07-11-2022, 05:33 AM
(This post was last modified: 07-11-2022, 05:35 AM by danbrotherston.)
(07-11-2022, 04:49 AM)sevenman Wrote:(07-10-2022, 09:21 PM)ijmorlan Wrote: There are 4-lane roads all over the city that have sat there for decades, never even coming close to needing all their lanes, even under the assumption that vehicular demand for free roads must be satisfied.
So yeah, you’re right.
Can you name some of these roads?...that have sat for decades. Just curious.
You named those roads...Westheights, Davenport, King St., Block Line are examples that sat for decades and were only road dieted in recent times.
There are many more: Westmount Rd., University Ave., Weber St., Highland Rd., the roads in the R&T Park Almost every four lane road in the region is overbuilt for at least some sections.
They're even widening Highland Rd. as we speak, without any traffic justification. The engineers admitted such when the project was presented, they said that traffic volumes wouldn't justify four lanes within the 30 year time frame, but argued four lanes would help transit operations.
It's insane how easily road expansion is rubber stamped. And it's not like there aren't operational costs either, it costs more to plow, etc. etc.
And it's not like the cities are innocent either. Waterloo swears they aren't planning any more road expansions, which is pretty easy to say after they just finished a major round of expansions including Columbia St., which is...gasp...also overbuilt for the traffic it carries.
But regional engineers are definitely the worst offenders here. It is their policy to build 4-5 lane roads regardless of traffic wherever possible. Part of this is because they got burned on Ira Needles by saving money building it as two lanes. But part of it is just their car brain blindness.
And I'm not even counting the roads which are built to four lanes but only striped with two....like University Ave. "west" of Erb St. or Erbsville Rd.