if we could get the government to chip in to help expand the 402 overpass or how that will work?

But yes I do agree the stretch between 401/402 is not going to be a problem with 2 lanes for the foreseeable future as it will only be traffic coming into the city and people heading out west. If they start getting more industrial type manufacturing going out that way which will be the plan I am sure there will be a need but we are likely talking 10+ years from now.