General Road and Highway Discussion

[Pheidippides]

I'm actually surprised to see the number of pedestrians on these that do venture out along these two stretches in their current state given they face sections like the one near Erb and Tweed (near the Waterpark buildings) that are inhospitable in summer, never mind in the winter, where you are literally stuck between a 70kph vehicle going around a bend and a hard place.

There have been many of these types of conversions across North America that have shown no impact on total capacity and an increase in safety for all road users, including motorists.

Given that both Erb and Bridgeport are classed as "neighbourhood connectors - avenue" I would suggest they are not meeting the definition (pg. 42) and would be good cases for improvement:
"3.4 Neighbourhood Connector
Neighbourhood Connectors are typically continuous across several communities/neighbourhoods within the Region. Neighbourhood Connectors balance active transportation (bicycles and pedestrians), transit and vehicle movement, providing a higher level of priority (design and comfort) for pedestrians, cyclists and transit users. Neighbourhood Connectors can be broken down into two sub categories - Avenues and Main Streets. The descriptions, which follow, will address each in detail.

3.4.1 Avenue
3.4.1.1 Introduction
Neighbourhood Connector: Avenues are roads designed to support active transportation (including walking and cycling) and transit. These roads are good candidates for transit priority lanes. They can prioritize vehicular traffic, but need to support a mix of adjacent land uses that typically require individual access to and from the road. Examples of a Neighbourhood Connector: Avenue include Hespeler Road (Pinebush Road to Dundas Street), Weber Street (from Fairway Road to Ottawa Street N), and Victoria Street (Fountain Street to Weber Street).

3.4.1.2 Defining Characteristics
Avenues are located in existing built up areas with adjacent development facing the street but set back to incorporate large front yards and front yard parking, typical of medium to large format commercial, shopping malls, community facilities and low rise neighbourhoods. Avenues also include road ways with back-lotted residential. Avenues have larger right-of-way’s than main streets and include many opportunities for re-urbanization. The designs for Community Connectors typically incorporate wide, landscaped centre medians.

3.4.1.3 Key Design Opportunities & Challenges Avenues will serve an important future role in the Region. They represent roadways that can and should transition to transit supportive and pedestrian friendly streets. The adjacent lands often have the potential to evolve over the coming years. How these areas evolve will depend greatly on the design and character of the street to which they are adjacent. If the street prioritizes transit and active modes of transportation, it is likely that future development will support the priority of the street. If the evolution of the street fails to guide development then existing building typologies will remain."





As a regular user of both the signal at the Laurel Trail/Erb and Peppler/Bridgeport they are not sufficient to keep non-motorists safe; I see at least one red light run here a week and at least one wrong-way driver a month.