Highways in Canada

[waterloowarrior]

Originally Posted by Dado

Once the carriageways are separated by enough space that a vehicle can cross each carriageway separately, a lot of the risk involved in an at-grade intersection is removed since drivers only have to consider traffic coming from one direction at a time. Moreover, by only needing to consider one direction at a time, there's going to be a much higher number of crossing opportunities, leading to less impatience and risk-taking. That's probably why it's so "surprising" that there aren't more accidents.

The risks associated with turning movements can be reduced by adding deceleration/acceleration lanes.

Agreed. The majority of fatal collisions are non-intersection. Medians, carriage separation, shoulder barriers/warnings should be more of a focus than trying to turn rural highways into full grade-separated freeways or Super-2s. (400 is a different story, referring more to the TCH)

[SignalHillHiker]

Are we as far behind on this as I assume we are? Came into effect yesterday...

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[vid]

Do you have the one where you have to stop and let buses back into traffic yet? We've had that in Ontario for about a decade now and still no one follows it.

[SignalHillHiker]

No, our buses don't give a f**k. They just pull out. They give a 3-second warning with their flicker, and then they turn out. Horns going, cars swerving, doesn't matter. They did it enough that now people know and stop.

[VIce]

Originally Posted by SignalHillHiker

No, our buses don't give a f**k. They just pull out. They give a 3-second warning with their flicker, and then they turn out. Horns going, cars swerving, doesn't matter. They did it enough that now people know and stop.

Newfoundland's infamous "BAMF law".

[SignalHillHiker]

Well, "You treat people how to teach you."

[Mister F]

Originally Posted by milomilo

I find it fairly astonishing that one of the wealthiest countries in the world has such completely, obviously substandard intersections on major highways. All along the TCH east of Calgary there are numerous similar at grade crossings for every minor highway. It's dangerous and I'm surprised there aren't more accidents.

There's no need for a full freeway with interchanges in spread out, sparsely populated areas, even in rich countries. Australia's freeway network is mainly limited to the areas around major cities. Same with Scandinavia. A network of at grade divided expressways across a region like the Prairies is actually pretty rare.

[Innsertnamehere]

^agreed in areas like the praries where the highways typically have fairly low traffic counts it is fine, but the 400 is deficient. at grade intersections on highways aren't really acceptable over 25-30,000 AADT if you ask me. The at grade intersections on the 400 and the RIRO highways in Ontario like 35 and 11 where they handle close to 30,000 AADT are unacceptable IMO. most rural highways with little cross traffic are fine with dual carriageways.. Ontario is starting to build large amounts of highways in that model in the north. (11/17 twinning, twinning from Manitoba to Kenora, etc.)

[ssiguy]

I've always thought one of Ontario's top priorities should be to extend the 402 from Strathroy across northern London to the 403 at Woodstock which is where is was suppose to go in the first place until Labbat's greased some palms at Queen's Park and made it swing south to the 401 at wellington road in the southern edge of the city.

The 401 from London to Woodstock carries a whopping 70,000 vehicles a day with monsterous amounts of transport traffic and it is going to have to be widened and that is going to be a nightmare. It is also near useless to people in Northern London {whuich is the fastest growing part of the city} as London has no freeways and in rush hour it can easily take 45 minutes just to get to the 401.

The 402 has become a very busy roadway with traffic volumes at 80% of the 401's level between London and Windsor with huge transport traffic most of which is heading towards Toronto or Hamilton/Niagara.

In BC, one hardly knows where to start on the upgrades needed. It just finished the HWY/port Mann and South Fraser Perimeter Road which, out of Canada's 6 largest cities, takes it from the worst highway sytem in the country to the worse highway system in the country, just slightly less so. The Island highway desperately needs freeway standards all the way from Victoria to Comox but only a small portion is and it's not even 4 lanes coming into Victoria.

BC needs a whole slew of interchanges in greater Vancouver for it's slow roads and must be 8 lanes to Abbotsford and at least 6 to Chilliwack. the Okanagan Connector still doesn't directly connect with the Coquihalla and requires a huge out of the way route thru merit and due to the very long and steep mountain near Merrit it adds 25 minutes to the trip by car and 45 minutes for the transports that crawl up the mountain.

[SignalHillHiker]

Kenmount Road, then Columbus Drive, then Old Topsail Road, then the Old Town and Downtown. Note how it's foggy at higher elevations in Mount Pearl, where we start, but perfectly fine in the Downtown. That's usually the case here.

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[eternallyme]

Originally Posted by ssiguy

I've always thought one of Ontario's top priorities should be to extend the 402 from Strathroy across northern London to the 403 at Woodstock which is where is was suppose to go in the first place until Labbat's greased some palms at Queen's Park and made it swing south to the 401 at wellington road in the southern edge of the city.

The 401 from London to Woodstock carries a whopping 70,000 vehicles a day with monsterous amounts of transport traffic and it is going to have to be widened and that is going to be a nightmare. It is also near useless to people in Northern London {whuich is the fastest growing part of the city} as London has no freeways and in rush hour it can easily take 45 minutes just to get to the 401.

The 402 has become a very busy roadway with traffic volumes at 80% of the 401's level between London and Windsor with huge transport traffic most of which is heading towards Toronto or Hamilton/Niagara.

In BC, one hardly knows where to start on the upgrades needed. It just finished the HWY/port Mann and South Fraser Perimeter Road which, out of Canada's 6 largest cities, takes it from the worst highway sytem in the country to the worse highway system in the country, just slightly less so. The Island highway desperately needs freeway standards all the way from Victoria to Comox but only a small portion is and it's not even 4 lanes coming into Victoria.

BC needs a whole slew of interchanges in greater Vancouver for it's slow roads and must be 8 lanes to Abbotsford and at least 6 to Chilliwack. the Okanagan Connector still doesn't directly connect with the Coquihalla and requires a huge out of the way route thru merit and due to the very long and steep mountain near Merrit it adds 25 minutes to the trip by car and 45 minutes for the transports that crawl up the mountain.

You can blame the tree huggers for the backlogs on Vancouver Island, they want nothing to do with any highways.

[MolsonExport]

The gap between the Coquihalla and the Connector has always baffled me. Two modern superhighways joined by little more than a rural road. At least it is paved. Maybe it has been upgraded since I last drove that stretch (must be at least a dozen years ago, perhaps more).

As for London....well, it is a "we can't-do that" sort of place, in terms of the mindset of the current/past mayor/council. Unless of course it is for wasting money on greenfield developments that benefit only big box barf developers. Then it is "build it, and they will come".

The past mayor was absolutely wretched (Witch Queen of Angmar), but the current mayor is somehow even worse (Shoeless Joe Fraudtana).

[middeljohn]

[RANT]
It takes a certain kind of asshole to merge onto the QEW at 60km/h and then proceed to drive 80km/h in the middle lane. I wish these dicks would get ticketed as well.
[/RANT]

[ScreamingViking]

Not sure who I despise more - the slow and oblivious mergers, or the DBs who use the merge lanes (and sometimes exit lanes) for passing.

[ssiguy]

Originally Posted by eternallyme

You can blame the tree huggers for the backlogs on Vancouver Island, they want nothing to do with any highways.

No, you can blame the NDP and the Clark government of the 1990s.

The section from Ladysmith all the way to Comox was suppose to be full freeway standard and the Malahat was suppose to be 4 lanes freeway standard but Clarke decided it was payback time for all his union buddies that bankrolled his election. There was enough money for the roadway but Clark decided that all the work must be done by unionized labour and the cost skyrocketed by $200 million. Remember this is the mid 90s so $200 million was big bucks.

He didn't offer any more funds to pay them with so huge chunks of the highway had to be scaled back which meant many interchanges were downgraded to traffic lights, the Malahat was scaled back to one lane each way plus regulated passing lanes and the section from Courtenay to Campbell River wasn't widened at all.

[ssiguy]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

The gap between the Coquihalla and the Connector has always baffled me. Two modern superhighways joined by little more than a rural road. At least it is paved. Maybe it has been upgraded since I last drove that stretch (must be at least a dozen years ago, perhaps more).

As for London....well, it is a "we can't-do that" sort of place, in terms of the mindset of the current/past mayor/council. Unless of course it is for wasting money on greenfield developments that benefit only big box barf developers. Then it is "build it, and they will come".

The past mayor was absolutely wretched (Witch Queen of Angmar), but the current mayor is somehow even worse (Shoeless Joe Fraudtana).

Actually you can write that Coquihalla/Okanagan non-connection as yet another Clarke NDP boondoggle.

If the section from Okanagan Connector to the Coquihalla had been complete as was planned it would shave 25 minutes off the trip to Kelowna for cars and 40 minutes for transport trucks. This is not only because it would be a very direct route but also it would mean all the transports going to Kelowna would not have to go up the very long and very steep mountain going into Merritt and the very steep slope when approaching Merritt. Those inclines are far too step for transports to climb and descend so they often cruise up the slope at 50km/hr and only slightly faster when declining.

The reason the direct connection was not built, even though it was budgeted, was again Clarke's doing. When studies were beginning on the connection project, it was abruptly told to stop and that there would be no new connection but rather just an upgrade of the current winding and very out of the way existing road.

This is because again, Clarke only thinking about re-election and not the good of the travelling public, did not object when the then Minister of Transportation decided to not build the connection. He did not want the traffic to bypass Merritt as the traffic from OK Connector was good for Merritt.

Oh, by the way, did I mention which riding the Minister of Transportation was from?.........ya, that's right, Merritt. Merritt often votes NDP and the NDP has never won a seat in the ultra-Conservative bastion of the Okanagan Valley so he didn't care about what it did to their travels.

This is the gospel truth, you couldn't make this stuff up but this is why much of the province has such remarkably bad infrastructure.

[GreaterMontréal]

Rond-point l'Acadie, Autoroute métropolitaine (40) , Highway 40 and 15 north interchange, highway 15 (autoroute des Laurentides ),


by http://www.fashionoverreason.com/2013/08/europe-of-north-photo-diary.html

[Innsertnamehere]

Ontario seems interested in extending the 417 to Renfrew:

http://www.insideottawavalley.com/news-s...l-party-support-for-highway-17-twinning/

[SignalHillHiker]

Something Lio45 and I discussed: a perfect example of why the federal and provincial governments should cooperate more on highways, if we're going to be a united federation.

The existing journey from Quebec City to St. John's through the Maritimes is 2,300 km plus an 6-hour ferry ride, one that is often delayed due to weather and cannot accommodate all transport trucks on the day they join the line to cross.

A journey along Quebec's northern St. Lawrence short to Blanc Sablon, and a fixed link between Labrador and Newfoundland, would only be 100 km longer, eliminate the ferry, and be open to all transport trucks, all the time. It would, the media reported one guy involved in shipping saying, be irresistible.

We're already building a fixed link from Newfoundland to Labrador as part of the Muskrat Falls project. It wouldn't cost much more to make it big enough to carry vehicles instead of just giant cables.

And Quebec only has a 300-km portion of its northern St. Lawrence shore highway to complete.

An agreement between us (not possible) or federal help would be great.

[waterloowarrior]

^ here is the provincial government study on a fixed link
http://www.gov.nl.ca/publicat/fixedlink/

Conclusions

A tunnel bored using modern tunnel boring machines under the Strait of Belle Isle, at its narrowest point, is the most technically and economically attractive alternative.

The construction cost of a bored tunnel would be approximately $1.2 billion in 2004 dollars. The total development cost for financing purposes, including escalation and interest during construction would be approximately $1.7 billion.
The construction period would be six years and an additional five years would be required for planning, additional studies and investigations and environmental assessments, for an overall development period of 11 years.

Based on traffic projections over a 30-year period, the most economic tunnel arrangement would be an electric train shuttle, operating through a single tunnel with staged operation in each direction, that conveys road vehicles on custom-designed rail cars.

The economic and business case analysis showed that a fixed link could not be financed privately under normal economic and business case criteria. This result, however, may be considered not unusual in the realm of public transportation infrastructure.

Including costs and revenue for the transmission lines has an effect on the overall viability of the fixed link. Incorporating the HVDC cables in the fixed link rather than constructing a submarine installation, reduces the capital cost to an HVDC proponent by approximately $390 M. This cost reduction includes the cost of the cable, for which a rental would be charged by the fixed link proponent.

Of the financing methodologies addressed, some form of PPP (Public Private Partnership) arrangement would appear to be the most appropriate. An infusion of approximately $1.4 billion from public sources would be required to make the proposition attractive to the private sector.