Highways in Canada - Page 172

vid · #**3421** Posted **Dec 16, 2014, 11:51 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by 1overcosc

Ontario cities love their salt. It's everywhere. It keeps the roads clean (from my observations Ontario has better snow clearing than Quebec) but it does shorten the life of cars and especially the life of buses. Ontario cities all have very young bus fleets, it's very rare to find a transit bus in Ontario from the 20th century, whereas many other provinces have cities that continue to drive buses from the 1980s/1990s. You see this right here in the capital. All Ottawa buses are from 2004 or later whereas the Gatineau bus fleet is filled with buses from late 1980s & early 1990s.

Isn't Quebec the province where the salt usage is so high, everyone buys cheap cars because they'll disintegrate within a decade anyway?

Ontario has a law requiring all bus fleets in the province to be both modern and fully accessible.

Quote:

Originally Posted by niwell

Toronto's oldest buses are from 1996 I believe, and yes they are AODA compliant. The main reason for the longevity of buses in Toronto is actually the standard of maintenance for the fleet. Buses are essentially rebuilt from the ground up near the end of their normal service life. Not many places do this, and I've heard that other transit systems are actually a bit envious of the capability. I'd imagine it takes a lot of time and effort in start-up to do this but once you have a system would save money in the long run. And their is greater certainty as the procurement process can be affected by political will.

http://www.thestar.com/news/city_hall/2013/12/30/ttc_rebuilds_its_fleet_one_bus_at_a_time.html

Thunder Bay does this. I think we actually send the buses to the TTC to have it done, even. Our oldest buses buses have odometers over 1,000,000. The average retired bus is around the 1.15 to 1.2 million km mark. The oldest in the fleet are two 1997 Novabuses, still in active service. The 2004 Orion VIIs (not even sure why we got them) get used the least because the steering is "weird".

The fleet has only 49 buses, and they've always done a good job maintaining them.

Innsertnamehere · #**3422** Posted **Dec 17, 2014, 5:28 AM**

Meanwhile the TTC is pushing 1,900 buses.. It will peak at something like 1980 buses in 2019 before the lrt lines open and the fleet size drops.

1overcosc · #**3423** Posted **Dec 17, 2014, 3:25 PM**

Kingston has a fleet of 66 and it will grow to 74 next year.

haljackey · #**3424** Posted **Dec 17, 2014, 5:35 PM**

Speaking of buses,

I noticed that Toronto's Don Valley Parkway has bus lanes now. Are there any other highways in Canada that feature this? (Gotta be actual highways, bus-only roads / transitways don't count.)

Acajack · #**3425** Posted **Dec 17, 2014, 5:39 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by haljackey

Speaking of buses,

I noticed that Toronto's Don Valley Parkway has bus lanes now. Are there any other highways in Canada that feature this? (Gotta be actual highways, bus-only roads / transitways don't count.)

The main east-west freeway in Ottawa, the Queensway, has them coming in from the west (Kanata) and the east (Orleans).

Montreal has a number of them on certain highways, but they are usually bus + HOV lanes.

sonysnob · #**3426** Posted **Dec 17, 2014, 10:05 PM**

The 740 in Quebec City has a bus only off ramp from the HOV lanes now

waterloowarrior · #**3427** Posted **Dec 17, 2014, 11:43 PM**

A20 East has a new bus lane between Dorval and Lachine

GreaterMontréal · #**3428** Posted **Dec 17, 2014, 11:55 PM**

A-15 nord (Autoroute des Laurentides) à Montréal et Laval .

Innsertnamehere · #**3429** Posted **Dec 18, 2014, 12:15 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by haljackey

Speaking of buses,

I noticed that Toronto's Don Valley Parkway has bus lanes now. Are there any other highways in Canada that feature this? (Gotta be actual highways, bus-only roads / transitways don't count.)

Those bus lanes are pretty small, they run for maybe 2km and on one of the least congested parts of the highway. They are also 12 years old.

GO has plans to expand the lanes, but no funding. It may also not happen now that they are rapidly advancing the GO RER scheme.

FrAnKs · #**3430** Posted **Dec 18, 2014, 12:46 AM**

A20 east in Lévis filmed by me.

• Video Link

FrAnKs · #**3431** Posted **Dec 18, 2014, 12:50 AM**

A40 West in Québec city by me.

• Video Link

middeljohn · #**3432** Posted **Dec 18, 2014, 2:04 AM**

Do Quebec City's freeways ever get backed up? It seems as if it could givemost US metros a run for their money in terms of freeway-lane-miles per capita.

FrAnKs · #**3433** Posted **Dec 18, 2014, 2:09 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by middeljohn

Do Quebec City's freeways ever get backed up? It seems as if it could givemost US metros a run for their money in terms of freeway-lane-miles per capita.

More than you could think !

I'm from Montréal and before I moved here, I seriously tought that a metro area of the size couldn't be jammed. I was So-Damn-Wrong.
And it get worse every year.

Here's a little Jam ( the week-end ) Watch in HD.

• Video Link

• Video Link

Québec city is very ''Car oriented''

Btw, sorry if I'm Zooming alot, I was just testing my new Camera

SOSS · #**3434** Posted **Dec 18, 2014, 2:49 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by haljackey

Speaking of buses,

I noticed that Toronto's Don Valley Parkway has bus lanes now. Are there any other highways in Canada that feature this? (Gotta be actual highways, bus-only roads / transitways don't count.)

Highway 99 south of the Fraser in metro Vancouver has a bus only shoulder. A bit different but works the same.

libtard · #**3435** Posted **Dec 18, 2014, 2:56 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by haljackey

Speaking of buses,

I noticed that Toronto's Don Valley Parkway has bus lanes now. Are there any other highways in Canada that feature this? (Gotta be actual highways, bus-only roads / transitways don't count.)

Are the bus lanes on the inside or outside of the highway?

MolsonExport · #**3436** Posted **Dec 18, 2014, 3:50 AM**

QC has the most impressive freeway network for a city its size, bar none, in Canada.

Good vids, FrAnKs.

Innsertnamehere · #**3437** Posted **Dec 18, 2014, 4:15 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by libtard

Are the bus lanes on the inside or outside of the highway?

inside of the highway. They run for less than 2km, and GO buses use them to access Union station. Only used during congested periods, buses aren't allowed to travel more than 60km/h in them.

All they are is some paint on the old road shoulder. They were implemented in a few weeks a decade ago with some paint and signage. There is also some bus only ramp thing at Eglinton that lets the buses exit the highway at Eglinton and immediately get on it again, bypassing roughly 600 meters of traffic.

Dirt_Devil · #**3438** Posted **Dec 18, 2014, 4:55 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by middeljohn

Do Quebec City's freeways ever get backed up? It seems as if it could givemost US metros a run for their money in terms of freeway-lane-miles per capita.

Quebec City can be a real pain in the ass when talking about traffic jams. It's kind of a surprise box, from which you get something nasty 75% of the time. The other 25% gives you a real taste of luck when there should be traffic jams but there are not too many. Never did quite understand how a 800k city with so many highways can manage to have them congested like that (sprawl can't be the only reason).

middeljohn · #**3439** Posted **Dec 18, 2014, 5:54 AM**

A quick look on google maps shows that there is only one road connecting QC and Levis, so that at least makes sense (in theory).

GreaterMontréal · #**3440** Posted **Dec 18, 2014, 5:11 PM**

Turcot Interchange contract awarded to Kiewit and Parsons

Transport Minister Robert Poëti says project expected to begin in February 2015 and completed by 2020.

Kiewit is known for the construction of Autoroute 25 between Laval and Montreal.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/t...-awarded-to-kiewit-and-parsons-1.2877492