@mariannerichard1321
The main problem is, because the city isn't built dense enough, people have to move way too far to get housing they can afford, so they need to commute longer distances. But at this point, there's no just moving people back close to downtown by the tens of thousands, you need to move a lot more people on the same trafic axis. Adding a tunnel to a... 12 lanes highway if I remember well? is just a waste of money. They should add something that move a lot of people fast instead, on rail, it could be build above the highway for much less money than a tunnel. Ultimately, they nee to stop think like Toronto is a 1M cities and start to take cues from the 10M+ agglomerations. Highways don't cut it anymore, you need rails.
@CharCanuck14
I worked in downtown Toronto for 5 years, so I understand the rush hour traffic mess but think a 401 tunnel is an absurd plan. Maybe a tunnel under the Don Valley Parkway/Parking lot? Another great & informative video! Thank you & cheers from a far less congested Peterborough
@elizabethinnb
About 20 years ago, I lived in Richmond Hill and I didn't have a car. I wanted to go on vacation in Algonquin or further north. Without a car, I would have had to take the train and we would have taken our bikes to get from the train to where ever we were going to camp. The bike ride could be done, the train trip with the bikes couldn't. Ever since then I have been on a rant about public transit in Ontario, and how terrible it is. You could take the GO train in rush hour only, no off hours trains. One day I rode my bike from Richmond Hill to Markham for an appointment. The next time I had to go to the same place, it was cold and rainy so I took public transit. It took me twice as long to make the trip on public transit than it did on my bike (i was 47 when I did that). On my way home I went to a car dealership and leased a car, and I still rant about the appalling public transit. I would have liked to not have a car but even with the terrible traffic, it takes 3 times longer to get anywhere on public transit and at some point I had to cave. Improvements in public transit will only benefit everyone and the environment.
@mike5390
this tunnel is the stupidest f***ing idea just give us trains
@interview8203
Just a reminder northern Ontario is still single lane on the highways. That’s how much Ontario cares about the North lol.
@alexandert6489
i think the best way is to buy back the 407, and divide the 401 into 3 sectors. 1 section to go right through toronto (no ramps), 1 to go half way through toronto and allow a switch midway, a 1 for more local on/off. so those going right through toronto dont take up lanes that can be used for more local. the only thing i think a tunnel under the 401 would work is for high speed rail
@lisewarren2292
I think a big part of the traffic problem is that our cities were built with automobiles in mind. Urbanism. Most people don't live in areas where doing every basic shopping by foot is possible. I'm taking grocery store, pharmacy, kindergarten, etc. So in addition to paying for your car, you also have to pay for the public transport and it isn't cheap. I was confronted with this problem when I was in Montreal. I had 2 hours of commuting by bus and by metro per day. Groceries where a problem, getting in a packed bus with your bags in the slush on the floor if you had a seat, or bumping into everyone if standing. So my little, cheap car was a blessing. I couldn't live like that anymore, my health is poor, and fortunately I now live in a rural area. Going to the central city is easy by public transport. That is NOT the problem. Its that the way cities and suburbs are built, you always have to stop in several different places to get someone or something. That is where public transport can become hard. For most it means you can't ditch the car, so you have to be able to pay for both, or live the exhausting dance of stopping here and there, navigate the limited curcuits to fit where you need to go, walk in between, all the while carrying bags and/or trailing kids. It's a nightmare. I've seen enough deadeyed, exhausted people looking like hell in busses, their grocery bags sliding in the muck. A tunnel won't fix that particular, complicated problem that is at the heart of it all.
@Electrify85
Even IF this was the silver bullet which fixed traffic on the 401 forever, most of that traffic would soon find itself on even more clogged streets soon enough. One thing which could help to make a difference in the short to medium term is to streamline the collector lanes on the 401. Currently these lanes are constantly turning into exit lanes and ending with little warning, requiring drivers to constantly merge to the left. Meanwhile traffic coming from the express lanes wanting to exit needs to zig zag around this traffic in quickly merging to the right, sometimes with as little as a half a kilometer to do so. Add in a target speed limit of 100 km/h, and you have a recipe for bottlenecks at best and major collisions at worst. Instead of having a 20 lane highway we have a 10 lane highway with an extended 10 lanes of acceleration/deacceleration merging lanes! It feels like a design from a different time, when traffic volume was a fraction of what it is today and the then suburban land was plentiful and seemingly endless. Restructuring the lanes on the 401 so that even in the collector lanes one can pick a lane and comfortably cruise in it before needing to merge, and express exit signs encouraging drivers to move to the collectors sooner would be a much better use of the existing infrastructure, and create safer driving conditions too. But as I said, even this is not a silver bullet. This design could still create headaches near interchanges as traffic has to merge on to city streets, and the increased safety could encourage people on to the highway who were hesitant to use it before. While it may be a better use of the existing infrastructure, only more competitive mass transit with intensifying existing land use will offer the long term solutions Toronto needs.
@jmccartney2007
No engineer, traffic planner or anyone with a shred of common sense thinks that this is a good idea. So your conclusion is correct. It will never happen. Sadly, however, we will waste millions on 'studying the feasibility' of this thing only to eventualy arrive at the only sane outcome. TLDR: never gonna happen.
@altriish6683
Truly you'd be far better off if you spent that 100b on building the best biking/walking network in the world.
@pcongre
5:38 except subsidizing low-capacity infra is what got us here in the first place - just get rid of the 401 (thus diverting thru traffic to the 407, yes) and start planning for t.o.d. on the site of what today still is a monument to 20th c car dependancy
@chocolatethunder8477
The cost of the 407 for large commercial vehicles is ridiculous. Subsidizing that cost, especially for small and medium sized businesses, would be huge for improving traffic
@lawrencelewis2592
I have no problem with a tunnel if it had a genuine, electrified, bona-fide six car monorail in it!
@lovehandr
They should build an elevated express rail line along Highway 401 from Oshawa to Brampton. This will be extremely expensive but much cheaper than a tunnel.
@Coltoid
I think the only way the tunnel could be useful is as a Toronto bypass, it would only have exits to connect onto other highways. This would allow vehicles travelling between Eastern and Western Ontario, with no stops in the GTA to travel quickly past the metropolis, thus freeing up space in the highway above.
@HipsterShiningArmor
The part I don’t understand is if you’re concerned about the 401 being over capacity (which is a valid concern) then why not fund the Sheppard Subway to extend across the length of Toronto. Sheppard runs roughly parallel to the 401 and only a little bit north of it, and would likely cost a similar amount to build. It would probably have much higher capacity too then whatever Ford is cooking up in that carbrain of his
@joeb5080
Not only will more people be encouraged to drive (or forced to drive, if public transit is underfunded), but it will also encourage more building development along 401, creating yet an additional factor that will increase traffic, taking us back to square one.
@joehall6390
The tunnel is the dumbest idea. Buy the 407 back from the company that owns it or subsidize the tolls it will still be cheaper than the tunnel. It is a solution today not 20-25 years from now when there will be a need for more by the time it is down. Never mind all the logistics of building a tunnel under an active corridor.
@jaselee117
My understanding was that it wasn’t decided yet what the tunnel would be used for they hinted at both cars and trains
@canaanval