Highways in Canada

[vid]

When they improve the Thunder Bay Expressway two years ago, the only real safety improvement they added was an increased space between the two solid yellow lines.

They also added streetlights all along the highway, with concrete bases, which people love driving cars into!

[eternallyme]

Originally Posted by vid

When they improve the Thunder Bay Expressway two years ago, the only real safety improvement they added was an increased space between the two solid yellow lines.

They also added streetlights all along the highway, with concrete bases, which people love driving cars into!

The TBE needs to be upgraded into a full freeway badly...

[sa230e]

Originally Posted by Innsertnamehere

At least there is space for one if they want to add one eventually..

Ontario has plenty of substandard highways as well, no worries. Lots of smaller highways that are going over capacity for only 2 lanes are being widened to 4 lanes without any improvements. If you are lucky you get a small grass median, which isn't enough to stop cars anyway. Highway 3 in Essex and 40 in sarnia has the small median, highway 10, 6, 89, and 7 are just 4 lane roads. 12, 8 and 26 have plans to be widened to 4 undivided lanes soon as well. (8 will have a small dual carriageway section)

I wouldn't call {3} substandard. I personally think Highway 3 between Windsor and Essex is a pretty nice road.

[vid]

Originally Posted by eternallyme

The TBE needs to be upgraded into a full freeway badly...

Yes, but unfortunately no one lives here so it would be irresponsible to do so. The fact that this highway backs traffic up about a kilometre on every street that crosses it is irrelevant because Burnhamthorpe Road in Mississauga at 5pm.

[eternallyme]

Originally Posted by vid

Yes, but unfortunately no one lives here so it would be irresponsible to do so. The fact that this highway backs traffic up about a kilometre on every street that crosses it is irrelevant because Burnhamthorpe Road in Mississauga at 5pm.

In the minds of bureaucrats yes, but Thunder Bay still has about 120,000 people.

[vid]

And Mississauga has 700,000. "Obviously they require it more." Northern Ontario is a welfare case that soaks up highway funding to the detriment of the south.

The province is working on planning upgrades to the expressway, but they won't be complete for a few years and won't be acted upon for even longer. There is a full plan from 1995 that the PCs cancelled, but all the upgrades to intersections since then, new developments, and changes in terrain have left a lot of the old plan as little more than a guideline. The good news though will be that the area around Dawson Road and Highway 11/17 has seen a lot of lots become vacant so a proper interchange can be built there, the only real challenge will be the Arthur Street intersection.

[MonctonRad]

The first $60M has been committed by the federal and (NB) provincial governments towards the Highway 11 twinning project between Shediac and Miramichi NB.

The southern part of the highway between Bouctouche and Shediac is very busy, with average traffic volumes of 20,000 cars per day, so twinning is very definitely warranted. This traffic is generated mostly because this is part of the exurban commuter watershed of Moncton, and is exacerbated in the summertime because this part of the Northumberland shore sees a lot of tourist traffic.

The first $60M will only cover the southernmost 8.6 km of the route, but this is also the most complex part of the project as it includes three existing interchanges (including the highway 11/15 cloverleaf, where the 11 intersects the divided highway connecting Moncton and PEI), and also a new dedicated interchange serving downtown Shediac. Completion is scheduled for the fall of 2017.

The next phase will be to divide the highway to Bouctouche, but this likely won't be completed until 2022.

[niwell]

Originally Posted by vid

Yes, but unfortunately no one lives here so it would be irresponsible to do so. The fact that this highway backs traffic up about a kilometre on every street that crosses it is irrelevant because Burnhamthorpe Road in Mississauga at 5pm.

I know what you are getting at, and can certainly sympathize. It is unfortunate given the nature of Ontario demographics. MTO is always in a tough position.

But - have you experienced GTA traffic at 5pm on a weekday? 1km backups are laughable. It's really getting nightmarish. In any event I haven't seen any massive improvements to Burnhamthorpe recently. It's certainly not up to any sort of freeway standards, and it seems the City is trying to do the opposite and urbanize the corridor. I don't even think it's a Peel Regional Road, much less Provincial (could be wrong here).

[vid]

Burnhamthorpe is the only one I could think of. It is a valid point; the GTA has more four-lane roads with high AADT and traffic backups than Thunder Bay has traffic lights, but just because that's the case doesn't mean we have to deal with the fact that our busiest street is built to the same standards as a collector road in Brampton.

1km might not seem like much, but when you consider that the city is only 4km wide at that point, it's significant. It blocks three other intersections, causing gridlock in a community (Port Arthur, not Thunder Bay) with barely 25,000 workers. The road that gets stuck happens to be the only road that directly connects our fastest growing subdivisions with downtown Port Arthur, and it's only 4 lanes. Thunder Bay might be the largest city in Ontario with no roads wider than 5 lanes (4 plus a centre turning lane). They did add a turning lane to it back in 2008 and it's helped, but the intersection still gets very backed up because it has to stop for the long turn cycles on the Expressway.

Memorial Avenue, our main North-South road, experiences a similar issue at the Harbour Expressway, but both of these are municipal roads. Most of its problems are due to the total off-ramps at that intersection and a Tim Hortons nearby. Poor planning.

[niwell]

I did just look at the TBE on google maps and it does look fairly pathetic. And somewhat dangerous since it isn't a dual-carriageway.

Could the City put pressure on the Province for upgrades? Or offer a deal for some sort of split funding? I imagine given the political realities of the area they may be somewhat receptive. Municipalities that take the initiative tend to get prioritized for funding. I'm not sure what financial situation TBay is in however.

[vid]

The speed limit on the Expressway is 90, there are only several head on collisions per year on the road and pedestrians only get killed while crossing it on roughly a yearly basis, so it's relatively safe. Michael Gravelle (who is now in cabinet) was elected in 1995 on a promise to complete the upgrade of the road, and the process is starting. The city has made it an almost annual exercise during provincial budget consultation to demand improvements to the highway, and the study gives the province something to hide behind.

The city can't do much to fix the road themselves and I doubt they would be able to afford to contribute much since our capital budget for roads is only about $20M, but they're putting more money into four-laning Golf Links and Junot parallel to it, a 4 year project. They did the stretch from William to Oliver last year, this year they're doing Oliver to Riviera, and the next two years will see improvements from Riviera north to Red River. The city is now forcing all subdivision development into the area between Belrose, the Expressway, Paquette and Oliver, and it will involve the construction of a new road that will intersect the Expressway (then curve east and hook up to Wardrope, which will end at a new interchange with the Expressway and Balsam), so long-term residential development of the city requires MTO involvement. We'll probably see them get more involved in 2 or 3 years when the current lot inventory runs out.

Since our city council became more pro-development in the late 2000s, we have seen the province put more effort into upgrading highways here. At the beginning of 2007, we had only 2.5km of divided highway and no interchanges. We now have about 6km of divided highway, an interchange, two new by-passes, Nipigon is getting a new bridge, the Expressway upgrade is in a detailed planning stage (but no funding has been committed) while a new four-lane highway connecting the city to the 11/17 split is in the early planning stage (estimated completion: 2035!) The Harris Government disrupted everything. The expressway from Loon to Kakabeka Falls would have been a full, grade-separated freeway by now had they not cancelled literally everything that was planned for it, including parts under construction.

[itom 987]

*Shocker!*

Some highways in BC will now have a 120 km/h speed limit!

News Posted: Jul 02, 2014 10:21 AM PT Last Updated: Jul 02, 2014 11:32 AM PT

Speed limits on some B.C. highways to hit 120 km/h
Sensors and radar will be used to monitor road conditions and set variable speed limits CBC

The speed limits on some multi-lane highways in B.C. are going up to 120 kilometres per hour, Transportation Minister Todd Stone announced on Wednesday morning in Kamloops.

Source: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-co...e-b-c-highways-to-hit-120-km-h-1.2694277


I am completely shocked that BC is the first to do this of all places in Canada.

[go_leafs_go02]

Originally Posted by itom 987

*Shocker!*

Some highways in BC will now have a 120 km/h speed limit!



Source: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-co...e-b-c-highways-to-hit-120-km-h-1.2694277


I am completely shocked that BC is the first to do this of all places in Canada.

It all happened pretty quickly. A New Minister of Transportation, some negative coverage from the media about poor enforcement, left lane hogs.

Surprised Ontario wasn't the first, and they have NO plans to change the 400 series limit, even though US across the board is making changes. Never would have guessed BC would be the first.

Kudos to the Ministry of Transportation!

[ssiguy]

Good for BC and it's about time.

It will only really apply to 3 highways..............The Coquihalla, The Okanagan Connector, and The Island Highway north of Parksville. Still that most of the freeways outside the Lower Mainland so it's more than it seems as BC doesn't have a lot of 4 lane roads.

100km/hour is absurd and although Alberta and Sask are at 110 for more of their 4 lane rural roads, even that is too low.

The speed limit use to 75 MPH on freeways before Trudeau lowered it to "save fuel" during the energy crisis of the mid-70s. It went from 75 to 60 in one swoop all across the country. When the country coverted to metric it was 100km/hour which increased it marginally to 64 mph.

Canada must have the lowest speed limits on the planet and absurd ones when outside major metros.

[Blitz]

^ 100km/h is only 62 mph (although on the signs on Highway 401 near the border they list it as 60 mph for the Americans). I often pass Americans who stick closely to the asinine speed limit because they don't realize that in Ontario you can go up to about 120km/h on Highway 401 in rural areas without being pulled over.

[Innsertnamehere]

At least we didn't drop to the 55mph the US was at for so long..

The most insane thing to me is that the 90km/h speed limit has been retained on the freshly opened portions of the widened highway 11/17 outside of Thunder Bay, despite it being built to to the same standards as highway 11 which has a 100km/h speed limit.

They aren't even being consistent with it..

[vid]

This part of Ontario isn't allowed to have speed limits above 90km/h. Until that policy or law is changed, we could have the most advanced highway engineering in the world and they'd still put a 90km/h speed limit on it.

It's probably because it's the only road, and people with G1 and M1 licences "need" to use it, so it has to be "safe" for them.

[Innsertnamehere]

you are allowed to drive on highway 11 with your G1 and M1, actually.

The specific law detailing what roads you can and cannot drive on states:

1. Those parts of the King’s Highway known as Nos. 400, 400A, 401, 402, 403, 404, 405, 406, 407, 409, 410, 416, 417, 420 and 427 with posted speed limits greater than 80 kilometres per hour.

2. All of the King’s Highway known as the Queen Elizabeth Way.

3. Those parts of the highway known as the Don Valley Parkway, the Gardiner Expressway and the E. C. Row Expressway.

4. That part of the King’s Highway known as the Conestoga Parkway from its westerly limit at its intersection with the King’s Highway known as Nos. 7 and 8 to its northerly limit at its intersection with the King’s Highway known as No. 86. O. Reg. 340/94, s. 5 (4); O. Reg. 149/97, s. 1.

This means 11, 35, 115, the expressway portion of 7 outside of Ottawa, from The Red Hill Parkway, and the Lincoln Alexander are all fair game for G1 drivers.

Not sure what exactly what is allowed and what isn't in K-W, but it appears as though at least one part of their freeway network is legal as well.

[ssiguy]

God, things sure have changed from when I was a kid and got my liscense. I turned 16 in 1981 and I got my beginners on my birthday and went back for my full drivers liscense the very next day and passed as everyone passed back then. That was it, a whole 24 hour to go from no license to a full one.

[libtard]

Originally Posted by ssiguy

God, things sure have changed from when I was a kid and got my liscense. I turned 16 in 1981 and I got my beginners on my birthday and went back for my full drivers liscense the very next day and passed as everyone passed back then. That was it, a whole 24 hour to go from no license to a full one.

Yep now BC is the only place on the continent that publicly shames their drivers by making them display an N or L decal on their car to make people aware they have their NEW or LEARNERS licenses