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Toronto Traffic UNAPPRECIATION Thread

Alex D. from TRIBE on Utility Room

glych t.anomaly

TRIBE Member
I HAVE THE SOLUTION!!!!!!

Charge a fine for complaining about the traffic that goes directly into improving transit/road infrastructure.

It's brilliant if you think about.

Either people stop complaining

OR

Complaining actually gets things done.

Wiseman for Mayor 2018 "If It Fits, I Sits"

the same could be said about complaining period.

hell the RoFo Mayor Thread would have paid for all of Tribes dreams put together.
 

basketballjones

TRIBE Member
almost all of the same council has been voted back in so expect more of the same.....nothing

a few bike lanes, another failed experiment with street food, petty bickering etc

nothing will get built
 

coleridge

TRIBE Member
What drives me crazy is the way these road contracts are awarded. It comes down to lowest price. Contractors are allowed to get away with spreading their crews and equipment thin over multiple projects. They play a game of over stating their abilities while bidding and then throwing their hands in the air stating they've run into unforeseen circumstances when a project runs long. This cascades through the City where you'll see road work start and then come to an abrupt stop because the crew has to go back to another project that's fallen behind to finish it off. It's ridiculous.

The Gardiner and 400 series highway work really irks me. These are such important arteries yet you'll see days go by where nothing is getting done. There should be three to four times the amount of equipment and workers on these projects and they should be working around the clock if possible. And any excuses they use to say it's not possible to go any faster is BS in my mind because when the privately owned 407 needs work, it is done at lightning speed.
 
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tobywan

TRIBE Member
Matt, you raised many points that I've thought all along.

Major highway projects shouldn't be taking months, but rather weeks. Throw 200 guys at it, rotating 8 hour shifts so shit is happening 24/7.

But no, instead you have a handful of guys...usually one of them doing something, and the other 4 talking about it.
 

agentRC4

TRIBE Member
What boggles my mind is why there are not performance agreements built into these contracts. You want city business then you have to adhere to a performance agreement and timelines for completion. If no there are huge penalties.

Oh you want to close the road for the day so you can put the AC on the roof of the new glass condo during the middle of the day? $500,000 please.

Shit would get done really fast.
 

tobywan

TRIBE Member
Go to google maps and highlight the traffic option. The entire GTA is gong show city right now, and the 401 is one solid traffic jam.
 

kuba

TRIBE Member
Matt, you raised many points that I've thought all along.

Major highway projects shouldn't be taking months, but rather weeks. Throw 200 guys at it, rotating 8 hour shifts so shit is happening 24/7.

But no, instead you have a handful of guys...usually one of them doing something, and the other 4 talking about it.

Although I don't disagree with you, I can say that the last sentence is full of anecdotal evidence.

I did ask Toronto Hydro when they were doing the DVP shut down the other weekend if they work 24/7 and they do/did.

Traffic in this city is a mess indeed. Today I drove from Dundas and Brock to Ave and Dave. What a disaster no matter how you slice it. The dundas stretch between lansdowne and bathurst is a shitshow because of everyone being on top of each other, bikes, jaywalkers, streetcars, people who can't parallell park, delivery trucks and of course, bad drivers.

The one and ONLY way to solve this is to monetize getting into the city. Downtown core, and then set rings around that. You'll see how many people will stop driving needlessly.

Lately I've been taking the bus/subway and I live in the boons compared to most of you hipsters. Don Mills and Lawrence. Know what though? I drink and read on the bus, and so what, it takes me an hour to get to the ACC vs 20-30 mins, no drinking, and $30 in parking on the DVP.
 
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basketballjones

TRIBE Member
What drives me crazy is the way these road contracts are awarded. It comes down to lowest price. Contractors are allowed to get away with spreading their crews and equipment thin over multiple projects. They play a game of over stating their abilities while bidding and then throwing their hands in the air stating they've run into unforeseen circumstances when a project runs long. This cascades through the City where you'll see road work start and then come to an abrupt stop because the crew has to go back to another project that's fallen behind to finish it off. It's ridiculous.

The Gardiner and 400 series highway work really irks me. These are such important arteries yet you'll see days go by where nothing is getting done. There should be three to four times the amount of equipment and workers on these projects and they should be working around the clock if possible. And any excuses they use to say it's not possible to go any faster is BS in my mind because when the privately owned 407 needs work, it is done at lightning speed.
dont forget the massive cost overruns and zero penalties when they blow past all deadlines for every single project
time to get rid of the paid duty cops too, they do not do a damn thing other than jack up the cost of the project. whoever decided to give this perk to the cops should be tarred and feathered
 

kuba

TRIBE Member
there should be some sort of time-of-use toll system implemented via google maps and smartphones.

example before 730am access to core is free. between 730 and 930 it's most expensive, then cheaper until noon, then more expensive between rush-hour. would create incentive to leave at different hours and/or car pool. would benefit those using the app vs transponder, could even make it a game of sorts.

probably a stupid idea but.
 

nik

TRIBE Member
This is the response I received when I inquired with the city of Mississauga why one kilometer of road is taking over one year to repair

"You are correct that there have been some days with no workmen on site during the weekday, as road paving and replacement of the watermain across the intersection have been carried out at night and on the weekends when Derry Road can be reduced to one lane in each direction. In order to coordinate the various aspects of the project, it was necessary to carry out much of the work at night time when additional lane closures are required, as well as, continuing with the road/bridge rehabilitation and utility relocation work during the daytime.
This project has been progressing well, however unforeseen underground conflicts have caused a delay of approximately 3 months and as such we anticipate the completion of construction activities in December 2014 with some minor work in spring 2015."

You can't win with these fucks! Pure, blatant lies. The worst part is that we all gripe and complain, but can't do anything but suck it up and pay out taxes like the good, little, capitalist conformist that we are. All the while there are multiple middle men like city contracted private engineering and consulting firms, paving contractors, supply and material contractors, utilities locate and relocate contractors and yes, the cops who sit there bored out of their minds all getting a sweet cut of the pie.
Serenity now!
Tar and feathers would be beyond just.
 

coleridge

TRIBE Member
I will give a little leeway on the unforeseen conflicts line.

Unforeseen underground conflicts are unfortunately a reality. If the location both horizontally or vertically of a utility is off by just 5cm it can cause major issues. Large diameter storm sewer pipe can be laid as flat as only 20cm of drop over 100m distance. Installing huge 2m diameter concrete pipe to that accuracy is difficult work. Unfortunately the record drawings don't always reflect exactly what was built. This is from a combination of field changes that weren't recorded, honest mistakes that no one caught and straight up negligence. A lot can be done better to located underground utilities before construction but it's expensive, complicated and time consuming work especially when you're talking about large lengths of road reconstruction.

For example look at this mess of stuff below Yonge Street between Wellington Street and Colborne. It's insane.

2j4ercy.jpg
 
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glych t.anomaly

TRIBE Member
I will give a little leeway on the unforeseen conflicts line.

Unforeseen underground conflicts are unfortunately a reality. If the location both horizontally or vertically of a utility is off by just 5cm it can cause major issues. Large diameter storm sewer pipe can be laid as flat as only 20cm of drop over 100m distance. Installing huge 2m diameter concrete pipe to that accuracy is difficult work. Unfortunately the record drawings don't always reflect exactly what was built. This is from a combination of field changes that weren't recorded, honest mistakes that no one caught and straight up negligence. A lot can be done better to located underground utilities before construction but it's expensive, complicated and time consuming work especially when you're talking about large lengths of road reconstruction.

For example look at this mess of stuff below Yonge Street between Wellington Street and Colborne. It's insane.

2j4ercy.jpg

that is pretty mental, i knew stuff under the roads in major cities was crazy, but thats pretty ridiculous.
 

Lojack

TRIBE Member
There is a photo I saw some years ago of a section of a major NYC street ripped up (possibly in the year post-9/11) which was perhaps 7-10 meters deep, but the construction crew had to work-around literally hundreds of different pipes and conduits, some dating back over a century. Imagine a pit with pipes of all sizes at varying depths, running pretty much every direction. Call before you did, indeed.

On a related topic, did Tory mention anything about fixing the synchronization of traffic lights? Last I heard it broke around 2000 and they hadn't upgraded because it would cost millions, hence the reason we have so many problems. If they want to remove lanes and shutdown major thoroughfares for whatever reason, I'll deal with that, but at least make the traffic system more efficient through proper traffic engineering.
 
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djfear

TRIBE Member
So I want to ask the non-motorcycle riding community:

What do you think of the fact that motorcycle parking has been free since 2005, and now they want to change it? Part of this is because the current pay-and-display slips can easily be taken from a motorcycle (including a convertible if you want to get technical), but it was also made free to promote alternative modes of transportation to reduce traffic congestion.

Do you think that the new program of having motorcycles pay for parking will benefit Toronto in a positive way or negative?
 

agentRC4

TRIBE Member
They should pay. They take up space on the road and in parking lots. Use infrastructure that requires maintenance. so yea, pay or maybe increase the license plate or sticker renewal to build in the extra cost so they don't have to worry about parking tickets being taken.
 

djfear

TRIBE Member
They should pay. They take up space on the road and in parking lots. Use infrastructure that requires maintenance. so yea, pay or maybe increase the license plate or sticker renewal to build in the extra cost so they don't have to worry about parking tickets being taken.

Should they pay the same amount, or pay approximately 1/5th of the price based on the amount of space they take up? Also, because of the reduced weight they also damage roads a lot less than cars, suvs, and finally trucks (in that order), so shouldn't the reduced stress on road infrastructure be taken into account?

Also, if they are parked in between two cars that already take up space, then in essence they aren't taking up any extra space.
 

agentRC4

TRIBE Member
Should they pay the same amount, or pay approximately 1/5th of the price based on the amount of space they take up? YES Also, because of the reduced weight they also damage roads a lot less than cars, suvs, and finally trucks (in that order), so shouldn't the reduced stress on road infrastructure be taken into account? Yes but they should still pay

Also, if they are parked in between two cars that already take up space, then in essence they aren't taking up any extra space.
They are technically parked illegally I believe if there are defined spaces plus it depends on how they park their bike but at the end of the day they should pay for parking
 
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