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Hey now, I said the LAYOUT was good. Most of the problems with Montreal's traffic are the result of roads constantly being in need of major repair due to cheap infrastructure: crumbling Turcot Interchange (I believe it's the busiest interchange in Canada? If not, second only to the 401/DVP), crumbling Champlain Bridge, crumbling Mercier Bridge, etc.
Last time I was there, I was heading to Brossard via the Lafontaine tunnel, and the maze the construction had me go through was outrageous!
So yeah, most of Montreal's issues are due to that. Montreal has a more-than-adequate puclic transit system to get around.
Sounds like a bunch of excuses for a city not that much less congested than Toronto lol....
btw the Gardiner has been under construction for the last damned two years - it was the nail in the coffin as to why we moved away from the DT core - prior to that driving from DT to the airport even at 8 am and 4 pm back was a respectable 35-40 mins each way - when they reduced the lanes due to construction is when it added 15 mins each way and pushed us to the burbs.
We are going to revisit our situation in the next few years though because there are transit improvements in the city with the current running Union Pearson Express and i'm keeping an eye to see what the Eglinton Crosstown will do to connect the airport to the DT core - if its feasible we'll move back DT because the city is becoming more better connected transit wise.
Although everyone has different situation, but every time someone complains about traffic, I want to remind him that it is your own desire to own a single family home 40 km from work and everything else and your deliberately chosen car dependent lifestyle that contributed to the mess. You are not suffering from the traffic. You ARE the traffic.
If you drive with no passenger 90% of the time, you ARE the cause of the traffic. You don't get to complain about it.
Totally agree. The majority of Asian people in Vancouver are just your average working type. Growing up in Vancouver a lot of my friends are of Chinese extraction. Some born here, some from Hong Kong and China, some from Taiwan and a couple from South Africa. All just " working Joe's ".
It's also weird that so many people think that the Chinese in Vancouver, who represent 25% of the population of the city proper, are mostly some "1%" elite.
Is there any evidence that the Chinese population in Vancouver is wealthier and less poor/working class than say, Los Angeles?
Back in the 1950s and 1960s, Toronto had big plans for expressways and freeways.
The Gardiner was to go all the way across the bottom of Toronto, following Kingston Road through the Beaches, and meet up with the 401 in Scarborough. You can still see remnants of this plan where Kingston Road merges with the 401: a divided highway.
The Spadina Expressway (today's Allen Road) was to run from the 401 to the Gardiner. Today, it only runs south from the 401 to Eglinton.
The 400 was likewise to run south to the Gardiner. Today, it becomes Black Creek Drive south of the 401, and ends up nowhere near the Gardiner.
The Don Valley Parkway was constructed, and connects the 401 (and 404) with the Gardiner.
The Crosstown Expressway was supposed to connect the DVP with the Spadina Expressway. It would follow the approximate alignment of Davenport Road. Unlike the others mentioned so far, the Crosstown was never started.
What stopped all these projects was the opposition of Torontonians. The Spadina Expressway would have run down Spadina, decimating parts of Forest Hill and Chinatown. Same for the 400, down Jane Street and Swansea and area. The Crosstown would have run south of the CPR right-of-way, through Moore Park and Little Italy. The Gardiner would have run right through the Beaches. Hundreds of houses would have been expropriated, thousands of residents displaced; and in the end, Torontonians opted to keep their neighbourhoods, rather than see them fall to expressways.
Toronto has traditionally been anti-car, from what I've seen. Back in the 1980s, then-North York mayor Mel Lastman made a big push for a domed stadium, to be located on CFB Downsview (which the federal government had indicated it would be abandoning). "Plenty of room for parking," was one of Mel's selling points. But the powers-that-be disregarded Mel's plan, in favour of locating the stadium downtown, "so people would take public transit."
Then, Toronto disregarded expanding public transit, and we have the problems that we do today.
this is a great informative post, and really does explain a lot of the layout and how Toronto is different.
While Toronto does have some similar large expressways and traffic.. it is nothing NOTHING like L.A.
that place is insane for traffic the worst I have ever seen, it's insanity...
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