You guys don't realize how good you have it in the highways departments. Let me put this into perspective for you so you can visualize how bad the highway system is in BC...……….Essex County Ontario with 400,000 varying from 330 to 400 km from Toronto has more 6 lane freeway than ALL of BC.
Well yeah, but it’s also the beginning of the 401, which happens to be the most important and busiest freeway in the country! Also, the two Windsor border crossings are the busiest in North America in terms of trade volume, with 25% of all trade between the two countries just crossing the Ambassador Bridge alone!
__________________ Windsor Ontario, Canada's southern most city!
Well yeah, but it’s also the beginning of the 401, which happens to be the most important and busiest freeway in the country! Also, the two Windsor border crossings are the busiest in North America in terms of trade volume, with 25% of all trade between the two countries just crossing the Ambassador Bridge alone!
Yeah, similar to the NB highway system the highway system is overbuilt for the local population in Essex because of international transport truck transport. There may be three lanes going in one direction in Essex but one of those lanes is almost exclusively for transports. It's pretty crazy to see.
Yeah, similar to the NB highway system the highway system is overbuilt for the local population in Essex because of international transport truck transport. There may be three lanes going in one direction in Essex but one of those lanes is almost exclusively for transports. It's pretty crazy to see.
I thought that was because crossover collisions happened way too often where 401 has (or used to have) very narrow median, and that in the process of adding the tall wall, MTO also put in the fast lane...
yes it's the start of the 401 but so what. The #99 is a commuter route and is much busier and also a major transport route from the US and leads to one of the busiest border crossings in the country with 60,000 vehicles a day. HWY#1 has busy transport traffic, is MUCH busier at nearly 80,000 vehicles a day and the only route to the Fraser Valley, Interior, or rest of the country and has accidents all the time but they still haven't widened that which should be 8 lanes to Abbotsford and 6 lanes to Hope.
The South Fraser Perimeter Road was built with just 2 lanes and has many stop lights and even an at-grade rail crossing. They built the damn thing of such low standards that they didn`t even incline part of the road so a busy transport intersection leading to the Alex Fraser Bridge is often the sight of transport roll-overs. The Richmond Connector is often bumper to bumper but again only 2 lanes. Hell HWY#99B is only now coming up to freeway standards getting rid of a light in the middle of a freeway 30 years after it was built.
People often talk about Vancouver have no freeways but the reality is that the entire road network in BC and especially the Lower Mainland is nothing short of horrid for a city of 2.5 million. Facts speak for themselves............Vancouver has the 3rd longest commute in NA despite being the 25th largest metro.
The old standby in BC of the roads having to go thru the mountains is crap as the Fraser Valley is flat. Safety and traffic over capacity has no relevance in BC.........they simply won't build the roads and never to meet proper safety and capacity.
Location: Calgary - our road planners are as bad as yours Edmonton
Posts: 5,047
Quote:
Originally Posted by Corndogger
When they freewayize a road they always close down most exits. That's why they're classified as limited access roads. Not only would it be super expensive to build interchanges at every turn off it would be super unsafe to have people exiting and entering the freeway if the exits were too close together.
Quote:
Originally Posted by milomilo
Someone tell that to AB roads (and SK, MB and BC...).
Alberta will not allow any further at grade intersections to be built on a four lane highway (existing or future) but they cannot close off all the existing access points until alternatives exist - and there are very few of those. They could start by banning left hand exits onto the smaller roads which would be a positive step in some areas.
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Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the the universe.
Alberta will not allow any further at grade intersections to be built on a four lane highway (existing or future) but they cannot close off all the existing access points until alternatives exist - and there are very few of those. They could start by banning left hand exits onto the smaller roads which would be a positive step in some areas.
Like I suggested earlier, a cheap way of doing it will be converting current at-grade intersections to RIRO (right-in right-out), and have U turn spots 1.5 km beyond the last one (in 10 km) in each direction. Obviously, if there’s an interchange nearby anyway, you don’t even need the U-turn spots.
Exit lanes and merge lanes for U turn spots aren’t omissible, though! One thing that always perplexed me about dual carriageway is why cars should even be allowed to go straight into the way of some vehicle potentially going at 140 km/h.
Like I suggested earlier, a cheap way of doing it will be converting current at-grade intersections to RIRO (right-in right-out), and have U turn spots 1.5 km beyond the last one (in 10 km) in each direction. Obviously, if there’s an interchange nearby anyway, you don’t even need the U-turn spots.
Exit lanes and merge lanes for U turn spots aren’t omissible, though! One thing that always perplexed me about dual carriageway is why cars should even be allowed to go straight into the way of some vehicle potentially going at 140 km/h.
That's still building to crappy design. Canadians don't seem to realise that left turns off divided highways should not be a thing.
Alberta will not allow any further at grade intersections to be built on a four lane highway (existing or future) but they cannot close off all the existing access points until alternatives exist - and there are very few of those. They could start by banning left hand exits onto the smaller roads which would be a positive step in some areas.
Why do they keep building them then? For example:
Numerous elements of shitty design in this project. Obviously the normal at-grade farm road intersections, add on a roundabout on a major road to the north. And of course they can't help themselves and put in a stupid non standard interchange at the south, with a sliproad off the left side of the southbound mainline.
A concrete barrier was installed on a short segment of Autoroute 50 just west of Mirabel Airport last year. Though the highway is only a single lane per direction, about 4 km of barrier separates the opposing flow. Interestingly, the barrier was cast in place, and not a segmented pre-cast barrier as I would have expected. These photos look west:
That segment of A-50 is slated to be widened to four lanes in the next couple of years, as far as Lachute where another four-lane divided segment is also in place.
At the other end another segment will also be widened to four divided lanes to the east of Gatineau. This latter project is likely to be done faster as the planning, etc. is more advanced.
Regarding the 6 lane stretch of the 401 in Windsor and Essex, I agree that it's not really that needed, but we're spoiled now. Having a third lane to pass all those trucks is 'nice'.
Spending 1.5 billion for what... a 8km extension of 6 lane freeway in Windsor? Just to have that infrastructure end in Tilbury?
If you've spent that much money you may as well keep investing to make the highway 6 lanes all the way to London (actually all the way to Kitchener!).
Either that or it should have built as 4 lanes with room saved for eventual expansion. That would have saved money.
-Past Huron Church / Highway 3, the 401 is essentially a road to nowhere and has been for years. Need that new bridge.
For the record, 401 does have 6 lanes from Highway 402 to Cobourg (Exit 474), but I do agree (from driver’s perspective) that the stretch between Tilbury and 402 be widened to 6 lanes. Truck volume warrants it.
Well, alternatively, we can also get rid of the speed-limiter law, and allow trucks to pass at 120 km/h. Western Canada and the Maritimes have no such law, anyway.
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You should probably let ministry of transportation know before it’s too late.
Western Canada and the Maritimes have no such law, anyway.
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