ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit

[Canard]

The traffic bottleneck there is now because the current configuration has the Westbound left lane (of two lanes) turning mandatory South on Charles (left turn only, not straight through and left). So the number of lanes goes from 2, to 1, and back to 2 lanes on Benton, and causes a massive clog that backs up through King, and eventually to Duke, because the lights are so close together.

This will likely go away when the 2>1 point moves further back down Frederick at Duke - the next light is way up at Centre in the Square.

[Markster]

Ha. I was talking about the pedestrian bottleneck on the sidewalk that has been drastically cut back for the road widening.

[ert86]

Saw them paving something in front of Cameron Heights today while i waited for a bus on King.

[Canard]

Part of Erb Street could turn two-way for the summer - CTV News (Video)

Business owners anxious - CTV News (Video)

[Pheidippides]

Looks like the demolition permit for 910 King St W, Kitchener has been issued and there is a Sittler demolition sign on the building now.
   

I think another TPSS is to go here?

[Pheidippides]

The traffic bottleneck there is now because the current configuration has the Westbound left lane (of two lanes) turning mandatory South on Charles (left turn only, not straight through and left). So the number of lanes goes from 2, to 1, and back to 2 lanes on Benton, and causes a massive clog that backs up through King, and eventually to Duke, because the lights are so close together.

This will likely go away when the 2>1 point moves further back down Frederick at Duke - the next light is way up at Centre in the Square.

Speaking of bottlenecks, and I'm not even sure if that would help with traffic flow because of the nearby signals at Charles and Duke, but I've wondered why the King/Victoria lights haven't just been switched to a pedestrian activated only cycle since you can't go south or north on King at the moment. It just seems really odd to see cars queued up going east/west waiting for exactly nothing to happen north/south (with the exception of pedestrians).

[Canard]

Yep, huge waste of energy and source of unnecessary pollution and wear and tear with having hat much traffic decelerate, stop, idle and accelerate again, for nothing - not to mention the accumulated time wasted waiting for the light. Agreed it should be an instant-activate pedestrian request (after a manditory timer, if the cycle was just activated previously, of course).

[Viewfromthe42]

Yep, huge waste of energy and source of unnecessary pollution and wear and tear with having hat much traffic decelerate, stop, idle and accelerate again, for nothing - not to mention the accumulated time wasted waiting for the light. Agreed it should be an instant-activate pedestrian request (after a manditory timer, if the cycle was just activated previously, of course).

I don't think there are any pedestrian buttons there, one of the non-beg intersections in the region. Visually, it can look bad, but when I'm waiting for the bus and watching, or especially right at the curve, I can see all the cross-Victoria lights synched up. So, as a driver (especially going west), you stop at Victoria instead of a guaranteed stop at Charles or John. When you have the heavy lane-reduction traffic in the afternoon, there's no ability to pump more cars through Victoria when Duke or Charles get priority, and so leaving Victoria open still produces near-identical delays and pollution. What it doesn't do, despite attempts even in the current rush hour mess to do so, is allow traffic to sit in the intersection. As a pedestrian, it's very intimidating and hostile to be crossing at a crosswalk with a driver who caught themselves in the intersection wanting to edge onto the crosswalk and into your path. Some drivers do this, but if King became beg-only and out of sync with the other intersections, this intersection would be filled with cars waiting for downstream red lights to go green.

[SammyOES]

One thing I really like about this forum is how what seem like obvious things usually have both the pros/cons/reasons explained behind them.

Not that I always agree with people, but its good to have it reinforced that most of the time we see something 'obviously stupid' there are probably at least some good reasons behind the decision we're just not aware of / thinking about.

[Markster]

The RideIONrt Instagram posted a sweet aerial video.  It shows significant track work underway between KCI and Wellington St.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BFRgCLIzR9H/

[KevinL]

Good to see the embed finished in front of King Edward! I know the schoolkids there have been following progress closely.

[Viewfromthe42]

Some great shots, but did they have a time limit? Some of the cuts are so fast that I'm still searching the details of one shot when it moves to the next, and barely have time to determine what details I should now be looking for before it shifts again. I wonder if GrandLinq yelled at them for filming

[Pheidippides]

William at King and Union at King both look well on their way to reopening as scheduled on the 15th - William moreso than Union. I will try for photos on my way home.

[timio]

I was near city hall today and noticed the view towards the grade separation is quite impressive. You can really see the change in view from before.

[panamaniac]

I suspect that the art to be moved is not the mirror column thing, but rather the engraved wall featuring the mirror column art (streetview)

Walking through the area, the road widening has created a serious bottleneck around there.  It feels like the widening on the ground has exceeded the widening depicted in the drawing.

[EDIT] hmm, I'm actually thinking of the stone bench/garden area in front of the Benton parking garage.

It could be - I was just going by what the Jane's Walk animators said.  If it doesn't need to be moved it's a good thing, since trying to lift and move the image-bearing ceramic tilea without breaking them would be no easy task, I suspect.