05-21-2020, 07:34 AM
I commute to Mississauga everyday, so I think it's fair for me to speak as someone who relies primarily on driving to get around. Further expansion in Cambridge is in no way, shape, or form justified at this time. I think that there are some improvements that could be made on the eastbound section that would further improve efficiency there largely through painting lanes a bit differently, but traffic moves well in that stretch and I don't believe for a second that money spent now would offer even a minute of time saving for drivers for the foreseeable future.
The 401 through Milton and the western part of Mississauga, on the other hand, was consistently a significantly congested point. Covid-19 has changed that and while traffic volume has increased, it's not yet at a level where volume is congested simply due to heavy traffic. Nevertheless, widening through Milton and Mississauga will have an effect, even if it is temporary.
Part of my problem with this particular widening is that it's preemptive to a ridiculous degree. Infrastructure projects take a long time to go from conception to completion, so I understand that we have to anticipate demand to a certain extent, but a *huge* part of that is the planning process. Actual construction can feasibly happen in a few seasons. I have been told that the 401 widening right now in Milton is supposed to be complete in as few as three years, which I believe given the blistering pace of construction at the moment. You can't make me believe for a moment that the 401 from Hespeler to Townline will be experiencing regular congestion of more than a few minutes in 10 years let alone 3 years when this work might be complete. Why do we so easily justify spending massive amounts on road infrastructure, then, when we don't do the same for other kinds of infrastructure. We let our healthcare system burst at the seams and we bump class sizes up rather than spend more money on healthcare or education, but a hypothetical two minute delay in a commute twenty years in the future is somehow something we have to spend money to fix now.
This is problematic on a larger scale as well, though. Market forces influence transportation decisions. Right now I commute to Mississauga by car. I do that because it's the choice that is most practical at this time. If there was better and more affordable transit infrastructure, I might be more inclined to do that. If the cost (both in time and money) was great enough, I might be forced to either choose to live in Mississauga, or find other work in KW. The point is simply that choosing to spend large amounts of money widening the 401 is an almost certainly permanent and irreversible alteration of the market of transportation choices in the Toronto-Waterloo corridor. This widening reduces the "friction" of driving between Toronto and Kitchener which will inevitably mean that the market will move to more people using that option, all other things being the same. It means that distributors for the western parts of the GTA will be more likely to consider locating in KW or Guelph where land is cheaper knowing they have good road access into the GTA. There are a whole host of other downstream effects. Encouraging people to take transit more, or live closer to work, or businesses to locate on more expensive land more central to their core clients - all good policies - will be all the more expensive and challenging in the face of this.
The 401 through Milton and the western part of Mississauga, on the other hand, was consistently a significantly congested point. Covid-19 has changed that and while traffic volume has increased, it's not yet at a level where volume is congested simply due to heavy traffic. Nevertheless, widening through Milton and Mississauga will have an effect, even if it is temporary.
Part of my problem with this particular widening is that it's preemptive to a ridiculous degree. Infrastructure projects take a long time to go from conception to completion, so I understand that we have to anticipate demand to a certain extent, but a *huge* part of that is the planning process. Actual construction can feasibly happen in a few seasons. I have been told that the 401 widening right now in Milton is supposed to be complete in as few as three years, which I believe given the blistering pace of construction at the moment. You can't make me believe for a moment that the 401 from Hespeler to Townline will be experiencing regular congestion of more than a few minutes in 10 years let alone 3 years when this work might be complete. Why do we so easily justify spending massive amounts on road infrastructure, then, when we don't do the same for other kinds of infrastructure. We let our healthcare system burst at the seams and we bump class sizes up rather than spend more money on healthcare or education, but a hypothetical two minute delay in a commute twenty years in the future is somehow something we have to spend money to fix now.
This is problematic on a larger scale as well, though. Market forces influence transportation decisions. Right now I commute to Mississauga by car. I do that because it's the choice that is most practical at this time. If there was better and more affordable transit infrastructure, I might be more inclined to do that. If the cost (both in time and money) was great enough, I might be forced to either choose to live in Mississauga, or find other work in KW. The point is simply that choosing to spend large amounts of money widening the 401 is an almost certainly permanent and irreversible alteration of the market of transportation choices in the Toronto-Waterloo corridor. This widening reduces the "friction" of driving between Toronto and Kitchener which will inevitably mean that the market will move to more people using that option, all other things being the same. It means that distributors for the western parts of the GTA will be more likely to consider locating in KW or Guelph where land is cheaper knowing they have good road access into the GTA. There are a whole host of other downstream effects. Encouraging people to take transit more, or live closer to work, or businesses to locate on more expensive land more central to their core clients - all good policies - will be all the more expensive and challenging in the face of this.