General Road and Highway Discussion

[ijmorlan]

You have enough there for quite a good op-ed that stands a chance of getting a few readers to consider the waste that we tolerate around here with overbuilt roads.

I agree that most of these things are value judgments, and the problem is that data won’t mean a lot to the typical rate payer. For instance, since you brought up Weber, I can tell you that last year most of Weber Street West carried a lot fewer than 20,000 vehicles on average per day. That doesn’t justify its configuration, but we paid a tonne the other year to have it widened, and tore down houses to have it widened. But, if the average rate payer were to see the number 20,000, maybe that just seems like a big number.

There’s no such problem with Belmont, though. It would be obvious to most people who have driven or walked it that it doesn’t need to be that wide. You can now say that it gets barely half of Weber’s traffic volume, but we’re spending in excess of $3 million to keep it that wide, with the ongoing maintenance costs that requires, for no reason except that’s the way it is now, and City staff didn’t take the time to think about whether there was an opportunity for costs savings.

I agree, it shouldn’t be that hard to make the case, even to people who are more enthusiastic about car traffic, that Belmont is inappropriately designed. Weber would be harder.

Personally I think there should be hardly any 4-lane roads in the Region; but as a matter of realpolitik, I can accept that Weber and a few other roads have four lanes. By contrast, it really is absurd that roads like Belmont and (formerly) Davenport and even Keats Way are built as four-lane roads (Keats Way detail: I am not aware that it was ever painted as four lanes, but I’m pretty sure it’s wide enough for four lanes, or very close to it).