[Haljackey]

on the contrary, the infrastructure deficits in the GTA are staggering compared to the mid-sized metros in Ontario. London and especially Kitchener have very functional transit systems with little in the way in congestion. The GTA comparatively has insane infrastructure deficits.

Oh don't worry London's catching up to you. The multi-year budget has no new funding for LTC. The funding increase just is enough to maintain the status quo due to inflation and higher operational costs.

London's half-assed BRT is separate from the LTC funding however, and is encountering huge cost overuns sucking money from elsewhere. Once it's done it needs to be funded properly to be utilized as it was designed which may prove problematic.

This + no freeways or RT + little other transportation infrastructure investment + being Ontario's fastest growing large city is going to choke the city in congestion, and sooner than later.

...but Douggie is going to 6 lane the 401 to Tilbury so we got that going for us... it's apparently what the voters ('the people') want as a top priority for sure .

 

[nfitz]

The growth hasn't been linear and the latest quarter has a growth rate equal to 800,000 a year.

I suspect that will drop a bit for some quarters, especially with a reduction in the number of foreign students.

This would be the same once proud agency that admitted recently that it had 'missed' or lost track of 1,000,000 people temporarily in the country (TFWs, Foreign Students etc.)

I'm afraid their numbers come with a material asterisk at the moment.

It always does, and is subject to future revisions.

It's not like they lost track, as they aren't tracking in that way. But the correction factors they were using to account for them, didn't keep up with the changes to what they were seeing.

I wonder if that was enough to shift the riding distribution per province.

Edit. I did the math - no changes ... Ontario went up 0.15 seats and Alberta went down 0.09 seats - but nothing pushed anything other the current rounded number. Though looking at the Q4 2023 numbers to the current distribution, Ontario and BC are up a seat each.

 

[Islington Express Bus]

on the contrary, the infrastructure deficits in the GTA are staggering compared to the mid-sized metros in Ontario. London and especially Kitchener have very functional transit systems with little in the way in congestion. The GTA comparatively has insane infrastructure deficits.

London's transit sucks.

 

[innsertnamehere]

London's transit sucks.

perhaps, but they are building a pretty extensive BRT network right now. Kitchener is the smallest city on the continent with a light rail network.

London is definitely a tier below Kitchener in general, which has an extensive urban freeway network and LRT, but neither cities really experience extensive congestion. London is definitely more of a pain.. but it still pales with what people in the GTA deal with.

 

[Islington Express Bus]

I've lived in London and Toronto and I don't agree. London is a depressing city in general and just feels like it has never had a government that wanted to spend money on anything. They have a ton of streets with no sidewalks. Worst of all in my opinion is the single lane rail underpass. That shit would've been widened in Toronto in like 1950.

Google Maps

Find local businesses, view maps and get driving directions in Google Maps.

www.google.ca

 

[innsertnamehere]

I've lived in London and Toronto and I don't agree. London is a depressing city in general and just feels like it has never had a government that wanted to spend money on anything. They have a ton of streets with no sidewalks. Worst of all in my opinion is the single lane rail underpass. That shit would've been widened in Toronto in like 1950.

Google Maps

Find local businesses, view maps and get driving directions in Google Maps.

www.google.ca

Toronto's got it's own share of crappy underpasses:

London is generally far easier to get across town at 5pm than in Toronto, full stop. It's worse on transit most likely given it's smaller metro size with higher auto modal shares, but the median resident of London experiences a far better commute than the median resident of Toronto.

 

[nfitz]

Toronto's got it's own share of crappy underpasses:

That's doesn't look like single lane to me.

And surely not the typical grade separation.

 

[drum118]

That's doesn't look like single lane to me.

And surely not the typical grade separation.

It is and is to be replaced with true four lanes of traffic and wider sidewalks. The sidewalk is currently on one side. I have walked and driven under that overpass more than enough and a safety issue.

London transit is a poor system with a lot of transferring requirements to get where you want to go to/from. I have ridden it, and it was not fun doing so. It is a city built for cars and low density.

 

[Wm Perkins Bull]

perhaps, but they are building a pretty extensive BRT network right now. Kitchener is the smallest city on the continent with a light rail network.

London is definitely a tier below Kitchener in general, which has an extensive urban freeway network and LRT, but neither cities really experience extensive congestion. London is definitely more of a pain.. but it still pales with what people in the GTA deal with.

Norfolk Virginia has a lower population than the City of Kitchener

 

[innsertnamehere]

Norfolk Virginia has a lower population than the City of Kitchener

Norfolk Virginia has a metro population roughly triple that of Kitchener.

 

[drum118]

Norfolk Virginia has a lower population than the City of Kitchener

It also has an LRT that is poorly placed, lack of ridership and poor service hours. It doesn't start on Sunday until 11 am. I have ridden it. There have been many options proposed to expand the system and they have gone nowhere. There was a major fight to extend the line to Virginia Beach using an existing RR ROW that was sounded defeated at the polls. Even getting the line to the Navy base has been a battle.

 

[Allandale25]

Lane closures coming to Toronto's Gardiner Expressway for next 3 years

The Gardiner Expressway Strategic Rehabilitation Project will resume this spring with lane restrictions in place as soon as March.

toronto.citynews.ca

 

[nfitz]

And after brief break for the summer of 2026, then an even bigger amount of construction will start in the fall, for at least the next 4 years - when you read the details in the article.

 

[Haljackey]

Lane closures coming to Toronto's Gardiner Expressway for next 3 years

The Gardiner Expressway Strategic Rehabilitation Project will resume this spring with lane restrictions in place as soon as March.

toronto.citynews.ca

In Brooklyn NYNY there is a freeway that is part of a 3-level cantilever (I-278) structure. It's in a pretty sorry state similar to the Gardiner. To help extend the life of the structure they permanently reduced it from 3 lanes to 2... less weight and fatigue on it that way and also gives you a shoulder and/or extra room for the needed maintenance work.
-Traffic was always bad on it, and I don't think this 'road diet' really affected travel times drastically.

Should the elevated section of the Gardiner get reduced to 2 lanes to reduce strain? The hybrid structure is getting rebuilt as 2 lanes anyways. Have the rightmost lane become a dedicated exit/entrance lane at Lake Shore / Jameson.

 

[ARG1]

For comparison- a tunnel from the 427 to, say, the 404 would be about 20km. So smaller than WestConnnex. It wouldn’t be unprecedented globally.

WestConnex was a $20 billion AUD program, about $17b CAD. Australias road tunnelling expertise is at another level compared to Canada however so I suspect that pricing wouldn’t transfer that much.

I think the nature of a massive road tunnel is that much like WestConnex, local accesses to the highway will be limited. If the tunnel can be aimed at regional traffic, not commuting traffic, I think it could work. Limit exits to interchanges with other freeways only. 427-400-404, and that’s it, could do well to allow regional trucking and inter regional trips move better without people driving from Keele to their job at Yonge.

Regarding WestConnex’s tolls - $11 AUD is $1~$9.70 CAD. For 33km of tunnel, that works out to a toll rate of less than 1/2 of the 407ETR.

Its also worth mentioning that the soil conditions in Sydney make it very easy to dig tunnels. IIRC the rock under City is limestone, which means it sits in the goldilocks zone where its soft enough to easily dig, but hard enough where you're not risking collapse. As such Toronto's construction costs will almost certainly be higher than Sydney's on a per km basis, even before factoring engineering experience and existing infrastructure.