(03-21-2023, 11:48 AM)SF22 Wrote:

(03-21-2023, 11:35 AM)ijmorlan Wrote: It would create a new road on Bingeman Centre Drive. The idea is to have a route that is meant to move motor vehicle traffic, without incurring the absurd expense of a totally unnecessary superhighway. The existing land uses along there are big industrial and commercial ones which don’t benefit nearly as much from being an urban pedestrian environment as other uses do. Meanwhile over on Victoria St., it’s right beside residential areas so converting it to be a more pleasant urban environment that de-prioritizes motor vehicles would be a huge improvement.

I think that only works as long as the city doesn't allow new businesses to get built along that stretch, particularly on the Bingemans/river side. That said, there is a bus route along Bingemans Centre Drive, and yet very little sidewalk along vast swaths of it. I never understood why you'd have one and not the other. "Here's your stop, it's a concrete pad that goes absolutely nowhere, enjoy not getting run over at 70km/h."

(03-21-2023, 02:09 PM)neonjoe Wrote: The current Shirley Ave (Not Drive) portion of that road from Riverbend to Approx Waterloo Brewing was built by the MTO. It has MTO light standards. The rest of the road is a COK street.

(03-21-2023, 02:27 PM)danbrotherston Wrote:

(03-21-2023, 02:09 PM)neonjoe Wrote: The current Shirley Ave (Not Drive) portion of that road from Riverbend to Approx Waterloo Brewing was built by the MTO. It has MTO light standards. The rest of the road is a COK street.

It was built meeting regional standards.

If the region had prioritized and required sidewalks it would have sidewalks.

(03-21-2023, 10:43 AM)SF22 Wrote:

(02-17-2023, 04:01 PM)ijmorlan Wrote: With the climate situation we are in, any planning that assumes continued increases in motor vehicle traffic is ill considered.

But mostly I want to focus on the part I bolded. In fact, building a superhighway has no connection at all to making Victoria St. better. All that is needed to get the traffic off Victoria St. is to make slight adjustments near the intersection of Shirley Dr. with Victoria St., and near the intersection of Shirley Dr. with Bingeman’s Centre Dr.; Widen Shirley Dr. to 4 lanes between these intersections, and widen Highway 7 to 4 lanes all the way to Guelph. Install a centre median and roundabouts. Re-work the freeway interchange at Wellington St.

Yes, there is a cost to existing addresses on the highway. You don’t build an entire superhighway just to avoid impacts on a couple of dozen or so properties.

This gives you a continuous 4-lane road from Guelph to the expressway, all north of the railway track. Victoria St. would now end in a T-junction with the combined route more or less where Shirley Dr. ends at Victoria now. The existing Victoria St. bridge over the Grand River would continue to serve the improved Highway 7.

The new road would be designed to move traffic, while Victoria St. could be re-planned as an urban street with low traffic speeds and only one lane in each direction. This plan would save most of the cost of the new freeway and while expanding the road to Guelph to 4 lanes would be an expansion in road capacity, it wouldn’t have the same negative effect as building a superhighway. The difference could be used to put in place excellent rail transit between KW and Guelph.

The most frustrating thing for me about the superhighway discussion is that essentially nobody has even mentioned the possibility of improving the existing road. It’s basically superhighway or nothing when we all know that even if one takes as a given that roads need to be improved there is a lot of space between a 2 lane road and an actual superhighway, and the difference is a huge amount of money.

I'm not convinced that this wouldn't just create a new stroad on Bingeman Centre Drive. It's already wide and fast, and I can just see more sprawling businesses popping up along the length of it. Is that really a net positive?

In somewhat related news, the old David's Fries building is demolished now. I was driving and didn't have the chance to slow down and look, but did Joseph & Company get removed from this space as well? Their driveway pops out literally right next to the tracks, so I wouldn't be surprised if something changes there as well.

If the scrapyard does get removed, I'd love to see the space reclaimed to make a bike/pedestrian connection between Wellington/Breithaupt/Patrick Streets (on Google Maps, you can see how this used to be where the spur line branched off to go towards Woodside Park), with a bridge over the tracks to connect with Victoria. That would give active transportation users a connection that's separate from the Lancaster crossing. Pair that with a signalized pedestrian crossing on Victoria halfway between Lancaster and Edna (at Locust or Filbert), and suddenly you've got a nice little link made that could hook up with the upcoming Lancaster St bike lanes, which will start at Wellington when built. Maybe a MUT could follow the old rail line up across Wellington (repurpose the old train bridge into a cool pedestrian space) to connect with Guelph St at Maple. Opportunities!

(03-24-2023, 01:23 PM)panamaniac Wrote: It seems a bit odd to me to route via Guelph rather than via Cambridge,  but anything that works, I guess.

(03-24-2023, 02:40 PM)danbrotherston Wrote:  I reserve the right to change my mind after seeing the schedule.

(03-24-2023, 03:10 PM)KevinL Wrote:

(03-24-2023, 02:40 PM)danbrotherston Wrote:  I reserve the right to change my mind after seeing the schedule.

There is a schedule in the linked PDF, I've copied it over.