Comment 114567

By mdrejhon (registered) - website | Posted November 02, 2015 at 16:54:40

I found Pxtl's Red Hill Valley BRT idea quite interesting, for an L-Line express HSR bus.

https://twitter.com/Pxtl/status/66129178...

Since the median is boobytrapped (during safety upgrades) to automatically add 2 lanes when adding a center median barrier; we might as well figure out what the heck to do with 2 new lanes on the freeway, that we can tolerate co-operating over.

The widening of the freeway can be HOV/HOT/carpool lanes as a compromise. Carpools would be allowed to share the lanes with express buses. However, there would be offramps for buses directly into protected bus-only stations (with good barriers) nestled UNDER key overpasses such as Upper Wentworth next to Limeridge Mall. Elevators/stairs would go from the overpass to the stations themselves, as will pedestrian accesses directly linking into Limeridge Mall. If it ever overflows with bus congestion it could someday (if economically appropriate) to convert to a full LRT. For now, if the widening is foisted upon us, it realistically needs to be introduced as a kind of a HOV lane with a BRT-add-on.

Ottawa has BRT stations on their Queensway freeway too, complete with elevators/stairs from the overpasses above! It's been around since the 80s, and I grew up in Ottawa. Now they're replacing the BRT with LRT, even with Phase 2 being aimed to start fairly soon after Phase 1.

If this freeway expansion has to be built, this is a good way to make lemonade out of lemons (the perspective of lemons varies); satisfy Mountain and Lower City in a balance.

This would also be a great tie-in to an A-Line LRT extension into Limeridge mall. Obviously, a massive HSR bus expansion would be mandatory, along with the $300M bus garage that Hamilton needs for a massive HSR bus expansion. Perhaps include this in the Federal "ask".

Comment edited by mdrejhon on 2015-11-02 18:08:02

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