Waterloo Region Connected
General Road and Highway Discussion - Printable Version

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RE: General Road and Highway Discussion - danbrotherston - 04-09-2021

(04-09-2021, 09:39 PM)tomh009 Wrote:
(04-09-2021, 08:49 PM)danbrotherston Wrote: It's a lot of money for a bike connection that could have been made very cheaply if we simply took out a lane on Homer-Watson---leaving millions of dollars on the table for other improvements.

Politically it's easier to spend $7M than to take a lane out of Homer Watson.

We aren't talking about Homer-Watson south of ottawa, we're talking about Homer-Watson between Ottawa and the tiny residential street of Stirling Ave.

Nobody is going to miss it, it isn't even going to be politically difficult. The only thing it takes is someone to actually have a tiny ounce of sense in the region when it comes to transportation.


RE: General Road and Highway Discussion - ijmorlan - 04-10-2021

(04-09-2021, 11:12 PM)danbrotherston Wrote: We aren't talking about Homer-Watson south of ottawa, we're talking about Homer-Watson between Ottawa and the tiny residential street of Stirling Ave.

Nobody is going to miss it, it isn't even going to be politically difficult. The only thing it takes is someone to actually have a tiny ounce of sense in the region when it comes to transportation.

This is such a no-brainer. Every time I drive near there I can’t help but imagine what it would look like with the southbound lanes north of the interchange re-purposed for active transportation. The four lanes make sense in the context of ramming the road through to connect with Belmont, but not in the present context; and as far as I can tell the Region has enough sense to consider the Belmont connection a dead letter. It simply does not make sense to have a 4 lane road ending at a 2 lane road unless it’s really a case of almost all the traffic being to/from the 4 lane road and almost none of it continuing along the 2 lane road.


RE: General Road and Highway Discussion - danbrotherston - 04-10-2021

(04-10-2021, 08:51 AM)ijmorlan Wrote:
(04-09-2021, 11:12 PM)danbrotherston Wrote: We aren't talking about Homer-Watson south of ottawa, we're talking about Homer-Watson between Ottawa and the tiny residential street of Stirling Ave.

Nobody is going to miss it, it isn't even going to be politically difficult. The only thing it takes is someone to actually have a tiny ounce of sense in the region when it comes to transportation.

This is such a no-brainer. Every time I drive near there I can’t help but imagine what it would look like with the southbound lanes north of the interchange re-purposed for active transportation. The four lanes make sense in the context of ramming the road through to connect with Belmont, but not in the present context; and as far as I can tell the Region has enough sense to consider the Belmont connection a dead letter. It simply does not make sense to have a 4 lane road ending at a 2 lane road unless it’s really a case of almost all the traffic being to/from the 4 lane road and almost none of it continuing along the 2 lane road.

Yup, this one seems obvious, but it isn't even on the table for the region.

I fundamentally don't understand how they (and council) can be this bad at this kind of thing, and forget fiscal conservatives, this road gets repaved every couple of decades, and nobody cares about the ridiculous waste...

The city of Kitchener did the same thing with Belmont Ave.


RE: General Road and Highway Discussion - KevinL - 04-10-2021

I think putting the bike access on Homer Watson sells the Stirling/Avalon neighbourhood a bit short, especially if they want access to Zehrs or Lowe's. Going from the top of Strasburg is far more direct.

Of course, an ideal solution would be implementing both.


RE: General Road and Highway Discussion - danbrotherston - 04-10-2021

(04-10-2021, 06:13 PM)KevinL Wrote: I think putting the bike access on Homer Watson sells the Stirling/Avalon neighbourhood a bit short, especially if they want access to Zehrs or Lowe's. Going from the top of Strasburg is far more direct.

Of course, an ideal solution would be implementing both.

You're entirely right that the bridge is more meaningful for that community. But given that in the media the bridge is being attributed to "cycling" and not "neighbourhood connectivity" NOR "transit connectivity" (which is the actual motivation), and certain loud and powerful groups in the neighbourhood strongly opposed it, I have not that much sympathy.

As usual though, the bridge is a massive subsidy to drivers, the only reason it is required is because of the freeway.

Here's my compromise, build the Homer-Watson cycling connection, that's just a no brainer.

If you want to build the bridge to Strasburg, you bill it to MTO's road budget. 

And while you're at it you redevelop the entire mall, and the property next to it, the interchange on the other side, and the property kitty corner to it, into a massive mixed use urban town center with 20-40 thousand homes, and hundreds of businesses, and a high frequency transit connector to the LRT.

Okay, maybe I'm just a little aspirational there. But wouldn't that be like...an actual good plan.


RE: General Road and Highway Discussion - danbrotherston - 04-10-2021

Some King St. designs have been posted on Reddit:

https://www.reddit.com/r/waterloo/comments/mogbap/new_king_st_design_centraluniversity_and/

They look quite good, almost no complaints, except for the King/University intersection which for some reason remains at a 5 lane crossection, which will help ensure this intersection stays high on the list of most dangerous in the city. Otherwise, it's pretty solid.


RE: General Road and Highway Discussion - KevinL - 04-11-2021

Quote:And while you're at it you redevelop the entire mall, and the property next to it, the interchange on the other side, and the property kitty corner to it, into a massive mixed use urban town center with 20-40 thousand homes, and hundreds of businesses, and a high frequency transit connector to the LRT.


This, I'm definitely in favour of. And since the former Target is currently sitting empty, they could easily start with the north half of the property (just have to move out Staples and the smaller businesses in that section).


RE: General Road and Highway Discussion - danbrotherston - 04-11-2021

(04-11-2021, 11:23 AM)KevinL Wrote:
Quote:And while you're at it you redevelop the entire mall, and the property next to it, the interchange on the other side, and the property kitty corner to it, into a massive mixed use urban town center with 20-40 thousand homes, and hundreds of businesses, and a high frequency transit connector to the LRT.


This, I'm definitely in favour of. And since the former Target is currently sitting empty, they could easily start with the north half of the property (just have to move out Staples and the smaller businesses in that section).

Lol...I wish it was easy...what I propose is against zoning right now, and even if a developer was willing to wager billions of dollars on it, they'd struggle to secure financing, and even if they secured financing, they'd still have to get the city on board with providing meaningful transportation services.

And all because we're utterly terified to build more of the most valuable developments in our society for some bizarre reason.


RE: General Road and Highway Discussion - danbrotherston - 04-17-2021

That magic moment where you discover that bylaw can ticket anyone in the city EXCEPT people active driving a car:



Not that I don't get the point, just the reality of it is, so on the nose.


RE: General Road and Highway Discussion - tomh009 - 04-17-2021

Jaworsky might have also encouraged people to stay at home as much as possible, and to avoid unnecessary trips, whether by active transportation or not. Because person-to-person contact is how this thing spreads. And that should be rather obvious by now.


RE: General Road and Highway Discussion - timio - 04-22-2021

Construction season is upon us again. The westbound lanes of Highland between Ira Needles and Westforest were being torn up this week.


RE: General Road and Highway Discussion - jamincan - 04-22-2021

Similarly, eastbound on Ottawa is torn up.


RE: General Road and Highway Discussion - Acitta - 04-28-2021

All road engineers and municipal politicians need to see this video.

The Ugly, Dangerous, and Inefficient Stroads found all over the US & Canada 

Stroads are streets that are designed like roads and in doing so, fail at being good at either one. They are too sprawling and hostile to be good streets, and they are too busy and complicated to be good roads. Stroads are inefficient, unsafe, expensive, and ugly. This video introduces the concept of Stroads, and talks about why you will (almost) never find these kind of places in the Netherlands: because here all roads need to have a single purpose as either a motorway, connector road, or end-destination street.


RE: General Road and Highway Discussion - KevinL - 04-29-2021

Great video.

I think the only true 'roads' we have in this region are Ira Needles and Homer Watson, and even those fail in places. It will take a lot of work to split that difference.


RE: General Road and Highway Discussion - danbrotherston - 04-29-2021

(04-29-2021, 12:42 PM)KevinL Wrote: Great video.

I think the only true 'roads' we have in this region are Ira Needles and Homer Watson, and even those fail in places. It will take a lot of work to split that difference.

Yeah, they are probably the best examples, but Ira Needles is brand new, and it is a complete failure around the commercial plazas, with many driveways and lots of turning traffic. No surprise this is both the most dangerous and most congested areas of the road. And it's brand new, our engineers have the idea of limiting driveways, but lack the will to actually do it.