407 East toll prices, man the government finds more ways to screw us.
Let's do some comparison
407 ETR 34.73 cents per km between 4pm and 6pm on weekdays
407 East 29 cents per km between 4pm and 6pm on weekdays
407 ETR 19.74 cents per km between 7pm and 6am on weekdays
407 East 19 cents per km between 7pm and 6am on weekdays
Of course I am not surprised by this at all, a growing sunshine list has to find more ways to keep it sustainable, these aren't taxes but "revenue tools". I thought the original purpose of a toll road is for maintenance of the toll road. Our counterparts even in WNY sees this kind of nonsense there, it costs a dollar to use the Grand Island Bridges, yet those bridges are in fairly rotten shape, the money goes right from the toll collectors hand into a slush fund in Albany.
On the topic of Western New York, the distance from the Lackawanna Barrier to the Ripley Barrier on the Thruway is around the same length of the original 407 ETR, yet that only costs around $3 to travel. God only knows how much it costs to drive the entire length of the 407.
But hey, it's all social engineering, the people in charge of the MTO and the City of Toronto are trying to make driving the new smoking so to speak. Think about it, what new real road infrastructure have we got since the opening of Hwy 407 ETR. A measely 410 and 404 extension. Maybe a widening here and there on parts of the 401 in the GTA like from Westney to Salem. We did however get many HOV lanes which are completely unfair and do absolutely nothing to help commercial traffic. The fact that the powers that be swiftly built an HOV only ramp, or a rail viaduct to the airport really is telling. That rail structure to the airport is arguably just as much as an "eyesore" as the Gardiner expressway, but hey, no one ever complains if the purpose of the said structure is used solely for public transit.
Am I anti public transit, I am not at all. However, I am for worthwhile public transportation, building LRTs like the ones proposed in Transit City are not really worth the investment, considering how light syncing could never be achieved to make the LRTs efficient. Take a look at the Highway 7 "Rapidway" and just watch how often the buses sit at lights in their dedicated lane in the middle of the road. The LRTs are exactly that but will use a "streetcar" like vehicle, yes, powered by a wire overhead. Also, what I don't get is the somehow backwards inefficiency we face with construction nowadays with regards to how much we have moved forward in technology. For instance, PRIVATE COMPANIES built the original subway lines in NYC, such as the BMT and IRT. Yet to build a subway line in NYC or here takes over a decade and costs billions of dollars. The question is why? How much of that often repeated $300 million dollar per km cost is actually bureaucracy?
Equally frustrating is how governments say they have no money for anything, yet the feds were able to magically use money for the 25,000 syrian "refugees". Yeah, Toronto is one of the best cities in the world, it just takes you hours to get anywhere in this city. We have bad enough traffic already, and what does the city want to do, oh yeah, knock down the Gardiner. There was a time when people had vision in this region, Frederick G Gardiner, the man the expressway was named after was responsible for getting the original Yonge line off the ground. There is always the story about the Bloor Viaduct, when that was built in the 1920s, somehow, the people knew in the future that there would be a subway line running underneath, so they built the viaduct with the intention to be able to run subway trains underneath, and that was a very good decision.
While the city could do without a Spadina Expressway, the decision to derail the 400 extension and the Gardiner extension were extremely bad moves that have real consequences today. People need to understand that not everyone is heading downtown, I go into the core every day, and I use the GO Train, because it's convenient for me, I'm only about a mile walk out of Union Station, so I take the train everyday. What about the person who lives in Brampton and has a job at Markham/401 area, they have no other choice but to use the 401 in that case. Better yet, what about a Bramptonian who works in Port Credit, want to spend hours on transit buses, I'm sure most don't. There are so many simple things they could do to make GO better, but they don't. In Los Angeles of all places, their equivalent to GO, called Metrolink, one of our lines has more riders than their whole system, yet they get all day two way service on all lines. What do they do, they don't run those giant 12 coach trains, there is no reason why every other line can't have 4 or 6 coach trains in not peak times that run all day. Consider that Metrolink is in LA, basically car capital of North America.
This is my rant for now and it shows my complete frustrations with the city and region. I want this city to work, I really do, but the powers that be just make bonehead move after bonehead move after bonehead move.
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Topic: Ontario's Highways (Read 403667 times)