Highway 7 - Kitchener to Guelph

[ijmorlan]

It dramatically reduces the amount of traffic to/from Lancaster. Or so I believe. It would take a traffic study to show for sure; maybe they’re all turning at Frederick or Victoria but I doubt it — I think a lot of the traffic at that intersection is to/from Lancaster above Victoria.

Having done a daily commute into Kitchener down Lancaster, from the Waterloo direction (though admittedly more than five years ago), I would guesstimate that at least two thirds of the Lancaster traffic turned off onto either Victoria or Queen.

I have not driven across the Weber/Cedar/Krug intersection many times, and possible never in rush hour. But is it really congested? Are there a lot of accidents? From my more recent pedestrian observations (again, mostly not in rush hour) it doesn't really seem super busy.

Lancaster/Cedar/Krug is not super busy, but turning left from Krug onto Cedar can be a problem. The backup of traffic on Lancaster/Cedar waiting at the stoplight at Weber can extend past the Lancaster/Cedar/Krug intersection, meaning that one never gets a chance to make the turn.

My sense is that all the other movements are probably OK. Not “Level of Service A” or whatever, but moving vehicles isn’t the sole or even main purpose of that part of the city, so that’s totally fine. But there should not be movements that are locked out for minutes at a time.

Since Lancaster itself isn’t really appropriate for moving traffic, I figure rather than accommodating traffic by building a grade separation, just move people to different routes.