Highway 7 - Kitchener to Guelph

[Momo26]

This will run parallel to the current 7. I have not taken that stretch in some time, I know it is busy during rush times but it justifiably busy to create an entire new highway? Could they not add another lane to 7 which is a pretty fast road to begin with?

Whilst not an entire highway and for personal use reasons, I would like to see a ramp on/off of 401 East straight onto hwy 8 (rather than getting off King and driving to get back onto 8 :\

[jeffster]

This will run parallel to the current 7. I have not taken that stretch in some time, I know it is busy  during rush times but it justifiably busy to create an entire new highway? Could they not add another lane to 7 which is a pretty fast road to begin with?

Whilst not an entire highway and for personal use reasons, I would like to see a ramp on/off of 401 East straight onto hwy 8 (rather than getting off King and driving to get back onto 8 :\

I think it's a business decision on top of traffic issues; by having a freeway between Kitchener and Guelph, it moves commerce more quickly and is good for business. You can expect to see a lot of growth between Kitchener and Guelph, and I imagine by the time we're in an old age homes, the cities will be seen as one by outsiders.

As for the 401W-London/Highway 8, I imagine this will be done within the next 10-15 years.

[SammyOES]

Existing highway 7 isn't particularly fast and it's also dangerous as currently set up. Any real upgrade would require an extra lane in each direction, a middle turning lane, and paved shoulders. So effectively adding 5 lanes in most places.

There's also going to be a lot of development along the highway that is likely going to add a number of intersections and/or roundabouts (not to mention a lot more traffic).

I think the case is fairly strong for building the highway.

[SammyOES]

I believe for the bridge yes...I recall seeing them and thinking...welp there goes yet another missed opportunity for bike infra.

The location of the bridges is such a good spot to add pedestrian/bike access as well - since it would be nice to connect the trail on the one side of the river with the residential area north of it. But I kind of get it in this case, since you'd need to have serious protections for pedestrian/cyclists from the fast moving traffic. But, I also get the argument that we're spending a shit load of money on cars so it seems fair to spend some on non-cars too.

[ijmorlan]

I believe for the bridge yes...I recall seeing them and thinking...welp there goes yet another missed opportunity for bike infra.

The location of the bridges is such a good spot to add pedestrian/bike access as well - since it would be nice to connect the trail on the one side of the river with the residential area north of it.  But I kind of get it in this case, since you'd need to have serious protections for pedestrian/cyclists from the fast moving traffic.  But, I also get the argument that we're spending a shit load of money on cars so it seems fair to spend some on non-cars too.

Hang the active transportation routes from the bottom of the bridge. Total separation from motor vehicle traffic (even crazy one-in-a-million collisions), and protected from precipitation to boot.

A trivial additional expenditure, compared to the money being spent providing luxury roads for free to those fortunate enough to be able to afford a motor vehicle.

[KevinT]

Existing highway 7 isn't particularly fast and it's also dangerous as currently set up.  Any real upgrade would require an extra lane in each direction, a middle turning lane, and paved shoulders.  So effectively adding 5 lanes in most places.  

There's also going to be a lot of development along the highway that is likely going to add a number of intersections and/or roundabouts (not to mention a lot more traffic).

I think the case is fairly strong for building the highway.

I've always wondered if it and Hwy 6 between the 401 and 403 could be given the Hwy 11 treatment.  Between Barrie and Orillia Hwy 11 had a center median erected, with bridges and ramps every few kilometers to allow for turn backs.  This completely eliminated left turns and up'd the safety of the highway tremendously, speeding it up without having to build an entirely new highway that would steal traffic away from the existing businesses which lined it.  I think it was a brilliant solution that should be used more often.

[SammyOES]

I've always wondered if it and Hwy 6 between the 401 and 403 could be given the Hwy 11 treatment.  Between Barrie and Orillia Hwy 11 had a center median erected, with bridges and ramps every few kilometers to allow for turn backs.  This completely eliminated left turns and up'd the safety of the highway tremendously, speeding it up without having to build an entirely new highway that would steal traffic away from the existing businesses which lined it.  I think it was a brilliant solution that should be used more often.

I don't have a lot of experience with these types of highways, but when driving through they've always seemed kind of dangerous to me. People treat them like controlled access highways but they're not and so you have really fast traffic but also lots of people pulling out w/o getting up to speed. Like I said though, that's not based on data.

[danbrotherston]

This will run parallel to the current 7. I have not taken that stretch in some time, I know it is busy  during rush times but it justifiably busy to create an entire new highway? Could they not add another lane to 7 which is a pretty fast road to begin with?

Whilst not an entire highway and for personal use reasons, I would like to see a ramp on/off of 401 East straight onto hwy 8 (rather than getting off King and driving to get back onto 8 :\

I think it's a business decision on top of traffic issues; by having a freeway between Kitchener and Guelph, it moves commerce more quickly and is good for business. You can expect to see a lot of growth between Kitchener and Guelph, and I imagine by the time we're in an old age homes, the cities will be seen as one by outsiders.

As for the 401W-London/Highway 8, I imagine this will be done within the next 10-15 years.

While I think you're right, it's absurd, I thought we were past the days of spurring sprawling unsustainable development through highway building...

Bah, who am I kidding, I know we're not past it, but it still makes me sad....

[danbrotherston]

Existing highway 7 isn't particularly fast and it's also dangerous as currently set up.  Any real upgrade would require an extra lane in each direction, a middle turning lane, and paved shoulders.  So effectively adding 5 lanes in most places.  

There's also going to be a lot of development along the highway that is likely going to add a number of intersections and/or roundabouts (not to mention a lot more traffic).

I think the case is fairly strong for building the highway.

I've always wondered if it and Hwy 6 between the 401 and 403 could be given the Hwy 11 treatment.  Between Barrie and Orillia Hwy 11 had a center median erected, with bridges and ramps every few kilometers to allow for turn backs.  This completely eliminated left turns and up'd the safety of the highway tremendously, speeding it up without having to build an entirely new highway that would steal traffic away from the existing businesses which lined it.  I think it was a brilliant solution that should be used more often.

Highway 35/115 has the same treatment.  It certainly could work in some places, like highway 7 between Guelph and KW for example.

It isn't ideal in some other cases, highway 6 goes through cities, and those should be bypassed, making highway 6 an even bigger barrier would destroy those towns (not that such things would stop MTO), certainly farther south it is an option.

Of course, I'm not sure why they refuse to consider options like this, opting instead for larger mega projects.  It's the one time I am conservative (little c of course, the PCs have no interest in these ideas either), often there are lower cost, lower impact ways of doing things, that we skip.  On a smaller scale, the Spur Line Trail was completely rebuilt from scratch behind Lens Mills, even though the pavement was new, I feel like there should be ways to do better there.

[jeffster]

Existing highway 7 isn't particularly fast and it's also dangerous as currently set up.  Any real upgrade would require an extra lane in each direction, a middle turning lane, and paved shoulders.  So effectively adding 5 lanes in most places.  

There's also going to be a lot of development along the highway that is likely going to add a number of intersections and/or roundabouts (not to mention a lot more traffic).

I think the case is fairly strong for building the highway.

I've always wondered if it and Hwy 6 between the 401 and 403 could be given the Hwy 11 treatment.  Between Barrie and Orillia Hwy 11 had a center median erected, with bridges and ramps every few kilometers to allow for turn backs.  This completely eliminated left turns and up'd the safety of the highway tremendously, speeding it up without having to build an entirely new highway that would steal traffic away from the existing businesses which lined it.  I think it was a brilliant solution that should be used more often.

Unsure if they could do all the way to 401, cuz you'd have rip apart the entire village of Morriston.

The main issue on Highway 6 seems to be lack of enforcement dealing with speeders and non OPP/Hamilton Police going on chases resulting in death (for example, the teens that originated from Cambridge and WRPS chased them to death on that highway). A centre median would help though, but better driving and police doing their jobs right would solve 90% of the issues.

[ijmorlan]

Unsure if they could do all the way to 401, cuz you'd have rip apart the entire village of Morriston.

No, you just bypass to the west. You want to hook up directly with the Hanlon Expressway in any case, not require people continuing on Highway 6 to take the 401 over one exit. I believe there is already a plan to hook up the south end of the Hanlon directly to Highway 6. This is one of the few expressway construction projects I support, because it eliminates a weird bottleneck. We’ve already paid for 95% of 4-lane capacity on Highway 6 from Guelph to Hamilton, let’s pay the other 5% and actually get that capacity.

[jamincan]

The current plan for highway 6 is to by-pass Morriston to the west, but not to connect directly to the Hanlon. I think they will, however, have a continuous lane from 6S to 6N.

I love the idea of having a trail bridge hanging under the bridge they build for the new highway 7. They could do that with so many other bridges too. Hopefully with the by-pass of Victoria St. they will consider a road diet for Victoria Street and make it a bit more friendly for cyclists and pedestrians. Fully protected lanes over the Grand River, for example.

[gomesjustin]

The current plan for highway 6 is to by-pass Morriston to the west, but not to connect directly to the Hanlon. I think they will, however, have a continuous lane from 6S to 6N.

I love the idea of having a trail bridge hanging under the bridge they build for the new highway 7. They could do that with so many other bridges too. Hopefully with the by-pass of Victoria St. they will consider a road diet for Victoria Street and make it a bit more friendly for cyclists and pedestrians. Fully protected lanes over the Grand River, for example.

Love the idea of Victoria receiving a road diet after all of this. Add some tree-lined streets, a few parks, some development and boom! No more urban blight -

[clasher]

Under-the-bridge segregated cycling lanes are awesome, I rode on the one over the Fraser River on the Canada Line bridge and it was neat to see how it's just some beams anchored to the side of the span. I think most bridges could have this added to them.

[avernar]

Unsure if they could do all the way to 401, cuz you'd have rip apart the entire village of Morriston.

They're planning to bypass Morriston: http://highways6and401hamiltontoguelph.c...y-2017.pdf