General Road and Highway Discussion - Printable Version +- Waterloo Region Connected (https://www.waterlooregionconnected.com) +-- Forum: Waterloo Region Works (https://www.waterlooregionconnected.com/forumdisplay.php?fid=14) +--- Forum: Transportation and Infrastructure (https://www.waterlooregionconnected.com/forumdisplay.php?fid=25) +--- Thread: General Road and Highway Discussion (/showthread.php?tid=335) Pages:
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RE: General Road and Highway Discussion - danbrotherston - 05-06-2019 (05-06-2019, 03:56 PM)SammyOES2 Wrote: I think it’s very unclear what the effect of raising the speed limit on something like the 401. Like I said earlier I don’t know of many highways that already have commonly accepted and practiced speeding of 20-30% over the limit. It has been tried in other places with substantial harm as a result: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/fatal-crashes-more-than-doubled-on-b-c-roads-with-higher-speed-limits-study-says-1.4857985 As for "generally increased convenience" being acceptable for decreased safety, where do you draw the line? Should we undersize bridges and risk them collapsing? Should we reduce water testing? These are all things that would make life easier for us, but we do not accept. I have no idea why roads are the one area that it's okay to kill people to make life more convenient. RE: General Road and Highway Discussion - tomh009 - 05-06-2019 I'm not arguing the conclusions, but I do want to point out a disclaimer from the study, as mentioned in the article: Quote:B.C. roads are 'particularly hazardous' RE: General Road and Highway Discussion - danbrotherston - 05-06-2019 (05-06-2019, 04:22 PM)tomh009 Wrote: I'm not arguing the conclusions, but I do want to point out a disclaimer from the study, as mentioned in the article: We too have hazardous winter weather, few roundabouts, although our roads are less mountainous. RE: General Road and Highway Discussion - tomh009 - 05-06-2019 (05-06-2019, 05:43 PM)danbrotherston Wrote:(05-06-2019, 04:22 PM)tomh009 Wrote: I'm not arguing the conclusions, but I do want to point out a disclaimer from the study, as mentioned in the article: Yes. On the other hand, BC increased the limit (from 110 km/h) to 120 km/h on all the multi-lane divided highways. Given the BC geography, few of them are as straight and clear as the 401 (or 407). RE: General Road and Highway Discussion - SammyOES - 05-07-2019 (05-06-2019, 04:16 PM)danbrotherston Wrote: It has been tried in other places with substantial harm as a result: Are those other places equivalent to the 400-series highways and their current traffic patterns? As for where we draw the line, we should first realize that we always draw the line somewhere. Roads aren’t the only place we do it. We literally do it everywhere because resources are always limited. So any sort of slippery slope argument is just silly. RE: General Road and Highway Discussion - danbrotherston - 05-07-2019 (05-07-2019, 05:45 PM)SammyOES Wrote:(05-06-2019, 04:16 PM)danbrotherston Wrote: It has been tried in other places with substantial harm as a result: See the examples I gave, for water testing, we do not accept any tainted water ever, when it does happen, we stop, and fix it. We don't accept any bridges falling ever, when we do, we investigate and fix it. Would you argue it's a slipper slope to say no bridge should ever collapse? It doesn't take infinite cost to consider tainted water and collapsing bridges unacceptable in our society, neither would it be an infinite cost to consider traffic deaths unacceptable in our society. RE: General Road and Highway Discussion - SammyOES - 05-07-2019 Your analogies are wrong. I hate to break it to you but we do accept tainted water in the same way we accept car accidents. And we accept people dying in fires and people dying from lack of healthcare intervention. And we even accept bridges collapsing. Of course all of this is if you use ‘accept’ to mean we know these things are going to happen because guaranteeing their prevention isn’t practical or possible. So we set rules for driving that are a trade off between safety and cost/convenience/etc. And we set rules for inspecting water that is a trade off between safety and cost/convenience/etc. And we set building codes that are a trade off between safety and cost/convenience/etc. And we set rules around how healthcare is delivered and what procedures are covered for people that is a trade off between safety and cost/convenience/etc. And in all cases we know the rules will fail us some percentage of the time. Edit: I mean, I’d just love to hear how you think our transportation systems should work where don’t have to accept that people will die. Hell, even the LRT is almost certainly going to kill someone at some point. What rules do you think we should have for the 401? Should it be closed and driving outlawed? What speed limits will our trains have (since faster trains mean more people will die too)? Like how do you think our society could even function without rules that are going to kill some people? RE: General Road and Highway Discussion - tomh009 - 05-07-2019 (05-07-2019, 06:01 PM)danbrotherston Wrote: See the examples I gave, for water testing, we do not accept any tainted water ever, when it does happen, we stop, and fix it. Ah, no. Here, too, there is a limit, under which it's legal and above which it's illegal. https://www.paracellabs.com/media/homeowners/homeowners-water-quality-parameters-and-descriptions-140515.pdf Lowering the limit would be safer but cost more. Raising the limit would save money but be more risky. Life is all about gray areas and compromises. RE: General Road and Highway Discussion - danbrotherston - 05-07-2019 (05-07-2019, 09:27 PM)tomh009 Wrote:(05-07-2019, 06:01 PM)danbrotherston Wrote: See the examples I gave, for water testing, we do not accept any tainted water ever, when it does happen, we stop, and fix it. There is no evidence that lower would be safer... And in fact, when water rises above the level which is considered safe, we stop and fix it. If we determined that the level was actually unsafe, we would lower the limit. And when our reporting system breaks down and we realize we aren't testing water sufficiently, we stop and fix that too. RE: General Road and Highway Discussion - Spokes - 05-08-2019 Like others have said, people will drive X over whatever the speed limit is. So if the justification is that people already do 120, that's fine raise it. But then actually enforce it as a LIMIT RE: General Road and Highway Discussion - ijmorlan - 05-08-2019 (05-08-2019, 06:18 AM)Spokes Wrote: Like others have said, people will drive X over whatever the speed limit is. So if the justification is that people already do 120, that's fine raise it. But then actually enforce it as a LIMIT Essentially just legalize the current behaviour of most people. If this got rid of the people who zip back and forth, squeezing through small gaps to maintain a speed 20km/h faster than the rest of the traffic, it should be a significant safety increase. Of course the question is how to do the enforcement… Unfortunately I agree with others that this government probably isn’t interested in enforcement. The one thing I do like about the current “everybody is guilty” mode of operating is that somebody who goes even 10km/h faster than the rest of traffic (so 130 instead of 120) is liable to a massive speeding penalty, so whenever the police nail a dangerous driver they have the option of using 30km/h over as the basis for the ticket. RE: General Road and Highway Discussion - SammyOES - 05-08-2019 Yeah, one easy option (that won’t be used) is to say the speed limit is 120 but all penalties are based on if the speed limit is 100 (for speeds over 120 or 125). So you could have the exact same enforcement you have now and still end up with a much more uniform traffic pattern. Most importantly imo is keeping the pretty hard cap at 150. RE: General Road and Highway Discussion - danbrotherston - 05-08-2019 (05-08-2019, 06:51 AM)SammyOES Wrote: Yeah, one easy option (that won’t be used) is to say the speed limit is 120 but all penalties are based on if the speed limit is 100 (for speeds over 120 or 125). So you could have the exact same enforcement you have now and still end up with a much more uniform traffic pattern. This would require a rewriting of the HTA. Also, you're talking about implementing substantial and pervasive enforcement, that either requires photo radar or a massive increase in the police budget. I don't think either will fly in Ontario. RE: General Road and Highway Discussion - danbrotherston - 05-08-2019 (05-08-2019, 06:21 AM)SammyOES Wrote: Dan, I also love how you avoided my edit. How should things run? Do you want a full commercial aircraft level investigation and report for every fatality or major accident? You seem to think that an increase in the speed limit is an unacceptable decrease in safety, is the status quo ok? What changes should be made? I didn't "avoid" your edit, my comment was already long enough, and the answer to your edit is very simple: Do exactly what the Swedish government has done for the past 20 years in their Vision Zero program, it's not complicated, their policies have been incredibly effective, they've halved their injury rate on their roads. Their country is very similar to ours, a few dense cities, but also substantial rural areas with many two lane roads. Most of their interventions have been design interventions...for example, their two lane roads almost all now have a crash barrier in the middle to prevent crossing the line collisions. Yes, it's more inconvenient because now you must largely travel at the speed of the slowest car...so inconvenient. And yet that eliminated one of the largest sources of deaths on their roads. The point is, this isn't new or untested. The reason it has come up on the 401 is because a change is proposed that will kill more people (don't for a second believe that there is going to be more enforcement, that will not happen). RE: General Road and Highway Discussion - SammyOES - 05-08-2019 We’re talking about changes the Provincial Government is making. They can change the HTA. My change above is explicitly NOT introducing any new forms of enforcement. |