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Highway 401 Widening - Highway 8 to Townline Road
Yikes. Look at what I've started lol.

I agree that our money could be used much better. This mass 401 widening from Cambridge to Toronto is utterly stupid, lacks any vision and is a total waste of money.

The problem now for example, is that the only efficient way of commuting to toronto is via the 401. Increasing the speed of GO trains dosen't solve this problem. My dad would drive from kitchener to brantford to catch the GO train there cuz it had less stops.

We need fast transit with limited stops connecting our major cities. There are obviously intercity options with more stops, but there should be a train, HSR or not, that runs stops kitchener, guelph, Pearson, and union station. That's a feasible train to take.

Our gov isnt doing that however, they are currently opting to widen the 401, which continues to encourage car use, while shutting down roads without viable alternatives.

My point was simply, that with hespeler road in particular, yes there will be some decreased traffic due to the bridge being closed, but so many people commute through that section of town, from places that have no viable transit options, and now their only way across the highway is to go a significant ways north or south, on to roads that once again already have a relatively high volume of traffic.

Overall it will be a messy situation, and that's because our current infrastructure is car centric. It doesnt have to stay that way but right now it is and this will definitely be a major inconvenience in cambridge
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(04-04-2021, 02:25 PM)Bjays93 Wrote: Yikes. Look at what I've started lol.

I agree that our money could be used much better. This mass 401 widening from Cambridge to Toronto is utterly stupid, lacks any vision and is a total waste of money.

The problem now for example, is that the only efficient way of commuting to toronto is via the 401. Increasing the speed of GO trains dosen't solve this problem. My dad would drive from kitchener to brantford to catch the GO train there cuz it had less stops.

We need fast transit with limited stops connecting our major cities. There are obviously intercity options with more stops, but there should be a train, HSR or not, that runs stops kitchener, guelph, Pearson, and union station. That's a feasible train to take.

Our gov isnt doing that however, they are currently opting to widen the 401, which continues to encourage car use, while shutting down roads without viable alternatives.

My point was simply, that with hespeler road in particular, yes there will be some decreased traffic due to the bridge being closed, but so many people commute through that section of town, from places that have no viable transit options, and now their only way across the highway is to go a significant ways north or south, on to roads that once again already have a relatively high volume of traffic.

Overall it will be a messy situation, and that's because our current infrastructure is car centric. It doesnt have to stay that way but right now it is and this will definitely be a major inconvenience in cambridge

I think folks get too caught up in the "lack of transit options"...transit is certainly an important component, but it's not the ONLY place trips can be shifted when driving is made more expensive in some way (either with direct costs, or time, or convenience). (And I will lump in active transportation in here too).

Some trips will simply not happen. And while some people (including me) will point out that mobility is a social good, if the value of a trip is so low, that a person won't suffer a little detour for it, well, it's probably not actually a particularly valuable trip.

Other trips will be time shifted, which is fine, it means we make more efficient use of our resources. This is a highly underrated option, broadly in fact. I read all of Bill Gates book, and he makes only a couple of sentence mention of the idea of factories being slightly responsive to power availability. I think having an economic system in place (like aggressive TOU pricing) plus some risk of rationing, can greatly improve stability of our electrical grid, when we no longer assume that all power is created equal, and we can assign a value to immediacy vs. delayed gratification. The same goes for transportation. This, in my opinion, is not a social harm, but in fact a social good, it lets us get what we want, when we want it, but makes society more efficient, so we all end up with more.

Other trips will be destination shifted, people will still go out to eat or go shopping, but they will do so at a more local restaurant. This is also not a social harm (the same economic activity is happening), but is also a social good, because in addition to reducing VMT, it also helps small businesses, which generally rely on more local customers.

So even without the (very important still) transit (and active transportation) alternative, making driving cost more (through pricing or inconvenience) can reduce congestion without costing us (much) in the way of mobility.
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Moved GO discussion to the GO thread:
https://www.waterlooregionconnected.com/...php?tid=12
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Drive westbound this evening, and traffic has moved to the newly paved bits between Townline and Franklin, where it then switches to the old lanes, while the Hespeler exit continues on the new lanes from the Franklin St. bridge.
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(08-10-2021, 09:50 PM)jamincan Wrote: Drive westbound this evening, and traffic has moved to the newly paved bits between Townline and Franklin, where it then switches to the old lanes, while the Hespeler exit continues on the new lanes from the Franklin St. bridge.
I feel like they're making much quicker work of this widening than the previous section. Though I suppose having franklin bridge already widened and no bridges to construct probably expedites the process significantly
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The Hespeler Bridge is being replaced - I read elsewhere that the new spans will be installed on the (I think) 16th/17th or thereabouts overnight.
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Bjays93 Wrote:
jamincan Wrote:Drive westbound this evening, and traffic has moved to the newly paved bits between Townline and Franklin, where it then switches to the old lanes, while the Hespeler exit continues on the new lanes from the Franklin St. bridge.
I feel like they're making much quicker work of this widening than the previous section. Though I suppose having franklin bridge already widened and no bridges to construct probably expedites the process significantly

For those in this forum that are commuters, its very similar to the progress down Milton way.  The Credit Valley expansion of the 401 took 10 years to cover a not huge section, and was traffic nightmare, whereas the current Milton -> Credit Valley expansion is flying along, and traffic delays are manageable.

I wonder if they have improved the tender process to have bigger/multiple crews to make the work happen quicker.

Coke
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