Highway 7 - Kitchener to Guelph

[Pheidippides]

Have you ever driven between Guelph and KW between 7am and 8pm?

I frequently head to Guelph to visit family. It is exactly 30km from my house in central Kitchener to my relative's on the far east side of Guelph.

It is less than a 30min trip 80% of the time, and less than a 35min trip 95% of time which is very reasonable to me given that 60% of that is city driving; that's an average speed of 50-60kph.

Have you ever heard of induced demand? Within a couple years of this new route opening the promised "under 11 minutes" travel times between #85 and the Hanlon will be inching right back to the current 15min. This road expansion has, and always will be, about politics for a "savings" of 5min.

There may not be a transit network in place to support door-to-door service, but you could have built a pretty decent one with the $400 million dollar cost (2011 dollars, $435 million in 2017 dollars) if someone had be brave enough to do the right thing instead of the politically expedient thing for a change.