Interchange Developments

[Ryan B 35]

I've been working on a new traffic signal pole, actually!

[mightygoose 92]

well in the post your tutorials thread in city building concepts there are now several posts about interchanges....

[hamsterTK 93]

just curious, why is everyone making interchanges that will all function the same when there isnt even a Y for freeway or a Diagonal/Straight T interchange of any sort(which would be very useful)

[Tarkus 6,932]

@HamsterTK:  That would actually be a very good idea.  Very useful too.  Something I'd consider doing, though right now my skills are very basic and I've got some RLS for the next two or three weeks.

[SamJam 9]

Originally posted by: haljackey The 407 Eletronic tool road is the only one in Canada I can think of. It scans your licence plate and sends a bill to your home, which is faster than wating in those long tool booth line ups.

There may also be one that heads west from Vancouver into the Rockies, but other than that, everything else is free.

Also an intresting note, the 407 is the only cement highway in Canada.  Even though cement lasts longer, it is so noisey and bumpy compared with quiet, smooth asphalt.  Every time I cross the boarder between Sarnia, Canada and Port Huron, United States, the nice smooth ride of the 400-series highways turns into a increadably noisey, bumpy ride of the interstate highways.quote>

 

There are three stretches of controlled-access highway in Canada that are tolled, at high rates I might add: 1) the 407 ETR (not to be confused with other 400-series highways, of which the 407 is not a member) which bypasses the northern edge of the Golden Horseshoe at a traveling cost of about 15 bloody cents per km; 2) the Cobequid Pass in northern Nova Scotia, a 45 km part of Hwy. 104 that costs $4 to travel on and is a portion of the main TransCanada Highway route; and 3) the Coquihalla Highway, connecting Kamloops in the BC interior to the Fraser Valley east of Vancouver, and likely to become the new TCH alignment in BC when Hwy. 1 becomes an entirely controlled-access road east of Kamloops. It costs $10 for a trip of about 200 km.

There's some debate about making the TCH entirely tolled along the main route, the Yellowhead Highways, and the "Cottage Country" route in Ontario, thus speeding the process of completely upgrading them to controlled-access highways and encouraging more people to fly or travel by train to reduce carbon emissions.

With Canada's infrastructure becoming increasingly worn and crumbled, we'll hopefully see more concrete highways. Concrete is more rigid than asphalt (that's why it's noisier), and with fuel costs rising concrete can actually make a big difference in long-distance driving since it "deflects" a vehicle's energy rather than absorbing it. Fuel consumption for heavy vehicles traveling on concrete versus asphalt pavements is up to 20% less according to studies. And since it's more rigid, governments save money by repairing the roads less frequently--the expected life of an asphalt road is 17 years compared to 34 years for concrete. Those are huge numbers in a country like Canada where seasonal changes, like the good ol' spring thaw, can destroy a road. Asphalt "sags" after prolonged use, so concrete makes for a smoother ride in the long run. Also, the 407 requires less lighting per kilometre than a comparable asphalt-paved distance due to its reflective surface. All in all I think concrete is a better option.

The reason so many US freeways are in such bad shape is because there are simply too many to repair. According to the CIA, the US has nearly 75 000 km of expressways, far more than any other country. A lot of their freeways go "from nowhere to nowhere" and get little use, whereas most Canadian freeways are frequently useable routes. Quebec is the only province that tries to copy the blueprint of the US freeways by focusing more on creating new (and relatively useless) Autoroutes instead of focusing on keeping the ones they have in decent shape.

[glicko 0]

Originally posted by: SamJam

Originally posted by: haljackey The 407 Eletronic tool road is the only one in Canada I can think of. It scans your licence plate and sends a bill to your home, which is faster than wating in those long tool booth line ups.

There may also be one that heads west from Vancouver into the Rockies, but other than that, everything else is free.

Also an intresting note, the 407 is the only cement highway in Canada.  Even though cement lasts longer, it is so noisey and bumpy compared with quiet, smooth asphalt.  Every time I cross the boarder between Sarnia, Canada and Port Huron, United States, the nice smooth ride of the 400-series highways turns into a increadably noisey, bumpy ride of the interstate highways.quote>

 

Just a silly correction - concrete highways are rare in Canada - but the 407 isn't the only one. The Deerfoot Trail in Calgary is concrete surfaced for much of its length. The new western bypass of Edmonton (Anthony Henday Drive) is going to be concrete surfaced. I remember a few concrete roads in Quebec, too. I agree concrete often makes for a bumpy ride (esp. in places where there's a lot of freezing and thawing).

[hamsterTK 93]

of their freeways go "from nowhere to nowhere" and get little usequote>

well, really the interstates go places but whatever..

what causes that is pressure from small towns who want bypasses to ease up congestion, and pretty soon when every little town along a highway gets a bypass that highway is then completely controlled access freeway,a narrow, piecemeal badly built one too...

The two main roads from my town to houston(US 290 and TX 6) are primarily freeways thanks to this, and now Highway 6 is having to be redone because between the college station bypass and the navasota bypass is a piece of outdated narrow 4 lane with a turning lane section where head on collisions are common.

[hamsterTK 93]

*oops double post*

[redfox85 659]

There's some debate about making the TCH entirely tolled along the main route, the Yellowhead Highways, and the "Cottage Country" route in Ontario, thus speeding the process of completely upgrading them to controlled-access highways and encouraging more people to fly or travel by train to reduce carbon emissions.

quote>

 

It would be political sucide in the biggest degree if they toll the 400 or the 11, and would essentially put a huge divide between southern ontario and northern ontario...

[Haljackey 17,308]

I agree Anung mwka. Even though tolls, wether highly priced or not, help discourae automobile use. But, in this case, it would cause more harm than good even if there were electronic tools like the 407 because it would impact the northern part of the province. People would that would head this way around lake Huron would then skip this area entirely and use hwy 402 west in southern Ontario and i-75 north in the Americain state of Michigan to bypass the tolls to get to western parts of Canada.

[Duke87 1,070]

If you examine a US road atlas, you will indeed find lots of little sections of freeway "from nowhere to nowhere" that are a few miles long at best. Most of them can be explained in one of two ways:

1) they are merely bypasses around a congested area, and there is no need or demad for a freeway extending off either end. This is the far more common explination.

2) They were planned to be part of a longer highway that actualy woud have connected two places, the rest of which was never built. "Suicide 6" in Eastern Connecticut is a prime example of this. It was supposed to be part of a larger I-84 extension from Hartford to Providence.

[simzebu 19]

3) Some politician had a freind in the concrete buissiness who *happened* to buy all of the land where the hichway was to be built only days before the plans were made

[ryoshi22 0]

Regarding the conditions of roads, I can attest in Akron Ohio that our concrete roads are nice, but two months (or two days) after completion, there are other repairs done (sewer, water, etc) and instead of patching with *concrete*, they patch it with asphalt... making a horrible sinkhole! Why they don't do infrastructure *before* the road, I never will know.

For highways that are mildly useless, I point out US 224 west of I-71, which doesn't really need to be a four-lane divided highway. Also, the I-480 east of I-271 SE of Cleveland doesn't seem useful, given traffic levels.

And regarding a Y-interchange, if it would look good and function properly, I'd use it methinks.

[bfairin 1]

A little history of the development of the Interstate Highway System. When they developed the interstate highway system they tried to project traffic and defense needs 20 years in the future(one of the original uses was to be for the easy movement of troops and equipment in the event of war). This is the reason that some stretches of interstate highways were originally built 6 lanes wide, they projected traffic needs 20 years out would warrant the extra lanes. I-35 south of Austin, TX; I-287 between I-80 and I-78; and I-65 south of Indianapolis are examples of this.  If the projected vehicle count would be 5000 vehicles per day or less a two lane semi-limited access road was built. This meant that in areas of higher traffic use (like near larger towns) a fully limited access road was built (two or four lanes), and in the more rural areas at grade crossings were allowed. There are still some at grade crossings on I-40 west of Albequerque and near the TX/NM border, and on I-10 in west Texas. Some other examples were I-90, I-15 and I-94 in Montana, I-94 in ND, and I-80 and I-25 in Wyoming. In the mid-70's Congress passed legislation stating that all interstate routes were to be limited access divided freeways along their enire length. So over the later 70's and early 80's these two lane routes were widened to accomodate the new law. This is why there are many interstate roads that are very lightly traveled and make no sense why the expense was made to build them. Also to consider is that the projected traffic figures were made by humans and they do make mistakes or areas never quite developed like they thought. That could be the explanation behind I-480 east of I-271 in OH or I-196 in MI.