Highway 7 - Kitchener to Guelph

[dtkvictim]

Take any of the great cities on this planet. Tokyo, Chicago, Buenos Aires, Vancouver, London, New York City, Berlin etc. They all have an endless list of large physical structures that intersect parts of the city whether they are elevated metro lines, train lines, highways...these days even elevated parks and footpaths. There is nothing preventing people from going underneath these structures, so they don't really "divide" anything. Tokyo has utterly massive corridors for transportation that cut through the city, but it's impossible to argue that Chūō is cut off from Minato despite the dozens of elevated rail lines and roads that sit between the two areas, or that the Shuto Expressway that cuts through the city has a detrimental effect on Tokyo. There are still streets and sidewalks underneath.

This is a bit off topic IMO, since urban highways are very different. Regardless, the presence of elevated expressways in other "world class" cities doesn't automatically mean we should replicated them, or that they are the reason the cities are world class, or even that those cities don't regret them. Tokyo is a great example, who built many of their expressways the in way they did in a rush before the Olympics and at a time when they were less developed and prosperous. Now they are burying parts of the expressway network, such as over Nihonbashi, and there is quite a bit of discussion of doing more of it (though I can't find much in English). Clearly the locals think it has a detrimental effect.

Train lines definitely can divide neighbourhoods too, but it's not remotely comparable to highways with their local pollution, noise, dangerous ramps, and lack of stations providing neighbourhood hubs with shops and amenities.

I can't believe, especially with a background in understanding how structures impact the humans around them, how someone could spend any time in the vicinity of the Gardner and think it's worth whatever value it provides to the area.

Interesting side note: Most of the Tokyo expressway network has lower speeds than our regional arterials...