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Highway 7 - Kitchener to Guelph
(11-23-2016, 12:25 PM)KevinT Wrote: I was referring to putting roundabouts here and here:

[Image: Hwy7Roundabouts.png]

If there was a way to fit them in I think they'd be good, as I don't think they'd see as much traffic as the current Victoria / Bruce / Edna intersections do.

Note:  I got this from the attachment on page 1 of this thread, is there something more up to date that has improved these intersections?

not convinced roundabouts are the way to go here with the amount of lanes and traffic already going every which way.  Not a terrible idea, just that most people have trouble with simple roundabouts let alone one's with this many 'distractions' going on.  I would however like to see more detail on how the circled intersections will be controlled, and if there's anything more up to date with this layout.
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The other thing maybe someone can shed some light on, does this Highway 7 plan mean the choices to go Northbound on 85 is by Wellington, and prior to that Ottawa street (with the Bruce on ramp appearing closed in the plan)?  Similar question to go Southbound on 85, Wellington or all the way down to Ottawa (with the Edna on ramp appearing to be closed)?
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(11-23-2016, 09:29 PM)embe Wrote:
(11-23-2016, 12:25 PM)KevinT Wrote: I was referring to putting roundabouts here and here:

[Image: Hwy7Roundabouts.png]

If there was a way to fit them in I think they'd be good, as I don't think they'd see as much traffic as the current Victoria / Bruce / Edna intersections do.

Note:  I got this from the attachment on page 1 of this thread, is there something more up to date that has improved these intersections?

not convinced roundabouts are the way to go here with the amount of lanes and traffic already going every which way.  Not a terrible idea, just that most people have trouble with simple roundabouts let alone one's with this many 'distractions' going on.  I would however like to see more detail on how the circled intersections will be controlled, and if there's anything more up to date with this layout.

Not sure what you mean by the amount of lanes and traffic going every which way. If you look at each suggested roundabout location, I believe each one is just a four-way intersection, with at most two lanes coming in or going out in any given direction. Sure, there are bridges flying over and the overall interchange is very complex, but the intersections themselves are not unusually complicated by any measure I can see.
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Part of the risk with those is that you get what you have at Bridgeport and 85, people coming off at 90-110kph, and not slowing down to even 70 as they merge into traffic signed at 50kph. Those high speeds feeding into a roundabout would be very risky.
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Yeah, that's entirely a case of people flying not by instrumentation and instead just by perception. I observe this all the time. It happens when people merge onto highways, as well - they're used to driving 50-60 km/h, so they accelerate, thinking they're going super-fast... drive along for 2 minutes and realize "Oh, I'm only doing 90 in a 100." THEN they speed up.

Happens every day going up the big hill into town on 8 after the Grand River Bridge, too - people slow right down there, because of gravity. They don't notice they're actually losing speed because they never look down at their instrument cluster.
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(11-24-2016, 06:40 PM)Viewfromthe42 Wrote: Part of the risk with those is that you get what you have at Bridgeport and 85, people coming off at 90-110kph, and not slowing down to even 70 as they merge into traffic signed at 50kph. Those high speeds feeding into a roundabout would be very risky.

Very true.  I'm tainted by the infrastructure I saw on a trip to The Netherlands, but speed limits are far more respected there and in general the drivers seemed far more precise and aware.  I suspect its a much longer and more thorough process to get a license there.
...K
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(11-25-2016, 07:42 AM)KevinT Wrote:
(11-24-2016, 06:40 PM)Viewfromthe42 Wrote: Part of the risk with those is that you get what you have at Bridgeport and 85, people coming off at 90-110kph, and not slowing down to even 70 as they merge into traffic signed at 50kph. Those high speeds feeding into a roundabout would be very risky.

Very true.  I'm tainted by the infrastructure I saw on a trip to The Netherlands, but speed limits are far more respected there and in general the drivers seemed far more precise and aware.  I suspect its a much longer and more thorough process to get a license there.

Also a lot more photo radar in non-North American jurisdictions.
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(11-25-2016, 07:42 AM)KevinT Wrote:
(11-24-2016, 06:40 PM)Viewfromthe42 Wrote: Part of the risk with those is that you get what you have at Bridgeport and 85, people coming off at 90-110kph, and not slowing down to even 70 as they merge into traffic signed at 50kph. Those high speeds feeding into a roundabout would be very risky.

Very true.  I'm tainted by the infrastructure I saw on a trip to The Netherlands, but speed limits are far more respected there and in general the drivers seemed far more precise and aware.  I suspect its a much longer and more thorough process to get a license there.

Yes, I was also amazed by how precise the drivers were in the Netherlands.  People here just drift all over the road, stopping is horribly imprecise.  In the Netherlands, you come to a line of parked cars, and every car is within a couple of inches of the same line.  It's amazing.
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(11-25-2016, 11:48 AM)plam Wrote: Also a lot more photo radar in non-North American jurisdictions.

Funny you should mention it, about a month after I got back from my trip I received a ticket from The Netherlands in the mail. I was snapped doing 103 in a 90 zone about a kilometre from the airport.

I was there a week and they caught me in the first 3 minutes, I can't imagine how I didn't get more... Big Grin
...K
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(11-25-2016, 04:38 PM)KevinT Wrote:
(11-25-2016, 11:48 AM)plam Wrote: Also a lot more photo radar in non-North American jurisdictions.

Funny you should mention it, about a month after I got back from my trip I received a ticket from The Netherlands in the mail.  I was snapped doing 103 in a 90 zone about a kilometre from the airport.

I was there a week and they caught me in the first 3 minutes, I can't imagine how I didn't get more...   Big Grin

That's amazing.  I don't think anyone would ever expect to get a ticket for that speed here.
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I was terrified of getting a ticket in the UK earlier this year after reading that the photo radar had very minimal tolerance, if any at all. The "National speed limit" made me even more paranoid because I was never fully confident on what the actual limit was.
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(11-25-2016, 05:15 PM)timio Wrote: I was terrified of getting a ticket in the UK earlier this year after reading that the photo radar had very minimal tolerance, if any at all.  The "National speed limit" made me even more paranoid because I was never fully confident on what the actual limit was.

Had the same experience in Switzerland, although they publish what their tolerances are. (I think it's like 5km/h). I had no clue what the speed limit was, though it was clearly faster than what I was doing.
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(11-24-2016, 06:40 PM)Viewfromthe42 Wrote: Part of the risk with those is that you get what you have at Bridgeport and 85, people coming off at 90-110kph, and not slowing down to even 70 as they merge into traffic signed at 50kph. Those high speeds feeding into a roundabout would be very risky.

The 401 exit to get to St. Thomas (I think thats where we hit it) goes right up into a roundabout, and there was a roundabout on the opposite side of the bridge.  I think there is a similar setup near Pickering/Oshawa/Ajax area.  Interesting to know if there are speed issues there.

Coke
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It's becoming increasingly common to see roundabouts at highway offramps.

Windsor, for example:
https://www.google.ca/maps/@42.2317092,-...a=!3m1!1e3
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(11-28-2016, 03:40 PM)Markster Wrote: It's becoming increasingly common to see roundabouts at highway offramps.

Windsor, for example:
https://www.google.ca/maps/@42.2317092,-...a=!3m1!1e3

Holt Road just at the Darlington Nuke plant also has a sweet roundabout setup, traffic flows better than it did before.
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