General Road and Highway Discussion

[danbrotherston]

Sorry, I meant that restriping at the time of repaving is better than restriping later. Didn't mean to imply that it's as good as properly separated bicycle lanes.

Sorry, not sure what you mean by segregated, my point is that even if the road isn't being repaved, it should still be restriped as needed, I entirely agree that a road should be striped correctly .... from the factory....so to speak.

The other point I was making was that restriping can look better or worse depending on how well it is done, we've seen some particularly poor jobs.

[Acitta]

       

[panamaniac]

I want to say that the Stirling St extension/bridge was built in the mid-1960s. Am I in the ballpark or is my memory failing me?

[Bob_McBob]

I want to say that the Stirling St extension/bridge was built in the mid-1960s.  Am I in the ballpark or is my memory failing me?

The bridge was built in 1967. This is 1963 aerial imagery with the eventual location marked.

[danbrotherston]

That's a great source image.

I would have put a 60/70's timeframe on it purely from the design.

It's interesting that the strip of land was left open and the road built later, do you have any idea why that was?

[panamaniac]

I don’t know whether it was a factor, but CHCI opened in 1968 and the Stirling bridge provided the access route for the areas “south” of the railway tracks.  It may also have anticipated future expansions of Schneiders and the resulting traffic.

By the way, before the extension was built, what is now Stirling “south” of Mill St was called Shoemaker (Ave iirc).

Also btw, Stirling was spelled “Sterling” until 1942.  No idea why it was changed.

[tomh009]

OK, now where can I find these old aerial shots?

[clasher]

OK, now where can I find these old aerial shots?

I think they are somewhere on UW servers, I can't remember where though.

[KevinL]

The bridge structure was thoroughly redone sometime in the last decade, if I recall. I guess they never got to the actual road either side of it, though.

[kps]

OK, now where can I find these old aerial shots?

Here: https://lib.uwaterloo.ca/locations/umd/project/

And here is the tile containing Stirling: https://lib.uwaterloo.ca/locations/umd/project/IM5.html

The 1930 one is mucked up, but the 1945 and 1955 images are clearer than the 1963 one.

[panamaniac]

Amazing to realize that, as late as the mid-1950s, Shoemaker Lake (Lakeside Park) was out at the farthest edge of town.

Off topic, but those photos also show the strange, undeveloped section of land that is more or less bounded by Mill, Stirling, and the railway tracks. It has been reduced in size over the years, and the Schneiders parking lot/Joy townhouses took a good part of it in recent times, but there's still an undeveloped area in the middle, "south" of the Schneider lands and "west" of Shoemaker Creek. I've always wondered what the story was with that area and how it came to be that the city jumped over it when post-war development came along.

[Bob_McBob]

The 2019 WRPS annual report is now available. Speeding charges continue to plummet. I don't think they list hours of enforcement, but given the two officer per car policy with the lousy radio system, and the distinct lack of policing I've observed as a driver, I sincerely doubt it's because everyone has slowed down.

https://www.wrps.on.ca/en/about-us/annual-reports.aspx

https://kitchener.ctvnews.ca/an-inside-l...-1.4947087

Speeding charges:

2015 - 13,509
2016 - 11,473
2017 - 11,714
2018 - 8,847
2019 - 7,250

[danbrotherston]

The 2019 WRPS annual report is now available. Speeding charges continue to plummet. I don't think they list hours of enforcement, but given the two officer per car policy with the lousy radio system, and the distinct lack of policing I've observed as a driver, I sincerely doubt it's because everyone has slowed down.

https://www.wrps.on.ca/en/about-us/annual-reports.aspx

https://kitchener.ctvnews.ca/an-inside-l...-1.4947087

Speeding charges:

2015 - 13,509
2016 - 11,473
2017 - 11,714
2018 - 8,847
2019 - 7,250

Wow, that is shocking. We should plot that against budget.

This sounds like TPS all over again.  What is going on with our roads.

[Nextasy]

Not sure if this was posted already, but Highland is finally getting a MUT on both sides to Ira Needles.

Guess that hit-and-run death turned up the pressure. Happy to see it, but a sad state of affairs.

[danbrotherston]

Not sure if this was posted already, but Highland is finally getting a MUT on both sides to Ira Needles.

Guess that hit-and-run death turned up the pressure. Happy to see it, but a sad state of affairs.

That project was planned and proposed long before the death. Unfortunately, as is typical for the region, it has nothing to do with safety, nor cycling infra, the project is planned because the road is 10-20 years away from being over capacity for a two lane road. Therefore regional doctrine requires it be widened immediately. And because the road is undergoing work, and regional staff must maintain the illusion of supporting the strategic pillars, this pig (road expansion) is slated to get lipstick (active transpo infra).

(Now pay attention those who think I never say anything good), I have mentioned this project before however, because which ever engineers were involved in actually designing this improvement also proposed the best active transportation infrastructure I've ever seen in the region. The MUTs have proper fully protected intersections designed for all three major signalized intersections, the turn radii are...if not residential, than at least minimized as far as the region allows, these are things I have never seen before in the region. And I don't mean to imply the bar is low, the proposed infrastructure is legitimately excellent outside of a regional context.

While this does not negate the harm an unnecessarily wide road will cause, it does show that even within the restrictive bounds of regional upper management, lower level engineers do have the power to create some great cycling infrastructure, if they have the skills and willingness to do so.