this post was submitted on 25 Sep 2024
37 points (100.0% liked)

Ontario

2189 readers
21 users here now

A place to discuss all the news and events taking place in the province of Ontario, Canada.

Rules

founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
top 25 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] floofloof@lemmy.ca 28 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Other countries try to figure out how to improve public transit and reduce congestion and pollution. Ontario's Conservatives try to blow the entire budget on absurdly expensive roads that will soon become as congested as the present ones.

[–] Soup@lemmy.world 8 points 1 month ago

Conservatives: We keep trying it and it keeps not working but I can’t handle change so I’m gunna pretend that my way is, like, morally correct or some shit and make it everyone else’s problem. Just one more lane bro. Just one more tax break bro. Please bro just one more private utility bro.

Also Conservatives: We’re the party of fiscal responsibility! Sure none of our ideas make any sense and always cost more in the longterm but they make the selfish and economically illiterate people feel better about themselves so that’s a win for us!

[–] ininewcrow@lemmy.ca 24 points 1 month ago

Ontario has a locust problem

Ontario government proposes a solution .... more locusts!

[–] Doubleohdonut@lemmy.ca 18 points 1 month ago

So how much is he planning to get in kickbacks? Ford only considers projects with financial benefit to himself.

[–] Seigest@lemmy.ca 17 points 1 month ago (1 children)

How i imagine this wwent down:

Ford; "Just one more lane. It'll work this time I swear." Sane people: "No it wont and besides, We don't have room for another lane" Ford: "But what if..."

Anyway. Let's just build a damn train track. On land. One not owned by a freight service but dedicated to passenger transit.

[–] jerkface@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Let's go hog fuckin' wild and build TWO. Electrified.

[–] Seigest@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 month ago

Amd it'd still cost way less then a gaint tunnel in both building and maintenance.

[–] veeesix@lemmy.ca 13 points 1 month ago (1 children)

He said the tunnel would serve as "a new expressway for both cars and transit" from Brampton to Mississauga in the West to Markham and Scarborough in the east […]

Drop the cars, dedicating the tunnel strictly to transit, and your ground level gridlock will solve itself.

[–] healthetank@lemmy.ca 8 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Doesn't even have to be solely trains, but a few lanes of busses would help with shorter/End of Line trips as well.

Though this is worth noting that ventilation concerns with tunnels are always a nightmare (one of the reasons there aren't tons of tunnels). Its now turning into an issue where roads cross our 400 series highways, and one of the reasons they're often bridges. As the highway reaches ~4lanes each way, they need to install ventilation of some kind, which has caused problems and forced design adjustments. Look at Barrie where they have a few roads running under the 400. Now that they're trying to widen to 8 lanes, all those crossings are extending into "tunnel" category and have additional requirements. They've been forced to split the highway with an open air section in the middle over those roads in order to ensure proper airflow. This means more land acquisition and higher pricing to build.

[–] avidamoeba@lemmy.ca 5 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Ventilation still a problem with just electric trains with metal rolling stock?

[–] healthetank@lemmy.ca 8 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I could be off, but I seem to remember that the requirements for ventilation are less if there is no combustion engine + exhaust fumes present. I'll see if if I can dig up the actual design standards.

[–] avidamoeba@lemmy.ca 4 points 1 month ago

Also I wonder how does the train movement affect ventilation. I recall the mountain train tunnels in Italy. Since the tunnels are just wide enough, the trains act as pistons, pushing and pulling air in and out of the tunnels. I recall experiencing pretty strong wind coming out of the tunnel prior to the train emerging out of it. I wonder if this is enough to circulate enough air. I'm not expecting an answer, just wanted to share this shower thought. 😄

[–] bluGill@fedia.io 4 points 1 month ago

It is an issue, but an ICE burns far more fuel than a human. (food is fuel that the body burns!) That means if your have ICE engines in a tunnel you need a lot more air to get rid of the CO2 (ideally no other pollutants - though I wouldn't bet on this) and get enough O2 there for everything to burn. If we only run electric trains we still need some air for the people to breath, but much less as they are breathing much less

[–] njm1314@lemmy.world 11 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

Every now and then I see his name in a headline and I'm just amazed that his career continued. How is that even possible?

[–] dubyakay@lemmy.ca 3 points 1 month ago

Drugs and fraud.

[–] masterspace@lemmy.ca 10 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (2 children)

So fucking stupid.

First of all, if you're going to bury a highway, bury the Gardiner, and built a high capacity subway alongside it running the entire length of the lake. It would connect Union, the Ontario Line's ex station, and provide robust public transit along a major East West route that doesn't have it, both out to the beaches and to south Etobicoke.

You could then sell literally all the land that the Gardiner is on for development to pay for it.

Why would you stack another highway, under our existing highway? And why would you potentially build an East West train literally next to the Eglinton LRT?

[–] Fiivemacs@lemmy.ca 9 points 1 month ago

One of his friends needs a boat or two..

[–] n3m37h@sh.itjust.works 0 points 1 month ago (1 children)

1 reason not to burry the Gardner, water.... Toronto was built For the weather we had hence all the flooding this year.

[–] masterspace@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

The tunnel will have to be waterproof no matter where we build it, and there are lots of tunnels in the world directly under rivers / lakes, it's one of the main reasons to build a tunnel.

[–] n3m37h@sh.itjust.works -1 points 1 month ago

But the city does not have the necessary infrastructure to deal with the excess water. You can water proof it all ya want but if you can't get rid of the water it builds up and ya got flooding

[–] Showroom7561@lemmy.ca 9 points 1 month ago

Citing increasing gridlock and little room for highway expansion

MOFO, you'll do anything but what works for every other place on earth that has this figured out, eh?

And the irony that this Conservative government is trying to reduce bike lanes while also complaining about car traffic is just the type of stupidity you can't make up!

[–] ebits21@lemmy.ca 7 points 1 month ago

I actually support the Bradford Bypass and 413.

But this idea is fucking stupid and ridiculous.

[–] Rentlar@lemmy.ca 5 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

What a goofy idea...

A rapid transit line would take so many more cars off the road. The 401/DVP/427/Lakeshore needs a separated lane circular BRT which would be orders of magnitude lower cost and better for traffic relief. Even a giant bridge above all the highways running skytrain would cost less than a 60km tunnel.

[–] nik282000@lemmy.ca 4 points 1 month ago
[–] some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org 2 points 1 month ago

I remember this guy. Whatever I read about him was vile. I don’t need to spend time reminding myself, I already know he sucks.