London Roads

[manny_santos]

Originally Posted by haljackey

Large London traffic rant

https://www.reddit.com/r/londonontario/c...has_a_really_serious_baddriving_problem/

I read through that whole thread.

The "London Left" happens everywhere. I see it just as much in Toronto as I've seen it in London.

Rolling through stop signs happens everywhere. I see it all the time in Toronto. Stopping in "no stopping" zones happens in Toronto too.

The "racing up to a merge" or "refuse to get in lane ahead of a merge" described sound like properly executed zipper merges. I have found drivers are universally bad at zipper merging everywhere in Ontario.

I do find London drivers do go 20 km/h over the limit in certain locations, but not everywhere. Sanitorium Road is one area I've seen this; the speed limit is a constant 50 km/h coming out of Byron all the way to Oxford Street, but a lot of drivers speed up a lot after crossing Riverside.

Ultra-short left turn arrows are a big problem in London. And even more so in Toronto. But not so much in some other cities I've driven in. Kingston has some of the longest left-turn arrows I've seen anywhere. It seems backwards for cities with more traffic to have shorter left-turn arrows.

[K85]

Originally Posted by manny_santos

The "London Left" happens everywhere. I see it just as much in Toronto as I've seen it in London.

Fucking thank you!!! I've said this on reddit, and was downvoted into oblivion... People are too dense to understand, that every city has residents who say theirs are the worst...

Agree with all of your points. though, Wellington is a 60 before Baseline, and morons on my commute home ALWAYS go 45-50... ALWAYS

[jammer139]

Ignorant and incompetent drivers are everywhere. London is no different than anywhere else. Just this weekend on highway 400 a number of high priced sportcars where impounded for stunt driving by the OPP. The losers driving these cars thought it was a joke and where interviewed laughing about it on TV. A fine and demerit points and loss of the car for 7 days was no big deal for people driving these cars. Driving is a privilege not a right and as long the laws as so lenient people will keep ignoring them.

In this case the stunt driving law should have these people losing their license for a year. The car is confiscated and sold at auction and proceeds used for community charities in the health and social service sectors. They won't be laughing and joking then will they?

[MrSlippery519]

Originally Posted by go_leafs_go02

I'm all for red light cameras. They work and can do a great job to increase safety.

Photo radar, I'm against. While I would argue red light cameras are a black and white thing, speed limits are not. Look at how the 401 is designed to a 130 km/h design speed, but posted at 100 km/h. If speed limits were set completely based on design speed, then I'd be more open to it, but in a lot of cases, almost everyone travels at a consistent speed that is sometimes up to 20 or 25 km/h higher than the speed limit, and largely that's based on the road design. Engineer the road if you want people to slow down, and I'd argue we should have a higher spread of speed limits. In an urban context, locals would have a baseline speed limit of 40 km/h, collectors at 50 km/h, and arterials at 60 km/h, with increases up or down dependent on the road design and surrounding density / land use.

I only approve of photo radar being used on highways and that road must have an appropriate speed limit. I am all for the 401 getting photo radar and a 120 km/h speed limit. You drive 5 km/h over the limit and you get a ticket it is that simple. Doing that and keeping the speed limit at 100 km/h hell no its just silly.

Also add to that people need to get tickets for driving to slow, I have seen far to often some clown driving 90 in the center lane on the 401. It makes the road unsafe for everyone. If you are not capable of at least doing the speed limit you should be using back roads not the main highway.

One last comment, again not just a London issue but the fluctuating speed limits on some roads makes no sense. Hyde Park for example is 60 km/h almost all the way from Oxford to Fanshawe...except for a small stretch that drops to 50 and then back up to 60. Guess where the cops sit, I see people pulled over constantly in the 50 section.

[HillStreetBlues]

Originally Posted by MrSlippery519

I only approve of photo radar being used on highways and that road must have an appropriate speed limit.

Why?

[MrSlippery519]

Originally Posted by HillStreetBlues

Why?

I should have clarified more on that, not that I disprove of seeing photo radar in places other than highways however I feel in residential areas the local police can and should have a part in that. Their presence in those area's are doing more than just potentially calming speeds.

I do not think police or OPP need to be sitting on the side of highways for the amount of money they are getting paid.

[HillStreetBlues]

Originally Posted by MrSlippery519

I should have clarified more on that, not that I disprove of seeing photo radar in places other than highways however I feel in residential areas the local police can and should have a part in that. Their presence in those area's are doing more than just potentially calming speeds.

I do not think police or OPP need to be sitting on the side of highways for the amount of money they are getting paid.

Ah, that makes sense. And you're absolutely right that a police cruiser on a residential street might be accomplishing more than just traffic enforcement, even if that's primarily why the officer is there.

I still think photo radar in the city could add to that, without eliminating the need for police presence (as it could to a greater degree on highways).

[Blitz]

The problem isn't the drivers - it's the sheer volume of traffic on secondary roads due to the lack of any type of expressway. The traffic is horrible and it's the thing I hate most about London. After living in Windsor for several years (where traffic flows very smoothly), it really stands out as a major difference between the two cities.

[Dupcheck]

Red Light Cameras!

http://www.lfpress.com/2017/04/05/red-li...-intersections-to-start-operating-in-may

They have not planned any around the university. If you can see they are mainly penalizing the people that are going to work everyday and not the ones that should not be driving!

These red light cameras also cause accidents such as rear end collisions. They are certainly not as effective as they say they are. They also encourage slow traffic movement as London's traffic was not slow enough to begin with.
Their main purpose is tax collection for someone, not for London, get that right!!!

Also there are other concerns with them: http://www.lfpress.com/2015/12/27/red-flag-on-red-light-cameras

[MrSlippery519]

Originally Posted by Dupcheck

They have not planned any around the university. If you can see they are mainly penalizing the people that are going to work everyday and not the ones that should not be driving!

I am all for red light camera as mentioned before, I do not understand this part of your comment specifically?

The city had to pick a set number of intersections based on the financial commitment, I am sure there was a lot more thought that went into picking the intersections than we can see. Most of the choices I am sure are simply the highest volume of traffic, others may be known incidents, etc.

At the end of the day the city is expecting to make money from this, I would say 90% + of the tickets these cameras will hand out would not have been otherwise issued. It will make drivers pay attention more, or not which means more tickets. The article you posted is from 2015, and with anything any city in the world adds there will be pros and cons to both sides.

[haljackey]

Top 10 2017 projects: https://www.london.ca/residents/Roads-Tr...Documents/CWC-2017-RenewLondonReport.pdf

More projects: http://apps.london.ca/RightOfWay/

[manny_santos]

Originally Posted by MrSlippery519

I only approve of photo radar being used on highways and that road must have an appropriate speed limit. I am all for the 401 getting photo radar and a 120 km/h speed limit. You drive 5 km/h over the limit and you get a ticket it is that simple. Doing that and keeping the speed limit at 100 km/h hell no its just silly.

Also add to that people need to get tickets for driving to slow, I have seen far to often some clown driving 90 in the center lane on the 401. It makes the road unsafe for everyone. If you are not capable of at least doing the speed limit you should be using back roads not the main highway.

One last comment, again not just a London issue but the fluctuating speed limits on some roads makes no sense. Hyde Park for example is 60 km/h almost all the way from Oxford to Fanshawe...except for a small stretch that drops to 50 and then back up to 60. Guess where the cops sit, I see people pulled over constantly in the 50 section.

London does have some weird speed limits, and some of them have decreased over time. There's no reason Fanshawe Park Road needed to be decreased from 80 to 60 west of Medway Creek. I believe 70 is a more appropriate limit.

On the bright side, London doesn't have some of the ridiculously low speed limits in its rural areas that some municipalities do. While you'll see 80 on rural parts of Wonderland or Wellington, I've seen some municipalities in Eastern Ontario that set similar roads at 60.

[Dupcheck]

Thanks to the City of London, for addressing the much needed bus bay at Fanshawe Pkwy. and Adelaide st. (SE-corner)

Currently being constructed.

http://apps.london.ca/RightOfWay/Details.aspx?GIS_ID=12134

[ldoto]

Feds, Ontario, city pump $38M into keeping water out of basements, sewage out of Thames


By Patrick Maloney, The London Free Press


A $38-million investment announced Wednesday aims to keep water out of London basements and human waste out of the Thames River.

The cash, from Ottawa, Queen’s Park and city hall, will go to largely unseen infrastructure — sewers and water treatment tools, for example — that controls and protects the local water system.

“It’s not glamorous stuff, but it’s important stuff,” London West MP Kate Young said.

The funding is split 50/20/20, with 50 per cent ($18 million) coming from Ottawa and 20 per cent ($9 million) each from the province and city. City hall’s share is to be drawn from existing capital ­budgets.

The money will go to several improvements, including:
•Increasing sewer system capacity to prevent basement flooding and effluent spilling into the Thames River.
•Separating sewer lines to cut the amount of storm water going to treatment plants.
•Improving storm water retention ponds to reduce flooding and erosion.
•Upgrading parts of Greenway and Pottersburg pollution control plants to cut energy costs.

The city is in the midst of a $40-million expansion of the Greenway plant to serve large developments planned for southwest London. That work, unrelated to Wednesday’s announcement, is slated to be done by late 2018.

Overflow of human waste into the Thames is a long-standing issue, particularly for local environmentalists. It’s been linked to the huge growth of life-killing algae in Lake Erie, into which the river flows.

As an example: in the first three months of 2016, heavy rains ­overwhelmed the system and

sent 59,473 cubic metres of raw sewage — enough to fill 60 Olympic-sized swimming pools — into the river.

Wednesday’s funding “increases our quality of life (and) improves our natural environment,” Mayor Matt Brown said.

“Our infrastructure is the backbone of our community.”

Millions more in federal funding was sprinkled Wednesday on dozens of water and sewer projects across the region, in communities including Lucan, St. Thomas, ­Strathroy and Oxford County

[ldoto]

A CP Rail train travels down the tracks.


Discussions on how to solve the Talbot Street bridge ‘truck can opener’ dilemma have morphed into a push to possibly change the way Canadian Pacific Railway (CP) trains run through London.

City staff have already said moving the tracks would be too expensive, but the civic works committee is now asking them to appeal to CP and Canadian National Railway (CN) to share rail lines that already exist within the city.



While the Talbot Street underpass has plagued inattentive truck drivers for years, discussions on potentially moving the tracks really started to heat up amid debate over bus rapid transit (BRT).

Signage at Talbot bridge doing little to curb crashes: report

It was eventually scrapped due to the cost but staff initially proposed running a BRT tunnel under Richmond Row to avoid the level rail crossing, which will delay BRT buses unless city hall can find another solution.

Bus rapid transit routes finalized with King/Queens couplet, minus tunnel

During Wednesday’s committee meeting, Coun. Bill Armstrong said the city should lobby the federal government to support moving CP trains onto CN tracks.


“It’s time that we saw some action, we saw everybody come to the table, and we saw some serious co-operation especially from CN and CP, they need to work together,” he said. “They work together in other communities, [in] Sudbury they both use the same track up there, and the same track back, why can’t we do that here?”

When Armstrong first pitched the idea earlier this month, staff expressed doubts CP and CN would be on board based on previous conversations. However, staff agreed to give the negotiations another shot during Wednesday’s committee meeting.

Staff hope to report back to city politicians with an update on those talks this fall.

They also received the information regarding the Talbot Street underpass, but staff have previously said physically moving the tracks would cost billions of dollars.

Coun. Phil Squire hopes staff will be able to bring an end to further suggestions that the city move the tracks.

“If we spend the next eight years talking about it and we’re not doing the other things that we can do, which is the Adelaide underpass, looking at Richmond, then we’re going to be in the same spot in eight years and people are going to be standing up in a meeting going, ‘why don’t you move the tracks?'” Squire said. “So when do we get the definitive, stamp it, we’ve tried it, we’ve talked to them, [and] it’s not going to happen, or has that already happened?”

London drivers spend average of 18 minutes stuck in traffic

Roughly half a dozen trucks strike the Talbot Street underpass each year. Back on August 20, 2015, the city added enhanced warning signage around the underpass. There are currently four signs cautioning drivers heading south on Talbot Street, and nine signs cautioning drivers heading north.

A report from city staff suggests raising the problematic bridge would require the construction of a new train bridge spanning Oxford Street and the Thames River, while lowering Talbot would jeopardize the underpass’s stability and hamper utilities below ground.


AM980 By Natalie Lovie

[Dupcheck]

CP&CN Rail are NIMBY's.

[manny_santos]

Originally Posted by Dupcheck

CP&CN Rail are NIMBY's.

That makes absolutely no sense. NIMBY stands for Not In My BackYard; they are not opposing any developments adjacent to their properties.

[AbabelleS]

Originally Posted by jaradthescot

Sometimes I just want to know what goes on in other people's minds. It's not like he could have been looking the other way in that situation. Wow.

very ridiculous!

[haljackey]

I kinda like the style of this, too bad it didn't stick arond



Via
http://www.lfpress.com/2017/07/06/pictures-from-the-past-july-6

[tyeman200]

Old victoria road between Bradley and Commissioners had what I call a half assed pave job. Before, the road would curve on each side, and it was a pretty bumpy ride. What they did to solve it? They paved the sides of the road kinda flat, which IMO thought was pretty lazy. I think the road should have been completely ripped out and redone the right way, cause I have a feeling the pave job they did now will need repairing again in the next few years.