Conestoga Parkway

[timc]

Anyone know if there are plans to expand 85 to either 6 or 8 lanes between Lancaster and University? Always is major congestion there during the rush hours.

My understanding is that the province wanted to wait and see the impact of ION before widening that part of the expressway.

[chutten]

I'm with the "simplifying the transaction" hypothesis. The Ebound Courtland on ramp now (and has for the past little while) ends before the 8 offramp opens up. They used to connect and have a cross-merge.

Couple this with the widening and simplification of the onramp/offramp situation on Fischer-Hallman, and I think it's clear that those deciding these things aren't a fan of cross-merge areas.

Which is fine by me. I'm not a fan, either.

[DHLawrence]

I personally enjoy the situation that exists with our faux-collector lanes on the expressway, particularly heading NB in the morning. Choose the "express" side and you inevitably get caught up, or move over to the collector portion and bypass all of those stuck in the express part, with the added benefit of the plausible deniability that you started your journey from Victoria or Wellington...

For me the biggest bonus is that you're in the correct lane if you need the flyover to go south.

[neonjoe]

The new extra westbound lane is now open Between Courtland and Fisher Hallman. The rightmost lane no longer defaults to exiting at Courtland for those coming from Waterloo. (This should get rid of the slow down in coming West)
The dual exit lanes are also now open at Homer Watson and Fischer Hallman.
Overhead signage also looks good. The Exits for Courtland have an additional informational sign for upcoming exits. Heading east it has a sign for Highway 8 to 401 and Airport 1km, \4/ Ottawa Street 2km. Heading west they have show \70/ Homer Watson Blvd 1km, \58/ Fisher Hallman Rd 4km.

[MidTowner]

Anyone know if there are plans to expand 85 to either 6 or 8 lanes between Lancaster and University? Always is major congestion there during the rush hours.

Is it "major" really? It seems like it's a delay of a few minutes at pretty small windows of the morning and evening rush. I know that commuters through there like to complain about it, but experienced with their complaints in mind, it always seems like it's a pretty minimal delay. I'd be happy to see any actual data, though.

[Canard]

I think about that all the time on 401 between Franklin and 8. Every day, it's completely stop and go between the two, and it's insane traffic.... And it takes all of 4 minutes. So really, not a big deal... Annoying yes, but nothing like Toronto.

[ijmorlan]

Anyone know if there are plans to expand 85 to either 6 or 8 lanes between Lancaster and University? Always is major congestion there during the rush hours.

Is it "major" really? It seems like it's a delay of a few minutes at pretty small windows of the morning and evening rush. I know that commuters through there like to complain about it, but experienced with their complaints in mind, it always seems like it's a pretty minimal delay. I'd be happy to see any actual data, though.

Put it this way, if a congestion charge imposed on the road could not collect enough money to pay the full cost of enlarging it, then the people have spoken with their wallets and no expansion is justified. How’s that for a conservative, businesslike viewpoint?

And yes, more generally, I agree — what we call “congestion” here is really just a minor slowdown at the absolute peak time. We have too much road, not too little.

[dunkalunk]

It still boggles my mind that they don't connect the Lancaster onramp to the Bridgeport offramp. (Northbound)

Allowing those exiting at Bridgeport to leave the travel lanes would provide a little bit of space for those entering at  Lancaster to merge in.



For some reason, it's fine to have a 90m cross-merge zone on the southbound side, but not a 600m one on the north?

Agree that an additional lane on the north side would definitely make sense.
The directional ramp from Bridgeport Rd to Highway 85 S needs to be decommissioned, the weaving here is unsafe.

[timc]

Agree that an additional lane on the north side would definitely make sense.

I happened to take a look at the local geography the last time I drove past here. There isn't as much space between the highway and the barrier wall as it looks like, and it's a pretty significant elevation difference. I think you would need some sort of massive retaining wall there if you wanted it to work at all.

[Spokes]

The new digital sign on 7/8 EB near Fisher Hallman is turned on for testing today!