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This morning I noticed a new sign up on the highway (northbound, just before the Lancaster on-ramp) - "Ontario - Your Tax Dollars at Work - Infrastructure Improvements"

No indication of exactly what the improvements are or when we can expect to see them, but I thought it was interesting that it's posted right in front of the highly controversial Lancaster ramps. Could be that I'm putting two puzzle pieces together that don't fit, buuut this would be the one area where I'd be okay with the province overriding the regional decision. The province can get lost about everything else (*cough cough* the countryside line).
(05-02-2023, 09:02 AM)SF22 Wrote: [ -> ]This morning I noticed a new sign up on the highway (northbound, just before the Lancaster on-ramp) - "Ontario - Your Tax Dollars at Work - Infrastructure Improvements"

No indication of exactly what the improvements are or when we can expect to see them, but I thought it was interesting that it's posted right in front of the highly controversial Lancaster ramps. Could be that I'm putting two puzzle pieces together that don't fit, buuut this would be the one area where I'd be okay with the province overriding the regional decision. The province can get lost about everything else (*cough cough* the countryside line).

No added information other than .. this is why they wanted to do (rush) the ramps now, to team up with this upcoming work.
(05-02-2023, 10:51 AM)allknowing2012 Wrote: [ -> ]
(05-02-2023, 09:02 AM)SF22 Wrote: [ -> ]This morning I noticed a new sign up on the highway (northbound, just before the Lancaster on-ramp) - "Ontario - Your Tax Dollars at Work - Infrastructure Improvements"

No indication of exactly what the improvements are or when we can expect to see them, but I thought it was interesting that it's posted right in front of the highly controversial Lancaster ramps. Could be that I'm putting two puzzle pieces together that don't fit, buuut this would be the one area where I'd be okay with the province overriding the regional decision. The province can get lost about everything else (*cough cough* the countryside line).

No added information other than .. this is why they wanted to do (rush) the ramps now, to team up with this upcoming work.

Do you know what work they have planned already for this area?
Driving down Victoria the other day, Looks like the Region is adding a stop light at the intersection of Victoria and Shirley Drive.
(05-02-2023, 12:13 PM)SF22 Wrote: [ -> ]
(05-02-2023, 10:51 AM)allknowing2012 Wrote: [ -> ]No added information other than .. this is why they wanted to do (rush) the ramps now, to team up with this upcoming work.

Do you know what work they have planned already for this area?

Googling around and found this .. pretty generic.
Lancaster Street Reconstruction Wellington Street to Bridgeport Road
https://www.regionofwaterloo.ca/en/livin...oSheet.pdf
(05-02-2023, 04:38 PM)allknowing2012 Wrote: [ -> ]
(05-02-2023, 12:13 PM)SF22 Wrote: [ -> ]Do you know what work they have planned already for this area?

Googling around and found this .. pretty generic.
Lancaster Street Reconstruction Wellington Street to Bridgeport Road
https://www.regionofwaterloo.ca/en/livin...oSheet.pdf

Oh yeah, that's the full reconstruction of Lancaster St itself, with the new addition of separated bike lanes (very exciting). There's a ton of detail here: https://www.engagewr.ca/kitchener-lancaster-street

I guess the province is needed just for the work happening on the bridge over the highway? Fair enough.
(05-02-2023, 12:13 PM)SF22 Wrote: [ -> ]Do you know what work they have planned already for this area?

Looking at the Ontario Southern Highways Program there is a contract that is marked as underway for 7/85 for updating signage through various locations in Waterloo, so chances are it is that. There is also another project for Lancaster to King for culvert replacement and resurfacing but it doesn't look as if a contract has been awarded for that.
(05-02-2023, 01:53 PM)westwardloo Wrote: [ -> ]Driving down Victoria the other day, Looks like the Region is adding a stop light at the intersection of Victoria and Shirley Drive.

I don’t really understand this stoplight to be honest. I know people turning left there have a difficult turn but it’s not particularly out of the way for those people to go to Bingeman’s Drive and turn left onto Victoria at the light. I don’t imagine most of that traffic is actually from the section of Shirley before Bingemans Drive anyway as much as people trying to skip the bigger intersection on their way eastward.

It just seems weird to slow down the highway 7 traffic at this spot (nothing else around) and divert traffic from the bigger roads to this small two lane section. Because lots of people will probably start taking Shirley Drive to skip the busier turn onto Victoria if they’re heading the general Kitchener -> Guelph route.
(05-04-2023, 08:04 PM)SammyOES Wrote: [ -> ]It just seems weird to slow down the highway 7 traffic at this spot (nothing else around) and divert traffic from the bigger roads to this small two lane section.  Because lots of people will probably start taking Shirley Drive to skip the busier turn onto Victoria if they’re heading the general Kitchener -> Guelph route.

Interesting, because that is my proposed main route. If everybody starts doing that the rest of Victoria will have less traffic.
(05-04-2023, 09:57 PM)ijmorlan Wrote: [ -> ]Interesting, because that is my proposed main route. If everybody starts doing that the rest of Victoria will have less traffic.

I don’t really see why we’d want the traffic off that section of Victoria (lackner/bingemans to Shirley).

We’d need another stoplight at bingemans/Shirley which would be awkward with a stoplight/rail/stoplight in close succession. And it’s taking traffic from an already built 5-lane road with minimal businesses along it to move traffic to a much smaller road that already has roughly the same number of businesses. It doesn’t feel like this section of Victoria needs to be particularly pedestrian friendly because it’s mostly car dealerships, rail underpass/tracks, and some water management.

I think you just end up with two high-traffic routes instead of one. And it’ll be really silly to have three car friendly routes if we end up building the highway too.
(05-05-2023, 12:47 PM)SammyOES Wrote: [ -> ]
(05-04-2023, 09:57 PM)ijmorlan Wrote: [ -> ]Interesting, because that is my proposed main route. If everybody starts doing that the rest of Victoria will have less traffic.

I don’t really see why we’d want the traffic off that section of Victoria (lackner/bingemans to Shirley). 

We’d need another stoplight at bingemans/Shirley which would be awkward with a stoplight/rail/stoplight in close succession.  And it’s taking traffic from an already built 5-lane road with minimal businesses along it to move traffic to a much smaller road that already has roughly the same number of businesses.  It doesn’t feel like this section of Victoria needs to be particularly pedestrian friendly because it’s mostly car dealerships, rail underpass/tracks, and some water management.

I think you just end up with two high-traffic routes instead of one.  And it’ll be really silly to have three car friendly routes if we end up building the highway too.

My idea is to re-work the intersections so the natural (no turns) route into town is along what is now Shirley Dr. and Bingemans Centre Dr., and re-design Victoria St. (west of the intersection with Shirley Dr.) to be an urban street. Taking a closer look, I see that east of Lackner the whole area is industrial, so it could make sense for that part to be primarily industrial. West of Lackner though Victoria is one block from residential streets so redesigning it would make a lot of sense.

And I would not build the superhighway. So there would be only one main route into town starting from Highway 7, and it would stay away from residential areas all the way until it reached the expressway.
Gotcha. I agree about west of Lackner.

I think I mentioned this in the other thread but I don’t really care what we do at this point in terms of the new highway (I have opinions but nothing that strongly held) but we really do need to decide what we’re doing so we can make reasonable decisions about these other roads too.
I drove down King St from University to Bridgeport today, which I haven't done in at least a couple years, and WOW. I went to Laurier back in 2007-11, and regularly walked that stretch of King St, and it's like an entirely different place now. Fewer car lanes, the raised bike lanes, the new trees, the actual crosswalks with lights!! And they're working on the new big bus shelter/overhang at King/University that is going to be a statement piece in itself. I used to run across 4 lanes of traffic to reach the 7 stop at the end of Bricker Street, but now they've adjusted things so that the bus stop is back a block and right next to a properly controlled crosswalk, thank god.

It's just a good reminder that good change can come, even if it takes a while.
(05-17-2023, 02:37 PM)SF22 Wrote: [ -> ]I drove down King St from University to Bridgeport today, which I haven't done in at least a couple years, and WOW. I went to Laurier back in 2007-11, and regularly walked that stretch of King St, and it's like an entirely different place now. Fewer car lanes, the raised bike lanes, the new trees, the actual crosswalks with lights!! And they're working on the new big bus shelter/overhang at King/University that is going to be a statement piece in itself. I used to run across 4 lanes of traffic to reach the 7 stop at the end of Bricker Street, but now they've adjusted things so that the bus stop is back a block and right next to a properly controlled crosswalk, thank god.

It's just a good reminder that good change can come, even if it takes a while.

Yup...it really is a significant improvement. But "it takes a while" is an understatement. I remember signing a petition about the road when I was just finishing my undergrad...over 13 years ago.

If it takes 13 years to fix every road in the city...I'll not live to see the city fixed. It's not a solution that leads us to a good outcome....we need a hockey stick, not linear progress...It's a big reason why we moved.
(05-04-2023, 08:04 PM)SammyOES Wrote: [ -> ]It just seems weird to slow down the highway 7 traffic at this spot (nothing else around) and divert traffic from the bigger roads to this small two lane section.  Because lots of people will probably start taking Shirley Drive to skip the busier turn onto Victoria if they’re heading the general Kitchener -> Guelph route.

Today I had my first opportunity to try the Eastbound Bingeman's Drive -> Shirley -> Victoria St route with the new stoplight. It's just one data point but there was a lot more cars taking this route than I've seen before and I was tailgated the whole time while driving 55-60. And then almost rear-ended when a person pulled out in front of me from a dealership.

I'm not a traffic expert, but I really don't understand the overall goal here. It makes the left turn onto Victoria much safer but at the cost of making the whole road much worse and less safe by diverting noticeable traffic from Victoria onto it.