General Road and Highway Discussion

[danbrotherston]

Are you entirely unwilling to question the fundamental assumptions here? Is it convenient to have a cycle path next to a four lane stroad? Sure.

But maybe question why you have to have all these cars right in the middle of everything instead?

Like...when the US started to have rivers catch fire because of the volume of industrial contaminants pumped into the river, they didn't just invest in fireproof boats, they fundamentally changed the paradigm of the water, where maybe it shouldn't be flammable.

The Netherlands isn't a pleasant place to live because there are bike paths adjacent to all the four lane stroads where we have to exist. It is pleasant because they don't have such things, the cars are limited and kept away from people.

But what the fuck, everything I posted here gets downvoted by the same jackass, so I'm seriously questioning whether I have any interest in continuing to participate here. It's a pretty shitty experience, and especially infuriating given the whining and complaining that certain folks here express when people actually engage with their arguments.

The road in question leans far more towards being a Road than a stroad. It’s primarily being built for cross town traffic, there is very very little along Bleams that would be considered local access besides a few industrial buildings  but these almost always have their access off of other side streets. The inclusion of multi use trails for the long distance active travellers is a good inclusion.

Nowhere anywhere have I ever said that the inclusion of active transportation infrastructure is a bad thing. Bleams has 14 driveways between Manitou and Homer Watson, it is absolutely a stroad. Further, Manitou and Fairway both are very driveway heavy as well, and are clearly stroads as well. And the industrial park where the new road is being built already has six access roads, in addition to all perimeter lots also having driveway access onto the surrounding stroads. The whole area is an absolute mess.

The inclusion of active transportation infra will improve connectivity for cyclists, but it also increases the connectivity for drivers, in a system that already has too much connectivity.

[neonjoe]

The number of the driveways doesn't necessarily determine the actual stroadianess of it. The section does have one bad area which is from a different area (the shopping plaza) but the other usages aren't typically Street usages, where people would be visiting frequently, for instance groceries. Some of the driveways in question include a hydro transformer station, a food plant, mostly used by trucks and a few other specialty industrial parts shops. These don't contribute nearly as much local traffic to the road. Like all Stroads its neither black nor white but a shade of grey. Having a cross town route that parallels Fairway, which is the souternmost cross town route within Kitchener that also is the main 'commercial street' within the city will help. In the end this will act as the crosstown southern road within the city and Fairway can be used more for local 'street' traffic.

[danbrotherston]

The number of the driveways doesn't necessarily determine the actual stroadianess of it. The section does have one bad area which is from a different area (the shopping plaza) but the other usages aren't typically Street usages, where people would be visiting frequently, for instance groceries. Some of the driveways in question include a hydro transformer station, a food plant, mostly used by trucks and a few other specialty industrial parts shops. These don't contribute nearly as much local traffic to the road. Like all Stroads its neither black nor white but a shade of grey. Having a cross town route that parallels Fairway, which is the souternmost cross town route within Kitchener that also is the main 'commercial street' within the city will help. In the end this will act as the crosstown southern road within the city and Fairway can be used more for local 'street' traffic.

The number of driveways definitely affects whether something is a stroad, I'd argue that it is alone a sufficient feature.

Anyway, I feel that more routes does not make the city better, but if you like to live in a car infested city, be my fucking guest, I'll just sit here and get downvoted constantly by certain fuckheads here.

[MidTowner]

The number of the driveways doesn't necessarily determine the actual stroadianess of it. The section does have one bad area which is from a different area (the shopping plaza) but the other usages aren't typically Street usages, where people would be visiting frequently, for instance groceries. Some of the driveways in question include a hydro transformer station, a food plant, mostly used by trucks and a few other specialty industrial parts shops. These don't contribute nearly as much local traffic to the road. Like all Stroads its neither black nor white but a shade of grey. Having a cross town route that parallels Fairway, which is the souternmost cross town route within Kitchener that also is the main 'commercial street' within the city will help. In the end this will act as the crosstown southern road within the city and Fairway can be used more for local 'street' traffic.

I'm not going to be holding my breath that the City makes Fairway meaningfully less hostile to human beings. It would be nice, however.

[neonjoe]

The number of the driveways doesn't necessarily determine the actual stroadianess of it. The section does have one bad area which is from a different area (the shopping plaza) but the other usages aren't typically Street usages, where people would be visiting frequently, for instance groceries. Some of the driveways in question include a hydro transformer station, a food plant, mostly used by trucks and a few other specialty industrial parts shops. These don't contribute nearly as much local traffic to the road. Like all Stroads its neither black nor white but a shade of grey. Having a cross town route that parallels Fairway, which is the souternmost cross town route within Kitchener that also is the main 'commercial street' within the city will help. In the end this will act as the crosstown southern road within the city and Fairway can be used more for local 'street' traffic.

I'm not going to be holding my breath that the City makes Fairway meaningfully less hostile to human beings. It would be nice, however.

Yeah this would require a reimagining of the actual land use on the Fairway corridor. In reality it would take the redevelopment of the Mall away from retail to be the catalyst to start some of this type of change.

[danbrotherston]

The number of the driveways doesn't necessarily determine the actual stroadianess of it. The section does have one bad area which is from a different area (the shopping plaza) but the other usages aren't typically Street usages, where people would be visiting frequently, for instance groceries. Some of the driveways in question include a hydro transformer station, a food plant, mostly used by trucks and a few other specialty industrial parts shops. These don't contribute nearly as much local traffic to the road. Like all Stroads its neither black nor white but a shade of grey. Having a cross town route that parallels Fairway, which is the souternmost cross town route within Kitchener that also is the main 'commercial street' within the city will help. In the end this will act as the crosstown southern road within the city and Fairway can be used more for local 'street' traffic.

I'm not going to be holding my breath that the City makes Fairway meaningfully less hostile to human beings. It would be nice, however.

You don't like my language...I DGAF...I don't like the people here who do nothing but downvote EVERY. SINGLE. POST. I. WRITE. So we both get to have an unpleasant experience here.

[danbrotherston]

I'm not going to be holding my breath that the City makes Fairway meaningfully less hostile to human beings. It would be nice, however.

Yeah this would require a reimagining of the actual land use on the Fairway corridor. In reality it would take the redevelopment of the Mall away from retail to be the catalyst to start some of this type of change.

But we aren't doing that...instead the city is spending money building another road. This is the whole point. The city is not making progress...(oh yes, I can feel the downvotes already)

[MidTowner]

I'm not going to be holding my breath that the City makes Fairway meaningfully less hostile to human beings. It would be nice, however.

You don't like my language...I DGAF...I don't like the people here who do nothing but downvote EVERY. SINGLE. POST. I. WRITE. So we both get to have an unpleasant experience here.

I don't think I've downvoted a single comment you've made before this morning.

I really question why you would spend your time visiting an online forum trying to make it an unpleasant experience for others.

[danbrotherston]

You don't like my language...I DGAF...I don't like the people here who do nothing but downvote EVERY. SINGLE. POST. I. WRITE. So we both get to have an unpleasant experience here.

I don't think I've downvoted a single comment you've made before this morning.

I really question why you would spend your time visiting an online forum trying to make it an unpleasant experience for others.

I am not the one doing that...sevenman is...

But you're right, I shouldn't bother coming somewhere where I'm the subject of a targeted downvote campaign.

[creative]

Wow you have no idea! I’ve been here since the beginning. I would guess that 95% of your posts over the years have been negative and confrontational making it unpleasant for the majority of others. I actually took a 1 year break from this forum for my own sanity primarily due to your posts. So much anger and you don’t even live here anymore. Why do you even care what goes on here… you left? Please go away if only for your own sanity.

[tomh009]

Let's stop this right here. @danbrotherston and @sevenman, you are getting PMs about this.

[tomh009]

This thread locked temporarily until everyone calms down.

[ac3r]

CityNews featured some young teen from Vancouver who has been creating a replica of both Vancouver itself and its SkyTrain system in Roblox which is really cool idea. Someone should start working on a virtual Waterloo Region and build a huge hypothetical light rail, heavy rail, bus and train network haha. I don't know anything about Roblox or I'd give it a shot.

It reminds me of doing this in SimCity 2000 and 3000 a long time ago, as well as more recently in City SkyLines. I did a pretty good replica of Waterloo Region in that game but complete with proper metro systems, train connections, better trails and a lot of other fun stuff. But the funny thing is...it ends up getting pretty hard to have the game city be a success due to the horrible road system we have IRL being unable to translate into the game adequately when you try to do as close to a 1:1 replica of the roads as you can. Maybe with more patience it can work, but eventually the traffic just causes problems that compound in other ways.

(I know this is a the general road thread, but I think rail stuff not directly related to the LRT fits as well).