Xiao

Back again with some more shots (good to see this thread is still alive and kicking into 2005!) Highway 401: Looking East at the 401/403/410 Mega-Interchange (18-lanes merge to 6-8 lanes!!!) Highway 401: Looking West at the Mega-Interchange from Dixie Road Highway 401: Looking West from the Kipling Avenue Overpass (2 PM! The traffic exodus beings on the only stretch of 401 that is NOT a C/D throughout Toronto) Highway 401: Looking East from Kipling Avenue Overpass (Western Terminus of Main Express/Collector System) Highway 401: Looking West from the Weston Road Overpass (2 seasons... Winter & Construction - lets pack more lanes in here!) Highway 401: Looking West from the Avenue Road Overpass @ Hoggs Hollow (mmm... busyish...) Highway 401: Looking East from the Avenue Road Overpass @ Hoggs Hollow (first section of Highway 401 C/D was paved here) Happy New Year my fellow Road Enthusiasts!

Here's another series of photo's on Ontario's highways: Highway 400 @ King Sideroad Interchange (Looking Southbound).... go commuters to Barrie & all points north! Highway 400 @ Highway 7 Interchange (Looking Southbound).... traffic's moving not to badly right now Highway 403 @ King Road & QEW Interchange (Looking Eastbound).... I get screwed up driving through here Highway 404 @ 401/DVP Interchange (Looking Southbound).... Yay! Rush Hour (or should I say HOURS) Highway 404 @ Vandorf Interchange (Looking Northbound).... mmm... suburbanite Highway... QEW @ Burlington Skyway (Looking Westbound).... and on your right you can smell Hamilton Highway 410 @ Courtney Park (Looking Northbound).... mmm... more suburbanite Highway... Highway 410 @ Courtney Park (Looking Southbound).... What scares me? No crash barriers... Gardiner Expressway @ Fort York (Looking Eastbound)... nice view... Gardiner Expressway @ LakeShore Blvd Interchange (Looking Eastbound)... lots of 115KV Transmission Towers Gardiner Expressway (Looking Eastbound)... just heading into the city on a weekend afternoon...

Date: 9/21/2004 9:09:12 PM Author: BrandonTheGreat Xiao, I just want to ask you one question, do you take those wonderful shots of the 401 yourself, because they are amazing. The thing I said about the C/D reaching Oshawa, it looks like the 401 would be called I-96 before that happens.quote> I've taken a couple of those pictures while testing out my new digital camera, but the majority of them are from websites I have found online that have tons of Ontario 400-series & secondary series highway pictures ranging from Highway 3 in the west end to 401 through Cornwall. I'll protest to the bitter end! It will stay 401. No Interstate signage here! :D

Date: 9/17/2004 10:41:43 PM Author: BrandonTheGreat Xiao, since you are on the east end, I am on the west end as I said before in the PEEL region. Now will those improvements happen like the extension of C/D from Brock to Salem, everything is close together as you said and that is quite hard. About extending the C/D westward. I read somewhere but I doubt it is possible now for the C/D to extend west as far as Mavis Road, which is about 5km of extra C/D. It said to be done by 2005, and they haven't even started. I don't believe that would work unless they extended it as far west as the 320, at Highway 20 in Milton. That is where it should start, if the C/D were to extend to Oshawa in sometime, just think of it, 60 miles of straight C/D, and in most other cities that have C/D, it is an average of about 6 miles of C/D. Now that is about 20 years from even getting off the drawing board I would say. quote> mmm... 60 miles of C/D! Sure would make my commutes into & out of Toronto a little more enjoyable (along with countless of others)! Unfortunately, I probably won't be around to see the C/D system expand into Oshawa (and there's a good chance it won't happen). It's a problem of space. There simply isn't enough road allowance on either side to expand to 12 lanes with a C/D system here in Oshawa. There's room for 10 straight lanes, but that's pushing it. Without expropriation of land, the C/D system could run as far east as Brock Street in Whitby (the next exit east of Salem). After that, you run into the problem of GO Stations, entire industries, police stations, movies theatres, homes and countless other businesses that are built within 100' of the road, not to mention the secondary highways & surface streets running right next to 401 on both the north & south sides. It just won't work (much to my dissappointment). Maybe they'll go Big Dig style! (imagine 16-lanes C/D underground.... oh the possibilities!!!) However, here's to hoping one day I'll see something like this running past my door out here in the boones! Highway 401 Looking West @ Brock Road (Eastern terminus of Collector/Express System) Proposed Highway 401, 407, 115, Clarington Link & Whitby Link Expansion Plans

Yep. Approximately 500,000 vehicles a day. The old 416,000 figure was from 2001 (IIRC). Completely nuts, and if Ontario keeps resting on its laurels in Toronto and not add any additional highway capacity or mass-transit capacity (IE GO Transit/TTC/Municipal Transit), Toronto and the surrounding areas are going to suffer even more than they already do (just look at Peel & Durham for example). Durham has come up with a 15 year expansion plan for transit services out here, proposing the following: -> A 15% reduction in AADT's across the region on major routes (2, 7, 7A, 12, 48, 401) -> Increase safety -> Reduce pollution -> Foster growth Durham Region, while still one of the top 5 fastest growing areas of North America, has seen housing & business development fall in the last 3 years due to inadequate high-speed highway infrastructure. The plan calls for the following additions to the Provincial Highway network in this area: -> Expand Highway 407 from the Brock Road terminus to at least Solina Road, Bowmanville (just 3 KM's west of Bowmanville). -> If the EA is approved, expand Highway 407 all the way from Solina Road, Bowmanville to Highway 35/115 interchange @ Enterprise Hill. -> Construction of two 4-lane Link routes, each 10 KM's in length, that connect Highway 401 to Highway 407 (major north/south arteries). -> First link (Whitby Link) will run just west of Lakeridge Road in Whitby. -> Second link (Clarington Link) will run just west of Solina Road in Bowmanville -> Install interchanges on each link to interface with major East/West routes in Durham (Highway 401, Bloor Street, Highway 2, Rossland Road, Taunton Road, Highway 7, Pebblestone Road, Highway 407) -> Install new high-capacity 401 interchange @ Clarington Link (between Courtice Road, Courtice & Holt Road, Bowmanville) -> Install new high-capacity 401 interchange @ Whitby Link (between Salem Road, Ajax & Brock Street, Whitby) -> Install new high-capacity 401 interchange east of Harmony Road, Oshawa (location to be determined) -> Install new high-capacity 401 interchange @ Stevenson Road, Oshawa -> Install new high-capacity 401 interchange @ Lakeridge Road, Whitby -> Install new high-capacity 401 interchange @ Lambs Road, Bowmanville -> Close old 401 interchange @ Park Road, Oshawa -> Close old 401 interchange @ Bennett Road, Newcastle -> Encorporate an Ottawa-style Transitway running just south & adjacent to Highway 407 from Markham Road to the Clarington Link. -> TransitWay is to be minimum 4-lanes wide where the new BRT Initiaitive (Bus Rapid Transit) will interface with the municipal transit services from Clarington, Oshawa, Whitby, Ajax, Pickering, Markham, Scarborough & York to offer a high-speed, high-occupancy mass transit system. -> BRT busses will be high-efficiency hydrogen buses (possibly natural gas as well) -> Install HOV/Bus lanes along Highway 2 between Oshawa & Pickering -> Expansion of Highway 401 Express/Collectors from Brock Road in Pickering to Salem Road in Ajax (12 lanes) -> Expansion of Highway 401 from Salem Road in Ajax to Thickson Road in Whitby (12 lanes, but no C/D) -> Expansion of Highway 401 from Thickson Road in Whitby to Waverley Road in Bowmanville (10 lanes) -> Expansion of Highway 401 from Waverley Road in Bowmanville to Highway 35/115 interchange in Newcastle (8 lanes) -> Expansion of Highway 115 North of Highway 35/115 Interchange to Highway 7/115 interchange in Peterborough (6 or 8 lanes) -> Expansion of Highway 2 from Mearns Avenue, Bowmanville to Highway 2/35/115 Interchange (4 lane surface street) All this by 2021. It's going to be a great time to be in Durham. Finally a sigh of relief for us commuters who have no choice but to use Highway 401 (even though I love to drive!)

To sum up my spewings about highways in SC5... I'd like enough control to create a functional highway that looks like the photos below with these features: -> Collector/Express System (we here in Toronto love our C/D's) -> Control over number of lanes -> Transfers between Collector/Express -> Stacks (up to 5-way) -> Offramp & Onramp control (both design & placement) -> Highway groups to be detached from eachother (IE I can detour the westbound lanes different than the eastbound lanes) -> Tolls (only if you wanted to be really mean) Highway 401 - Looking Westward @ Rouge River Highway 400 - Looking Northward @ Highway 7 Interchange

Date: 9/16/2004 7:49:38 PM Author: Duke87 You've obviously never seen the New Jersey Turnpike. It reaches 14 lanes at it's widest part, and It's usually decent on traffic, but if there's a sporting event at the meadowlands, if it's rush hour, or a friday evening (southbound)/sunday evening (northbound) in the summer, the traffic can be murder. the traffic friday and sunday is from people heading to/from the Jersey Shore or atlantic city for the weekend. quote> Been there. Doesn't even touch the traffic volumes shoved through the DVP/401/404 interchange on a typical work day (376,000+) or through 401/Brock Road in Pickering, Ontario (228,000+). New 2004 figures released by MTO show that Highway 401 is pushing an AADT (Average Annual Daily Traffic) count of 500,000 vehicles per day across the 401/400 interchange, with that figure spiking frequently on points throughout the GTA across 401. Ever try escaping Toronto on the Friday of a long summer weekend driving up Highway 400 to cottage country? In 72 hours, 1,500,000 vehicles leave from Toronto. That's an AADT of 500,000 vehicles across a major highway system. I'll reiterate again. They don't call it North America's busiest highway for nothing. Brandon, I found some interesting stats you may want to take note of with regards to 401: -> It includes North America's busiest multi-structure bridge @ Hoggs Hollow (4 structures for both sets of Collector & Express lanes). -> The worlds longest 12-lane or more span of Highway (Mississauga to Brock Road) -> The worlds busiest trucking route. -> Carries more than 40% of all of Canada's trade with the US. -> Carries 4% of the all of the US's trade with Canada. -> The longest non-toll freeway under a single highway authority in North America. -> 401 & QEW carry so much US Trade to Canada that they are considered the most important strategic infrastructure in Canada by the US Intelligence Committee. -> 401/400 interchange is the busiest interchange in North America with a total of 26 lanes of combined traffic

Date: 9/13/2004 10:33:02 PM Author: bartolo There isnt a blue sign onto 400NB, you have to be in the collectors. I'm pretty certain about that. I could be wrongquote> After reviewing it, I'm pretty sure now to... Sorry about the mixup! My first post here @ SimTropolis.com was made in this thread. Actually... most of my posts have been in this thread

Date: 9/2/2004 8:29:38 PM Author: BrandonTheGreat Lets get this back in action after its 5 month sleep, I haven't came to the site in a while, but this was one great topic.quote> Sounds like a great idea Brandon! Managed to snag a couple more pictures (and found lots more on the Internet) Highway 401 Expansion Update: Last time I posted, Highway 401 was still 4-lanes east of Port Hope, Ontario. After driving through the awful construction this summer, Highway 401 is being widened to 6-lanes & resurfaced east of the Highway 2 exit for a distance of 5 KM's. Sure, it ain't much, but every little bit helps. The Pics (for those who wanted them)... South on Highway 400 in the winter (don't ya hate accidents) The reason we were all stopped (eww... corpse...) Shot of a 401 East collector lane overhead sign (and a Collector -to- Express Transfer) Highway 401 East (Express Lanes) heading past Pearson Airport (you can see it just north of the highway in the distance)... Highway 401 East (Express Lanes) heading further past Pearson (thinking near Dixon Road because of the reddish-brick sound walls...) Highway 401 West just outside of Kingston (personally I prefer the 16-lanes over this 4-lane crap...) Northern Terminus of Highway 416 @ Highway 417 (you either head west or east) Highway 406 Terminus @ QEW. (either head to Toronto or to Niagara Falls) Queen Elizabeth Way (QEW) West along the Burlington Skyway Bridge (kinda reminds ya of a foggy day in San Francisco...) Highway 401 East signage (old class-5 sign... the new ones don't say The Kings Highway). More to come later on

Originally taken at 1600x1200, but scrunched down to fit the 800x600 rule here @ ST. I love my Sony GDM-F520

---------------- On 2/23/2004 4:16:23 PM Skyfire wrote: Okay, I want a picture of the 401E showing me the sign that indicates where the 400N exit is! I went to Toronto Valentine's day weekend and I ended up in Ajax (about 25 miles east) before I realized I went too far. I never saw a single sign for 400N on the eastbound 401, but I did see a bunch when heading west on 401.---------------- AJAX? OMG you went WAY past it. You were out of the Express/Collector's portion of the 401... way too far east. Hell, you're almost in my neck of the woods out that far east. Quite frankly, I don't know how the hell you missed it, as the 400/401 interchange (the Basketweave) is the second most noticable interchange in Toronto and is accessible through both the Express & Collector lanes in both eastbound and westbound directions. As well, traffic on the 401 is stopped DEAD at the 400 interchange at nearly every time of the day, both East & Westbound, Collectors & Express. The 401 Eastbound sign would have stated (on a blue background if you are in the Collector lanes or a green background if you were in the Express lanes): \400/ Barrie Next Exit Black Creek Drive 1 KM. Jane Street 2 KM You also would have passed underneath this MTO/401 Dynamically Updated Traffic Sign before you hit the 400 North Exit (and move through this congestion).

---------------- On 2/21/2004 6:17:09 PM Santonel wrote: I wanna know where BrandonTheGreat and Xiao are getting these cool 401 pics from.---------------- Snapped a few of them myself during my travels along Highway 401. Also, there are a plethora of websites dedicated to the history of Ontario highways (both the 400 series and the secondary systems). Most notably: http://roadscholar.on.ca/lateststory.html http://members.aol.com/hwys/OntHwys/OntHwys401Hist.html

Highway 115 is the odd man out. It really can't be classified as a 400-series highway as not all of the interchanges are access-controlled (meaning there are no overpasses/underpasses at certain areas). Its a 4-lane (2 lane north/2 south) highway that has a speed limit of 90 KM/H for the first 20 KM. This 20 KM has a cement jersey barrier in the centre for safety purposes. It is through this stretch (dubbed Gasoline Alley) that there are gas stations, convenience stores, auto shops & restaurants all along both sides of the highway, which people can freely get off the highway and turn into. As well, all interchanges along this stretch of the highway (short of the 115/401, 115/HWY 2 & 115/35 interchanges) are not access controlled. No overpasses. Some have underpasses, but most do not. Hence, it can't be classified as a 400-series highway. The second stretch, which used to be a 2-lane road with a speed limit of 100 KM/h (yes, nuts I know) was deadly. It runs from the Highway 35 interchange to its' terminus at Highway 7 in Peterborough, Ontario, a distance of about 40 KM. After more than 150 people were killed in accidents along this stretch of highway between 1990 and 1992 (yes, carnage), MTO finally decided to upgrade the highway to 4-lanes in total, but it was done at a cheap price. They left the original 2-lane road there as the northbound lanes, most of which is asphalt covered (except in certain spaces, most notably where I had my accident). However, to save costs, the 2 new southbound lanes were made with concrete, not asphalt. It was a mistake and drivers pay for it with their lives every winter due to no traction. Since 1995, MTO has been slowly replacing the concrete with asphalt at a cost almost double compared to what it would have cost to just pave the damn road in the first place. One up side? Every interchange north of Highway 35 along Highway 115 is fully access-controlled with overpasses. Yes, this portion has a 100 KM/h speed limit and a grass median (150', 50 M) that has no safety barriers installed, just like the 401 out in the Windsor/Chatham/Goderich corridor). How Effective Are Express/Collectors? Quite frankly, I love them. Especially when you are trying to bypass the local Toronto traffic that needs access to every interchange. When I'm travelling into Toronto from the East, trying to get to one of the central highways (such as the 404/DVP), I'll just ride the Express lanes in and exit the Express to the 404/DVP without having to worry about the constant entering/exiting of local traffic on the 401. One advantage that the 401 Express/Collector system has are Transfers that allow traffic to switch between both sets of lanes. I love Riding the Transfers during treks into the city, essentially transfering at each transfer between the Express to the Collectors and back, which since they are installed pretty close together, offer the quickest way into the city with minimum traffic related delays (expect if you get some idiot who doesn't know where they are going and end up smashing into the jersey barriers dividing both the Express, Collectors and the transfer between them.) Here's a shot of a transfer (Green signs are Express, Blue are Collectors). For anyone who wants to get off at the next 3 major intersections (Neilson Road, \48/ Markham Road or McCowan Road), they can ride the Express transfer to the Collectors and get off (the actual transfer is the next green sign up ahead in the Westbound 401 lanes, which has the 2 little yellow arrows hanging down).

Santonel, I'm sure you remember that little stretch of HWY 401 being dubbed Carnage Alley for the fact that over the course of 3 months, 50 people were killed in vehicle accidents which could very well have been avoided if concrete Jersey barriers or the metal strip crash barriers (installed on 401 in some places along the Express/Collector corridor) had been installed. The reason there are grass medians on the highway? When 401 was built and completed in the 50-60's, speed limits were lower than today. There was no need for the installation of a safety barrier at the time. As well, the DHO (Department of Highways of Ontario, later renamed to MTO) needed to leave room for expansion. We probably won't see concrete barriers on any highway less than 6 lanes simply because of the preparation work that would need to be completed. Those grass medians are usually valleys with enough space in them for 2 more lanes (1 each direction), a full paved shoulder and the 24-36 inches required for the concrete Jersey barrier / metal strip crash barriers. If they were to NOT expand the highway, there would be a GIANT gap between the inside lane of each direction and the space where the concrete barrier will need to be installed. I'm pretty sure that the Government of Ontario & MTO would not approve a project to install Jersey barriers when 10 years down the road they are going to have to rip them out to flatten the grass median to permit the expansion of the highway to 6 lanes. Talk about waste of money. An interm measure could be the installation of those wooden pole & 3-line steel cable crash posts along accident-prone stretches of the highway, but anytime they are crashed into, they need to be replaced. However, they work surprising well at capturing the car during an accident. I watched this past December when a driver crashed her Toyota Camry @ 130 KM/h into one of those wooden pole/3-line steel cable crash posts on Highway 115 northbound. The car was totalled, but she walked away from the accident with only minor scratches and a mild concussion from the airbag deployment(she wasn't very big... maybe 5'2 & it was a first generation air-bag, those head-takeroffers) Damn the Government of Ontario for making Highway 115 unsafe to drive (ungrooved Concrete surfacing). Damn the Government of Ontario for not errecting safety barriers of any type and to permit the carnage on Ontario highways to continue. Damn the OPP for not pulling over dangerous drivers & SUV drivers who can't drive worth $%&^!.

Yep. It could have been worse . If the highway had been utilizing an asphalt surface, which is proven to offer better traction than concrete in all conditions, it probably could have been avoided. The road was plowed and the sanders/salters had been over it. Its just that the concrete is not grooved at all in the stretch of Highway 115 that utilizes it, hence why its very easy to loose control. However, with the sand, salt and a little slush, its hard to tell when you've moved from asphalt to concrete and back, as it does change frequently on Highway 115 (they are converting it totally to asphalt over the next 5-10 years). Still, had I not been so lucky in missing the southbound traffic, the addition of a Jersey barrier would have given me a better chance at living than taking a huge risk by sliding through oncoming traffic. AFAIK, Highway 115 is 1 of only 2 Highways in Ontario that still utilize a grass median (the 4-lane portions of the 401 still do as well, while everything 6 lanes and above have either Jersey barriers or the metal/steel pillar reinforced impact bars).