@notjustbikes The Québec government was faced with a crumbling Turcot interchange in Montréal. As it is critical infrastructure, this was not a "make work" project, so bidders were evaluated on ability to deliver on time and with a serious plan to keep traffic flowing through the multi year construction. (and it was delivered on time and budget between roughly 2015 and 2020).
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@notjustbikes Sicne the Turcot project spanning some 7km east west and about 2 north-south connected to existing roads, the goal was not to add lanes (which would cause cognestion where it meets the older portion of road) but rather increase traffic fluidity and improve the merges.
Was was widened: shoulder added so disabled cars can be pushed to side and not block traffic , and BUS LANES. On the stretch between St-Pierre and Turcot Interchanges, buses have their own bidirectional roadway.
@notjustbikes On the portion betwene the Turcot Interchange and the Ville Marie expressway, the eastbound buses travel on a dedicated left lane. This left lane rises up and then jumps over the traffic lanes and has its own eit to Atwater where the metro station is located. So buses go from highway middle on their own road to being on left lane and then "pop over" highway on the ro exit. (and was extremely cleverly deployed early because became critical to keeping westbound flowing at stages)
@notjustbikes The actual Turcut interchange between highway 15 (N/S), Highway 20/132 (going west) and the 136 (giong east to downtown). was built in site between the old exchange pylons. Not pretty, but they also added a new boulevalrd with bike path go go across the area, retention pond for water collected on the whole project, and within city of Montreal demand that it not take up more space than old exchange. Also includes wider rail corridor planned to have airport link (unused by REM).
@notjustbikes he whole exchange is at lower elevation, rests on landfill wherever possible to reduce maintenance costs and uses steel bridges instead of concrete to make it last and reduce maintenance costs and number of hours per year it need sto be closed for repairs.
While it is still a highway, it did add the express bus lanes and did not add lanes during rebuild (tough merges were lenghtened).
@notjustbikes During your visit to Montréal you complained about the hell around the Orange Julep. It is highway 15 in a canyon (Décarie Expressway). The Turcot interchange is at south end of it. This highway comes from the USA border as well as the south shore (Champlain bridge) and the Eastern townships (highway 10). sort of a necessary evil. The 20 comes from Toronto. And 132 from South shore too (Mercier Bridge).
I is a necessary evil.
@notjustbikes The goal was not to increase capacity, it was to replace a crumbling piece of infrastructure. Phpto: old interchange with metal mesh to hold concrete pieces and lots of patched areas with re-envorcing concrete. Pic 2: south of Turcot, the 15 had a lot of duct taping done with lots of mesh to hold falling concrete, and pylons that needed some "V" re-enforcements added to support the bridge deck. There were constant fixes to it.
@notjustbikes The reason I bring this is is that this exchange was built in 1967 during the heydays of Montréal, and had come to the end of its useful life. And for as much as people might want 15 minute neighbourhoods and NJB-approved™ urban planning there are still realities to need to connect highways that meet in a city to let traffic and trucks flow on them instead of local streets. But the fact that the dirving force was rebuild same instead of add lanes was a good move.
@notjustbikes BTWm when you took th 747 bus from Airport in Montréal, most of the ride from Airport to the metro was on deidcated bus lanes, including that fly-over exit from the Ville Marie's left lane, except the portion around Mercier bridge interchange not rebuilt yet.
Highway 20 above, needs steel supports below to prevent it from crumbling at Mercier interchange. Needs constant work to duct tape parts of the mercier interchange (same vintage as the old Turcot).
@notjustbikes Highway 15 through the Turcot Interchange before and after. Same 2 lanes except there is now a paved road and shoulder. Note that by 2014, they had already removed the layer of asphalt to reduce weight on the structure.
@notjustbikes It's always hilarious when I get a midroll car ad when watching one of your videos. This was a great addition to the existing videos talking about how stupid highway widening is.
I want to have everyone walking around in a daze chanting,
There's no solution to car traffic except viable alternatives to driving
There's no solution to car traffic except viable alternatives to driving
There's no solution to car traffic except viable alternatives to driving
There's no solution to car traffic except viable alternatives to driving
There's no solution to car traffic except viable alternatives to driving
@notjustbikes I saw a year or two ago a study commissioned by Oakville Ontario Canada which said that increasing population of city via densification could not be handled by widering all arterial roads and that the city had to look at improving public transit and bike facilities which would reduce the "damage" from building even wider roads.
Growth of city's population is one aspect which politcians instintively solve with funding to widen roads instead of consulting engineers for best solution
@notjustbikes this week I thought the exact opposite. Too much traffic in pool slowed me down and I felt justified in asking city to dig up the side of pool to enlarge it to add more swim lanes to reduce number of swimmers per lane. It’s human nature to ask for more lanes. 🙃
@notjustbikes as long as driving is viewed as, and marketed as a sport (Formula 1. Sports cars, sport utility vehicle, vehicles marketed with acceleration and top speed), people see it as fun and healthy (since heel muscle is exercised plenty by moving foot on pedal), it becomes hard to ween people from car-centric infrastructure designed for this “sport” that goes fast (sometimes with pedestrians and cyclists viewed as obstacles you should optionally avoid if you see them)
@notjustbikes It reminds me a bit of how Bell labs decided phone call switching by human beings was too labour intensive. I think it also goes for social media, moderation is too labour intensive and we need AI to do it.
But basically some solutions that seem sensible, are too inefficient. https://youtu.be/XvDZLjaCJuw
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