GO Transit

[danbrotherston]

Also not entirely a GO problem, but the situation at the train station when a GO train lets out can't be sustainable. It's gotta be the single most unpleasant and depressing place to be in the region. The new light has enabled pedestrians to cross more easily, but ironically might have still made the situation more dangerous. Go watch it for 20 minutes after a GO train arrival and you'll see: blatant red light running, 20-30 near collisions, constant honking, violently angry drivers, completely shameless drivers forcing their way across oncoming lanes, gridlock, every single businesses parking spaces filling up with non customers (spoke with a couple of them about this). Literally had a car driving on the sidewalk and refusing to make eye contact with me a few days ago.

I bet aligning the station exit with Water St to form a single signalized intersection would be a big improvement, but would also mean a significantly longer pedestrian crossing. Closing vehicle access to Water St from Victoria St and instead forcing vehicles to turn at Weber St could also help.

Hopefully this is tackled proactively at the new station, because I can see it being even worse there.

Oh...is this traffic leaving the Via station?

I'll be honest, I've never driven to the station before, I've only arrived on foot, which is a garbage situation (although probably better than it was, last time I did it I had to climb over a metal guard rail and slide down a hill to get to Weber St.

As for parking...yeah, they don't do a good job of letting anyone know about the GO parking lot on Victoria St. I don't even know where it exists, and there was almost no documentation of it before so I don't even know where I'd check. And yes, any sane traffic planner would close Victoria and Water (and Victoria and Ahrens), unfortunately we don't have those in North America.

Part of the problem is that they planned to close this station years ago. I mean, I don't really believe they'd do much better with the new station...it is the same planning process that brought you this mess, but at the end of the day, they really just don't want to spend money on a dead station. Of course that would have made sense if the new station had actually been built.

Ugh...I'm gonna rent a fucking car this winter...I'm so sick of this bullshit.