General Road and Highway Discussion

[Canard]

Very happy to report they the streetlights across the Fairway Road Extension bridge are now operational! They look great. Glad to see this project finally wrapping up.

[timio]

Very happy to report they the streetlights across the River Road Extension bridge are now operational! They look great. Glad to see this project finally wrapping up.

Do you mean Fairway Road?

[Canard]

Yes, my mistake. I've edited my original post accordingly.

[timio]

The Record is trying to over-hype the amount of construction happening in the region this summer, although when you look at the list, there seems to be a lot.

[panamaniac]

They have started the road improvements on Highland Rd between Patricia and Westmount - the single lane each way means that the traffic is slow and often backed up to Queen St.

[mpd618]

The Record is trying to over-hype the amount of construction happening in the region this summer, although when you look at the list, there seems to be a lot.

Dunno, I don't think it's over-hyped!

[Canard]

I dunno, I look at it as a really good thing. Looking forward to improved infrastructure and smooth driving conditions! I love the section of Bridgeport under 85 at the interchange - I think it's the smoothest section of road in the region!

[plam]

I dunno, I look at it as a really good thing.  Looking forward to improved infrastructure and smooth driving conditions!  I love the section of Bridgeport under 85 at the interchange - I think it's the smoothest section of road in the region!

I bike past there all the time. The slope makes you work a bit coming west. It's not as terrible as the 85/University interchange. Going east is mildly scary as cars are trying to get on the highway and you have to cross across that lane.

[timio]

Tucked away in this week's Regional Council agenda is a report on constructing a proper railway crossing signals and gates at the spur line on Weber (page 18.)

Despite not being used all that often, it's always seemed odd to me that an active rail line would cross a major street without proper signalling.

[Markster]

It would be a case of just being grandfathered in. The railway crosses 17 streets at grade from the mainline to Waterloo Park, most of them unsignalled. There is no speed to be gained by signalizing this one crossing, and that's often the major reason to signalize. Over the past decades, I'm sure that the spur has seen less and less activity, so with fewer and fewer train movements, the need to signalize has gotten lower and lower.

Now that Weber is 4 lanes, straighter, faster, and hitting the rail line at a very shallow angle, I can absolutely see this as a good reason to consider signalizing it. It's harder for a train to get the attention of 4 lanes of traffic than 2.

[BuildingScout]

Tucked away in this week's Regional Council agenda is a report on constructing a proper railway crossing signals and gates at the spur line on Weber (page 18.)

Despite not being used all that often, it's always seemed odd to me that an active rail line would cross a major street without proper signalling.

In Europe there are almost no track crossings without rail guards. Yet, in this country where according to the rail association "we can't have tracks without six-foot fence around them" we still have numerous level crossings with just some lights as warning.

[nms]

The protection for railway and road crossing standards has to do with a formula that factors in the frequency and speed of both road and rail traffic. The Weber Street crossing may not have met the thresholds or otherwise may have been grandfathered pending upgrades to the road way.

[JoeKW]

If the cost of predicted accidents/deaths is more than the cost of installing and operating signals then they'll install signals eventually, otherwise they're more than happy to let people die.

[Waterlooer]

Does the MTO have any plans on widening the section of Highway 85 from Lancaster to King? In the City of Waterloo Transportation Master Plan I'm pretty sure I read they plan on Hwy 85 being widened to 8 lanes from Lancaster to University and 6 lanes from University to King. Not sure how reliable this is though.

Another question I have is about the 401... are there plans for creating a ramp from Hwy 8 to westbound 401? Is this part of the widening of the 401?

[jamincan]

Even just a third north-bound lane to Bridgeport would help significantly. It always seems that the snarl starts due to merging traffic and as soon as you past Lancaster, things generally seem to move well again, at least when I use the parkway during peak hours. Dropping from eight to six lanes doesn't seem like it would be problematic to me as the right two lanes are generally under-utilized prior to that point. The drop from six to four is the big issue there. Southbound has never seemed as problematic to me.