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