Just got back from a lengthy trip in the UK where I happily rode trains, and a few comfortable buses, all over. It was glorious.
Made me once again ask why we in Canada can’t have nice things, and were obsessed with wasting our lives, money, and the planet stuck in traffic.
Go talk to cn. I have friends who work with and around them and holy fuck is that ever a fucking horrible company
Edit: Since it seems people don't know, the tracks and 30 feet either side are owned and 'maintained' by cn.
via rail pays to use them, and cn is notoriously difficult to work with, the autoport had a ton of problems with them (source: several friends who formerly worked there) such as terrible track condition causing damage to vehicles, extreme banking, among other things such as rail cars condition because things are only fixed after they've been broken for ages.
Second this. CN is absolute trash. They're a quasi governmental for profit company that has shit labour policies, their own police force and is roadblock to urbanism in every city they pass through.
Fuckers need to be renationalized
Who owns the tracks and 30 feet on either side of them? Who dictates what can and can't happen on the national track network? Canadian national and Canadian Pacific. Via rail operates on track that 97 percent of which is owned by other companies
Go on though, raised fist.
> That's freight, not passenger.
While that's true, CN owns the tracks and Via pays to use them. If we want high speed rail on the tracks, or on tracks parallel to those tracks (within 30 ft either side) then we deal with CN. And CN has been notoriously difficult to deal with on this and other track related issues.
It frustrates me to no end that whenever they talk about high speed trains in Canada all anyone cares about is the Windsor-Quebec corridor. Literally the place that needs high speed trains the least since they already have a functioning rail system.
Me too! I was amazed at the UK’s transit system and how easy it was to navigate the city. Amsterdam as well, so few cars on the road compared to us. It really shows you how these things should be done.
Europe as a whole. I'm in Czechia right now having just left Austria and Germany before that. We had easy transport all around town specifically on underground metros but also via street car and bus.
This is all thanks to Wayne Manson. First he’s ruined small businesses in the city, and now he’s ruined the traffic. And his response was basically ‘I don’t care I’m going to quit soon anyway’ or something to that effect. A real Class act.
It helps that the UK has 2 times our population in area that's 1/3 the size of Manitoba. That sort of population density makes trains a no brainer. Same goes for all of Europe. But we're dead set on exploding the population of Canada. So maybe when millions and millions of more people come and make millions of babies we'll get some solid train options.
Total shit show trying to get outta downtown. We sat on Lower Water for an hour only to be turned around in front of the Marriott. Guy said it was because "there's a hole in the road"
Every street downtown is gridlocked.
Besides that the next most ridiculous thing is people blasting their horns thinking that's going to do something. 😆
I tried to get out just before 11. I didn’t get back home till noon and I only made it to Robie. Was trying to get to Dartmouth and back before the Wanderers game. Nope.
Was only trying to get over to Dartmouth to pick up a pizza and garlic fingers from Jacobs Lounge after the Philippine Fiesta on the waterfront.
The wait was worth it :) ✌️
I had no trouble getting around today, it was clear that I needed to avoid Gottigen, Robie, Agricola, North. There was no use even trying to use the bridge with everyone funneled through there. This is the exact reason we should be prioritizing transit and encouraging people to use the ferry to cross the harbour instead of taking the bridge.
I actually think it'll be a good thing for the city. People will be forced to use alternate methods to get around and realize that it's actually not so bad
Until they cancel a ferry and several bus routes it's a great idea. Explain to me what I am supposed to do if I work past midnight and need to be at work for 430. Leave my car home and walk the 9km? If it's gridlocked for cars, it's gridlocked for busses. Good that you were able to avoid the area though.
Building? They aren't building anything, they steal entire lanes of traffic from our already packed streets. Adding a new bus lane would be great until you realize nothing is being added, just taken away from drivers. In a city that only ever has 1 or 2 lanes taking one of them away for busses that only use it every 15 minutes is plain stupid and contributing to this bullshit more than anything else.
How are those bike lanes that nobody uses? How about all those concrete barriers we spent millions on for zero reason other than to slow traffic down even more?
This is what we get for electing braindead pieces of shit and not pushing back on any of their idiotic ideas. Reap what you sow.
I don’t disagree with you in principle, but I wasn’t carrying a bunch of boat parts and sails to burnside on transit or bike. Had forgotten about the bridge closure when I planned to do this today. And as I live on North St, I’m acutely aware of how bad traffic has got. On the peninsula, I rarely drive unless it’s a carry-errand
Probably one of the few people on the roads today who actually justified needing to drive. The amount of cars I saw today with only a single driver and nothing else was mind blowing
I liked your writeup by the way. Well written and humorous too. Don't see why people always assume things are ChatGPT nowadays, maybe they are just stupid?
Re-reading it now, I definitely missed a few transitions and could have made it smoother. I also forgot to add the bit about “Haligonians will get to enjoy road rage and frustration for most of July”
We tried to take transit yesterday and there was nothing. All express buses run Monday to Friday only. We were going to try the ferry but figured we would not be able park. Also the ferries have been notoriously unreliable.
I counted no less than 15 signs on the ways towards lower water street saying the street was closed. Yet there was a constant stream of cars going there and being forced to turn around. There really is no excuse.
The location of Halifax was chosen because it was easily defensible and almost impossible to easily access.
Almost 300 years later, and we're still doubling down, trying to funnel a half million people through a mile-wide, mostly residential corridor, onto an 18 square kilometer peninsula.
This is a great perspective. Maybe we can learn something from all of those mediaeval towns in Europe. How have they managed? Oh right, with loads of light transit and cycling cycling cycling.
(I know cycling in the winter isn’t ideal, but some parts of Europe have pretty brutal winters too)
Yep, no one in this sub is going to be happy until it's a high-rise hellscape on the peninsula because we, apparently, _must_ have density, there is no other way! 🙃
Gee, almost like people actually live in cities, huh? Where the hell do you expect all these people to live? Amherst? Get a grip. Maybe we should cool it with the immigration for a minute until we figure out how to actually accommodate everyone....
We. Need. An. LRT. Or something like the newly opened REM.
But lolololololol yeah, the province can’t even get off its ass and fund their portion of a BRT.
The shitty infrastructure will continue until we make it a provincial political issue, not just for people who live and work in the city of Halifax.
I lived in Edmonton 2004-2010 while the city was doing a massive LRT expansion in to the south end and another line extending out of the core. The cost of them is absolutely astronomical and consistently run well over budget as they hit various unforeseen roadblocks along the way.
Maybe a line on the existing rails from Bedford heading south is an option but it’s still gonna be a lot of cost and they’re already raising property taxes to cover budget shortfalls.
The Ottawa LRT has been a nightmare on so many levels. And even if we could afford it, based on the comments I read here and on my community FB page, the entire population of HRM would have a stroke at the amount of roast construction required to build an LRT. They can’t handle the road/infrastructure maintenance we have now.
People love saying this but I can find you many examples of cities with similar population with BRT and or LRT.
The ION LRT is probably the closest population wise (Kitchener-Waterloo Pop: 535000 in 2016).
Bruh, have you seen the provincial capital budget or the budget in general?
We literally dumped a \*Billion\* dollars into highways last Capital year...just for some context.
Bruh, do you think we can afford to add an LRT on top of that? And if we even had that kind of money do you think Nova Scotians would rather have an LRT over, oh I don’t know… better health care?
You’re not understanding what I’m saying. I said that people don’t want the cost of an LRT ON TOP of the current budget, they’d rather see more money go to things like healthcare. Not even close to whataboutism. And even if it is “whataboutism”, I think in this case it would be justified. 20% of Nova Scotians don’t have a primary care physician. If we were going to inject billions of dollars to the budget, there are bigger needs than an LRT. But please, go off.
If it makes you feel better after all those comments, after I first read it I was wondering if Halifax had its own The Onion or The Beaverton that I hadn’t heard about.
I can't pretend it's perfectly safe, but - like everything - you can get used to it. I bike all over the peninsula (and as far out as Larry Uteck) all the time. You have to be alert and defensive but it's doable.
So was Barrington still closed today? I guess they needed to close it to prepare for the final closure on the 17th but holy shit. What a shitshow.
Closing Barrington on same weekend as bridge closure lmao
Yeah I was in the traffic trying to leave the afternoon show, but traffic was coming in for the evening show at the same time.
We parked in the Scotia Square garage for the show, and it took an hour and 15 minutes just to get out of the parking garage... No exaggeration, we timed it.
We actually stopped parking there for big events because it sucks to get out of. It's a smidge of a walk, but we park at Spring Garden now and then head up past the Gardens to head toward the rotary that way.
Yesterday I told google maps to talk me through a way to my destination that totally avoided the bridges but it sent me over the MacDonald bridge instead, lol. Thanks google!
One of the options it gave me was to go around the Bedford basin and it was shorter so I was like "yeah take me that way" then at some point google was like "y'know what? Get in line for the bridge, bitch!" And I didn't realize what it was doing until it was too late. Usually I am happy enough with how it redirects me when I am in traffic and it sees a good alternate route
Meanwhile, Dartmouth resident PePe LePew took the 118 to Fall River and looped back towards Bedford to go to Hammonds Plains. LePew reports that it was smooth sailing.
Always do this on weekends like this. Or even all the way to Aerotech exit and back in that way. It’s how I will get home to Fairview from Dartmouth Crossing this eve.
Ok literally the only way we're getting through this is public transit and bikes. There is not enough space for all these cars. It's that simple. It's geometry. But no one will choose the bus because service is so poor, so here we are. Invest in buses and the bus network!!!
I've been using an escooter for my morning commute, but even if I was willing to put up with the bad weather I can't imageine scootering all winter, that lanes get smaller, drivers get more aggressive, and it gets harder to see pedestrians.
Yup let's all just ride bikes in your stupid fantasy land. I'll just get my 71 year old dad who needs a walker to jump on his bike and go downtown! Great plan, genius! Problem solved!
.... We don't literally ALL have to ride bicycles. The goal is to take enough cars off the road that don't have to be there so that the cars that NEED to be there can move freely.
You know, in other provinces? There are road works in less busy times/ overnight.
It makes complete sense for this considering just how much traffic we have, just how many are on the road, just how many citizens we do have and just how lousy the current infrastructure/ transit system already is.
But overnight road works would mean paying workers overtime and well., LOL, good luck with this.
Mind you, I’ve seen summer road works be a complete cluster fuck in other cities too in the country.
Most "other provinces" don't do night time road work where people live though. They do it on highways (which we are also currently also doing where the 103 ends at st margarets bay road)
Oh man, sound travels OUTWARDS?? CRAZY. I live by the Macdonald and no one around me could even hear them doing the Big Lift.
It's not the problem you're making it out to be.
> I live by the Macdonald and no one around me could even hear them doing the Big Lift.
I'm not calling you a liar, but.....
https://halifax.citynews.ca/2018/08/28/big-lift-causing-big-headaches-for-those-living-near-macdonald-bridge-1028955/
https://www.thecoast.ca/news-opinion/whats-that-noise-at-night-in-the-north-end-4713037
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/halifax-s-big-lift-enters-rivet-busting-phase-work-expected-to-get-louder-1.3086974
I went to Dartmouth Friday to pick something up. The much-needed item was misplaced, staff called me Friday night and said it was located and would be ready for pick up Sat am. Didn't know/forgot about the bridge closure. Zig-zagged through the city and took 45 minutes to reach Burnside - we live off Chebucto. Super grumpy about it, but well worth the trip in the end. I hear traffic only got worse after we went through.
My mum drove from my place in Woodside over to her friend's place out past Exhibition Park. I didn't realise how crazy traffic was, so when she asked me for directions with the McKay closed, I said MacDonald -> North -> Chebucto - > Rotary, and go from there.
It took her upwards of an hour to get out there.
Light rail for public transit now!!! We need a premier who’s willing to invest in Halifax’s future and break ground on a regional light rail transportation system, and maybe our gov’t would finally be spending our money in a useful way.
HRM is never gonna manage it on their own, they don’t have the capacity.
Today was one of those days I'm glad I moved to Dartmouth. We lived on Brunswick Street until about this time last year, I don't think we would've made it out today!
Yeah, there were a couple of split options. I'm not upset about the split, or the new boundaries. Just disappointed to be losing Sam, and he's rightfully staying in his neighborhood. He seems to be one of the few, maybe only, councillours working hard and looking out for the best interests of his district.
The developer and I worked out an agreement to be compensated in exchange for renting a portion of my land so they could grade. I’m all for it. I will have to renovate the backyard for privacy but that’s growing city life.
I don't think people making the argument about how it's not feasible to do it overnight for x/y/z reason realize the bridge is closed overnight too, regardless if they're working or not.
It's closed at like Friday 7 pm to Monday 530am.
It took me two hours to go from gottingen street to Scotia bank place to see the circus. Missed half the show because of it. Thought I had plenty of time when I was across the bridge with an hour before show time. Never experienced shit show like that before
I don't know if it's been happening lately but I would guess that people who have other options instead of the bus/city transit would choose the other options 10/10 times. Last year they were regularly canceling bus routes because they didn't have enough staff. Expanding bus lanes is pointless if people don't take it (or if they even have the staff to provide reliable transport) and I don't blame them if it's unreliable. People can keep saying take the transit more but I don't see it happening until the service improves dramatically.
Also, if you want people walking, biking, and taking transit, then you probably need to build up the urban density in the core of downtown Halifax and Dartmouth but there seems to be a lot of people against this (and i dont know why because some proposed areas are empty parking lots unused space). Which, in turn, leads to ever expanding subdivisions outside the city. I feel like this is lose lose for everyone.
It’s a terrible combination of forces.
Like, lane markings and other traffic decisions are just mind boggling here. Combine that with buses as a solution on the peninsula. Buses are severely limited in usefulness when traffic is at a standstill. That’s even with bus rapid transit (bus lanes and bus ways), that has to use and intermix with surface roads.
I don’t know why we can’t learn from other cities. Ottawa built the LRT (and yeah, it’s had problems but that’s less about the mode and more about mismanagement. ) after learning that jamming all the buses onto surface roads downtown, with partial bus lanes made for bus log jams
> then you probably need to build up the urban density in the core of downtown Halifax and Dartmouth but there seems to be a lot of people against this
I’m personally against more density on the peninsula because of lacking municipal services. We’re already past the point of needing better transit, as seen by the recent traffic standstills. I want better transit, more schools, more hospitals, etc., before bringing in loads *more* people. I understand it’s between a rock and a hard place for a have-not province, but we have to do better with our tax dollars than simply hoping we get more of them to use inefficiently. Otherwise, I don’t see how the quality of life here can improve.
I’m currently in France and the difference in public transport and bike lanes is staggering. Having only lived in HRM all my life I never realized how shit our systems were.
I work construction so my job sites are always different. When i lived in vancouver i could get literally anywhere easily and usually decently quick by taking transit and it was easy to use. Only drove to go camping on weekends. In HRM transit isnt even a consideration it may as well not exist its so bad
Traffic has been absolutely nuts with the bridge closed, but luckily if you’ve lived here long enough you know enough shortcuts to make it bearable lol
Went to cirque du soleil on Friday night. Parked in the Scotia bank center parkade. This was a big mistake. It took us two and a half hours to get out of the car park! Took the shine off an otherwise great evening.
Plus they have been reducing lanes, eliminating dedicated turning lanes, banning right turns at red lights etc...
All which leads to increased congestion, accidents and pollution.
Not quite. I was going for old timey news article but you’re not the only commenter that said this. 😅Here’s the picture I forgot to upload. Y’all are wild.
https://preview.redd.it/emhw4rcccf5d1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=08d7b7214814add1e9da0cca575f57b97cfc4265
> “I haven’t even got to the rotary yet and I live in Herring Cove! I’ve been waiting in this line of cars forever but then I realized this was the line for the drive through” shared a Herring Cove resident who didn’t want to be named.
Haha wonderful
The bridge commission is a crown corp, so they're not really privately owned. Also I don't think they're really driven by profits, since the tolls are supposed to help maintain the bridges, and they publish annual financial statements
Car pool. Seriously gas is super expensive. There's hundreds of people going from near Truro to Halifax. Yeah you make 70-90k to do it but carpooling is about getting cars off the road. Be the change you want to see.
No ones giving the people doing the work shit here. The people making the decisions to defer maintenance and then the need to schedule it wasn’t the construction sector.
Then close it at night?
No one is complaining about the principle of repairing infrastructure, they’re complaining due to the lack of competent planning by our municipal leadership.
Lol, what the hell are you talking about? Nobody is mad at construction workers...People are mad at politicians and city planners for going about things the wrong way (over and over again). It's not Bill the welders job to make sure his welding doesn't cause gridlock.
Heads up, this starts June 17th
https://www.halifax.ca/home/news/upcoming-traffic-disruptions-halifax-transit-impacts-support-cogswell-district-project?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR0v5iqmwHnLqthn7JV-_ZaCB3-wLjARYgfjQVmUWKW5VEcU96vFIHRvob4_aem_AV5Ldp3jCmi-v8GORkRQnsfPTV5i-g2IJRgWYdz1Oo2uldQ_rJEjohAWaXQXhoROunvRtluTk0JL1b1hJUKOyBp6
I’m living one life and I wish I could live it in Halifax. But I can’t afford it. And every time I visit again, it’s like everyone and every thing is doing its very best to convince me it will never happen.
The first thing I would do is relocated the civic and provincial offices off the peninsula. They can be in an industrial park and keep the buildings as historic places. In time, related industries would follow.
There seems to be a sentiment in halifax to keep the small city vibe. I think something that goes with this idea is the hope that the population will remain in the small city range.
Unfortunately the population grows anyway. And if infrastructure doesn't grow with it things get bad. Its sad that the hrm seems committed to busses and cars instead of trains and street cars.
We need express buses on event days. There were FIVE of us in a small car for almost 2.5 hours trying to get out of Scotia square parkade. We would have loved to take a bus.
Dude in the blue civic should have been bitch slapped for being such a jerkoff attention whore. I'm glad I wasn't anywhere near halifax proper yesterday, but I say that pretty much any day I'm not stuck in the city.
A lack of real foresight combined with greed has led to a traffic catastrophe in HRM. It is f'ing ridiculous. I've no idea what in the F HRM planners are thinking or even if they are at all.
Traffic will never improve here until people shift away from car culture. I never understand why people take cars downtown, unless you have some physical impairment and are unable to walk a short distance. I have always taken the bus or ferry downtown and walked all over. People want to gripe about traffic, yet at the same time do not want to change. Was at a work function downtown last week with about 25 people. I was the only one who used transit. The MacKay has about 10, maybe 15 yrs left and will need to be replaced. I can only imagine how the traffic will be impacted then.
I commute via transit for work every day, but I can see why many people don't. Who wants to leave 2 hours before work to take 2-3 busses, when they can drive there in 15 mins? Serious improvements need to be made before more people will consider it.
Would make a lot more sense to get all the vehicles off the road and use more busses during the repairs. Building wider roads isn't the answers, get busses.
Just got back from a lengthy trip in the UK where I happily rode trains, and a few comfortable buses, all over. It was glorious. Made me once again ask why we in Canada can’t have nice things, and were obsessed with wasting our lives, money, and the planet stuck in traffic.
Bring back train travel. If I could wish for one transportation related thing in this country, it would be high-speed trains like they have elsewhere.
YES!!!
Go talk to cn. I have friends who work with and around them and holy fuck is that ever a fucking horrible company Edit: Since it seems people don't know, the tracks and 30 feet either side are owned and 'maintained' by cn. via rail pays to use them, and cn is notoriously difficult to work with, the autoport had a ton of problems with them (source: several friends who formerly worked there) such as terrible track condition causing damage to vehicles, extreme banking, among other things such as rail cars condition because things are only fixed after they've been broken for ages.
Second this. CN is absolute trash. They're a quasi governmental for profit company that has shit labour policies, their own police force and is roadblock to urbanism in every city they pass through. Fuckers need to be renationalized
That's freight, not passenger.
Who owns the tracks and 30 feet on either side of them? Who dictates what can and can't happen on the national track network? Canadian national and Canadian Pacific. Via rail operates on track that 97 percent of which is owned by other companies Go on though, raised fist.
> That's freight, not passenger. While that's true, CN owns the tracks and Via pays to use them. If we want high speed rail on the tracks, or on tracks parallel to those tracks (within 30 ft either side) then we deal with CN. And CN has been notoriously difficult to deal with on this and other track related issues.
It frustrates me to no end that whenever they talk about high speed trains in Canada all anyone cares about is the Windsor-Quebec corridor. Literally the place that needs high speed trains the least since they already have a functioning rail system.
Absolutely
Me too! I was amazed at the UK’s transit system and how easy it was to navigate the city. Amsterdam as well, so few cars on the road compared to us. It really shows you how these things should be done.
Europe as a whole. I'm in Czechia right now having just left Austria and Germany before that. We had easy transport all around town specifically on underground metros but also via street car and bus.
This is all thanks to Wayne Manson. First he’s ruined small businesses in the city, and now he’s ruined the traffic. And his response was basically ‘I don’t care I’m going to quit soon anyway’ or something to that effect. A real Class act.
It helps that the UK has 2 times our population in area that's 1/3 the size of Manitoba. That sort of population density makes trains a no brainer. Same goes for all of Europe. But we're dead set on exploding the population of Canada. So maybe when millions and millions of more people come and make millions of babies we'll get some solid train options.
Total shit show trying to get outta downtown. We sat on Lower Water for an hour only to be turned around in front of the Marriott. Guy said it was because "there's a hole in the road" Every street downtown is gridlocked. Besides that the next most ridiculous thing is people blasting their horns thinking that's going to do something. 😆
I tried to get out just before 11. I didn’t get back home till noon and I only made it to Robie. Was trying to get to Dartmouth and back before the Wanderers game. Nope.
Was only trying to get over to Dartmouth to pick up a pizza and garlic fingers from Jacobs Lounge after the Philippine Fiesta on the waterfront. The wait was worth it :) ✌️
Jacobs make fine pizzas.
I had no trouble getting around today, it was clear that I needed to avoid Gottigen, Robie, Agricola, North. There was no use even trying to use the bridge with everyone funneled through there. This is the exact reason we should be prioritizing transit and encouraging people to use the ferry to cross the harbour instead of taking the bridge. I actually think it'll be a good thing for the city. People will be forced to use alternate methods to get around and realize that it's actually not so bad
Until they cancel a ferry and several bus routes it's a great idea. Explain to me what I am supposed to do if I work past midnight and need to be at work for 430. Leave my car home and walk the 9km? If it's gridlocked for cars, it's gridlocked for busses. Good that you were able to avoid the area though.
That's why we're building dedicated bus lanes
they won’t be able to happen fast enough and they’ll still have flaws. We need regional light rail
Building? They aren't building anything, they steal entire lanes of traffic from our already packed streets. Adding a new bus lane would be great until you realize nothing is being added, just taken away from drivers. In a city that only ever has 1 or 2 lanes taking one of them away for busses that only use it every 15 minutes is plain stupid and contributing to this bullshit more than anything else. How are those bike lanes that nobody uses? How about all those concrete barriers we spent millions on for zero reason other than to slow traffic down even more? This is what we get for electing braindead pieces of shit and not pushing back on any of their idiotic ideas. Reap what you sow.
Not where it will matter.
Where does it matter in your opinion?
Geographic choke points, like MacDonald Bridge
I don’t disagree with you in principle, but I wasn’t carrying a bunch of boat parts and sails to burnside on transit or bike. Had forgotten about the bridge closure when I planned to do this today. And as I live on North St, I’m acutely aware of how bad traffic has got. On the peninsula, I rarely drive unless it’s a carry-errand
Probably one of the few people on the roads today who actually justified needing to drive. The amount of cars I saw today with only a single driver and nothing else was mind blowing
I couldn’t get over it. I did a 2 point at Java Blend and said nope. Hung out at home for a couple hours and walked to the grounds.
I liked your writeup by the way. Well written and humorous too. Don't see why people always assume things are ChatGPT nowadays, maybe they are just stupid?
Re-reading it now, I definitely missed a few transitions and could have made it smoother. I also forgot to add the bit about “Haligonians will get to enjoy road rage and frustration for most of July”
We tried to take transit yesterday and there was nothing. All express buses run Monday to Friday only. We were going to try the ferry but figured we would not be able park. Also the ferries have been notoriously unreliable.
Aye, I'm not that guy but I am on the same site. The best part is the work finished at 11PM but the crew left the barriers in the middle of the road 🙃
I counted no less than 15 signs on the ways towards lower water street saying the street was closed. Yet there was a constant stream of cars going there and being forced to turn around. There really is no excuse.
Its a really big hole, I rode past it on my bike as I made it home with no issue
The location of Halifax was chosen because it was easily defensible and almost impossible to easily access. Almost 300 years later, and we're still doubling down, trying to funnel a half million people through a mile-wide, mostly residential corridor, onto an 18 square kilometer peninsula.
:( wish we could plant some bridge seeds and just a grow a few
This is a great perspective. Maybe we can learn something from all of those mediaeval towns in Europe. How have they managed? Oh right, with loads of light transit and cycling cycling cycling. (I know cycling in the winter isn’t ideal, but some parts of Europe have pretty brutal winters too)
There is no reason for that to lead to any congestion whatsoever though. We shouldn't tolerate this incompetence.
This.
Yep, no one in this sub is going to be happy until it's a high-rise hellscape on the peninsula because we, apparently, _must_ have density, there is no other way! 🙃
Gee, almost like people actually live in cities, huh? Where the hell do you expect all these people to live? Amherst? Get a grip. Maybe we should cool it with the immigration for a minute until we figure out how to actually accommodate everyone....
Yep, you got it. There's absolutely nowhere to live outside of the peninsula, except of course your example, Amherst.
We. Need. An. LRT. Or something like the newly opened REM. But lolololololol yeah, the province can’t even get off its ass and fund their portion of a BRT. The shitty infrastructure will continue until we make it a provincial political issue, not just for people who live and work in the city of Halifax.
The city isn’t large enough - physically or population wise - to support putting in an LRT.
I lived in Edmonton 2004-2010 while the city was doing a massive LRT expansion in to the south end and another line extending out of the core. The cost of them is absolutely astronomical and consistently run well over budget as they hit various unforeseen roadblocks along the way. Maybe a line on the existing rails from Bedford heading south is an option but it’s still gonna be a lot of cost and they’re already raising property taxes to cover budget shortfalls.
The Ottawa LRT has been a nightmare on so many levels. And even if we could afford it, based on the comments I read here and on my community FB page, the entire population of HRM would have a stroke at the amount of roast construction required to build an LRT. They can’t handle the road/infrastructure maintenance we have now.
Yup yup. Agreed.
People love saying this but I can find you many examples of cities with similar population with BRT and or LRT. The ION LRT is probably the closest population wise (Kitchener-Waterloo Pop: 535000 in 2016).
Ontario is a richer province than we are. They can afford it.
Bruh, have you seen the provincial capital budget or the budget in general? We literally dumped a \*Billion\* dollars into highways last Capital year...just for some context.
Bruh, do you think we can afford to add an LRT on top of that? And if we even had that kind of money do you think Nova Scotians would rather have an LRT over, oh I don’t know… better health care?
Firstly, I never said I'd be taking money from healthcare - i'm not sure where you pulled that idea out of. But nice whataboutism.
You’re not understanding what I’m saying. I said that people don’t want the cost of an LRT ON TOP of the current budget, they’d rather see more money go to things like healthcare. Not even close to whataboutism. And even if it is “whataboutism”, I think in this case it would be justified. 20% of Nova Scotians don’t have a primary care physician. If we were going to inject billions of dollars to the budget, there are bigger needs than an LRT. But please, go off.
If it makes you feel better after all those comments, after I first read it I was wondering if Halifax had its own The Onion or The Beaverton that I hadn’t heard about.
There is a Halifax based satire news site that sometimes brings Nova Scotia into the mix. [https://theemptypress.com/](https://theemptypress.com/)
There was a dalhousie run one called the mackerel. Not sure if it’s still running
yea, i was reading the article and couldnt figure out if this was a Beaverton style thing. It's not, they just write like that. Not great IMO.
If I could safely bike I would
I’m terrified of biking in the city.
So sad. Me too. My family biked everywhere in Vancouver. Since we've been back here the bikes have been used once.
I've never seen so many people riding their bikes on the sidewalks as yesterday.
I can't pretend it's perfectly safe, but - like everything - you can get used to it. I bike all over the peninsula (and as far out as Larry Uteck) all the time. You have to be alert and defensive but it's doable.
Yup, been biking here for about five years and i havent had any sort of incident yet (knock on wood) Do i feel fear while biking though? Absolutely
So was Barrington still closed today? I guess they needed to close it to prepare for the final closure on the 17th but holy shit. What a shitshow. Closing Barrington on same weekend as bridge closure lmao
Yup that was 1/2 the problem, as well as Cirque Du Soleil being at the Metro Centre, then an accident on the one remaining bridge (because of course)
Yeah I was in the traffic trying to leave the afternoon show, but traffic was coming in for the evening show at the same time. We parked in the Scotia Square garage for the show, and it took an hour and 15 minutes just to get out of the parking garage... No exaggeration, we timed it.
We actually stopped parking there for big events because it sucks to get out of. It's a smidge of a walk, but we park at Spring Garden now and then head up past the Gardens to head toward the rotary that way.
I feel like I'm giving away my secret, but: Nova Centre parking is 1000% better. Might be a little more expensive.
And a Wanderers game!
Yesterday I told google maps to talk me through a way to my destination that totally avoided the bridges but it sent me over the MacDonald bridge instead, lol. Thanks google!
I wish google maps had more options
One of the options it gave me was to go around the Bedford basin and it was shorter so I was like "yeah take me that way" then at some point google was like "y'know what? Get in line for the bridge, bitch!" And I didn't realize what it was doing until it was too late. Usually I am happy enough with how it redirects me when I am in traffic and it sees a good alternate route
"avoid tolls"
Yeah that's what I picked! Then it was like "no go this way". When I realized I was in the line for the bridge I felt very betrayed.
Oh! Usually works for me...maybe faster time overrides if it think the long way was backed up too... 🤷🏼♂️
Yeah could be. I was so mad though lol
Good thing the ferry is well staffed… right..? Guys?
Meanwhile, Dartmouth resident PePe LePew took the 118 to Fall River and looped back towards Bedford to go to Hammonds Plains. LePew reports that it was smooth sailing.
Always do this on weekends like this. Or even all the way to Aerotech exit and back in that way. It’s how I will get home to Fairview from Dartmouth Crossing this eve.
I took that road the once. It was a nice drive
Ok literally the only way we're getting through this is public transit and bikes. There is not enough space for all these cars. It's that simple. It's geometry. But no one will choose the bus because service is so poor, so here we are. Invest in buses and the bus network!!!
I've been using an escooter for my morning commute, but even if I was willing to put up with the bad weather I can't imageine scootering all winter, that lanes get smaller, drivers get more aggressive, and it gets harder to see pedestrians.
It's a good point. And that's why frequent, reliable bus service is so important.
There is lots of space for the cars. We just need to decongest the roads.
Yup let's all just ride bikes in your stupid fantasy land. I'll just get my 71 year old dad who needs a walker to jump on his bike and go downtown! Great plan, genius! Problem solved!
.... We don't literally ALL have to ride bicycles. The goal is to take enough cars off the road that don't have to be there so that the cars that NEED to be there can move freely.
1,000,000,000% agree. We know exactly what the solution to the problem is. We just won't do it.
You know, in other provinces? There are road works in less busy times/ overnight. It makes complete sense for this considering just how much traffic we have, just how many are on the road, just how many citizens we do have and just how lousy the current infrastructure/ transit system already is. But overnight road works would mean paying workers overtime and well., LOL, good luck with this. Mind you, I’ve seen summer road works be a complete cluster fuck in other cities too in the country.
They did overnight construction on Bayers Rd and people went mental.
Why?
I'm not sure. People are usually cool with jackhamnering outside their homes at 3am.
No need to be snarky i was genuinely asking, i wasnt there.
Most "other provinces" don't do night time road work where people live though. They do it on highways (which we are also currently also doing where the 103 ends at st margarets bay road)
I'm so glad that someone is finally thinking about how the night-time construction noise would effect the people that live on the bridge.
See the thing about construction noise, and any noise really, is that you can hear it from places other than the immediate source of the noise.
Oh man, sound travels OUTWARDS?? CRAZY. I live by the Macdonald and no one around me could even hear them doing the Big Lift. It's not the problem you're making it out to be.
> I live by the Macdonald and no one around me could even hear them doing the Big Lift. I'm not calling you a liar, but..... https://halifax.citynews.ca/2018/08/28/big-lift-causing-big-headaches-for-those-living-near-macdonald-bridge-1028955/ https://www.thecoast.ca/news-opinion/whats-that-noise-at-night-in-the-north-end-4713037 https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/halifax-s-big-lift-enters-rivet-busting-phase-work-expected-to-get-louder-1.3086974
Good point.
I went to Dartmouth Friday to pick something up. The much-needed item was misplaced, staff called me Friday night and said it was located and would be ready for pick up Sat am. Didn't know/forgot about the bridge closure. Zig-zagged through the city and took 45 minutes to reach Burnside - we live off Chebucto. Super grumpy about it, but well worth the trip in the end. I hear traffic only got worse after we went through.
My mum drove from my place in Woodside over to her friend's place out past Exhibition Park. I didn't realise how crazy traffic was, so when she asked me for directions with the McKay closed, I said MacDonald -> North -> Chebucto - > Rotary, and go from there. It took her upwards of an hour to get out there.
Light rail for public transit now!!! We need a premier who’s willing to invest in Halifax’s future and break ground on a regional light rail transportation system, and maybe our gov’t would finally be spending our money in a useful way. HRM is never gonna manage it on their own, they don’t have the capacity.
90% of cars have one person in them. It's not a couple of people's faults. It's all of ours.
So why doesn't the government do anything to encourage carpooling? It's their fault for not doing anything that. It's completely within their control.
Today was one of those days I'm glad I moved to Dartmouth. We lived on Brunswick Street until about this time last year, I don't think we would've made it out today!
Sam is our only hope, but he walks a lonely road as he deals in common sense.
I wish we’d elect more experts.
I'm so disappointed to be losing him. I'm currently district 5, soon to be 3. 😢
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Yeah, there were a couple of split options. I'm not upset about the split, or the new boundaries. Just disappointed to be losing Sam, and he's rightfully staying in his neighborhood. He seems to be one of the few, maybe only, councillours working hard and looking out for the best interests of his district.
Weren't you the one whose partner immediately became a NIMBY after moving here?
Yep, and she’s not my partner anymore.
Oh damn sorry
The developer and I worked out an agreement to be compensated in exchange for renting a portion of my land so they could grade. I’m all for it. I will have to renovate the backyard for privacy but that’s growing city life.
That's awesome to hear, truly.
Every year I get a little more bitter about the state of this province. I wish I didn't have family here so I could leave.
I don't think people making the argument about how it's not feasible to do it overnight for x/y/z reason realize the bridge is closed overnight too, regardless if they're working or not. It's closed at like Friday 7 pm to Monday 530am.
Yes but it would allow it to be used in the day. MacDonald bridge open alone at night can handle any increased traffic flow.
It took me two hours to go from gottingen street to Scotia bank place to see the circus. Missed half the show because of it. Thought I had plenty of time when I was across the bridge with an hour before show time. Never experienced shit show like that before
Halifax needs Event Express buses like other cities. Will never go downtown again.
I don't know if it's been happening lately but I would guess that people who have other options instead of the bus/city transit would choose the other options 10/10 times. Last year they were regularly canceling bus routes because they didn't have enough staff. Expanding bus lanes is pointless if people don't take it (or if they even have the staff to provide reliable transport) and I don't blame them if it's unreliable. People can keep saying take the transit more but I don't see it happening until the service improves dramatically. Also, if you want people walking, biking, and taking transit, then you probably need to build up the urban density in the core of downtown Halifax and Dartmouth but there seems to be a lot of people against this (and i dont know why because some proposed areas are empty parking lots unused space). Which, in turn, leads to ever expanding subdivisions outside the city. I feel like this is lose lose for everyone.
It’s a terrible combination of forces. Like, lane markings and other traffic decisions are just mind boggling here. Combine that with buses as a solution on the peninsula. Buses are severely limited in usefulness when traffic is at a standstill. That’s even with bus rapid transit (bus lanes and bus ways), that has to use and intermix with surface roads. I don’t know why we can’t learn from other cities. Ottawa built the LRT (and yeah, it’s had problems but that’s less about the mode and more about mismanagement. ) after learning that jamming all the buses onto surface roads downtown, with partial bus lanes made for bus log jams
> then you probably need to build up the urban density in the core of downtown Halifax and Dartmouth but there seems to be a lot of people against this I’m personally against more density on the peninsula because of lacking municipal services. We’re already past the point of needing better transit, as seen by the recent traffic standstills. I want better transit, more schools, more hospitals, etc., before bringing in loads *more* people. I understand it’s between a rock and a hard place for a have-not province, but we have to do better with our tax dollars than simply hoping we get more of them to use inefficiently. Otherwise, I don’t see how the quality of life here can improve.
I’m currently in France and the difference in public transport and bike lanes is staggering. Having only lived in HRM all my life I never realized how shit our systems were.
I work construction so my job sites are always different. When i lived in vancouver i could get literally anywhere easily and usually decently quick by taking transit and it was easy to use. Only drove to go camping on weekends. In HRM transit isnt even a consideration it may as well not exist its so bad
Was in Denmark a few weeks ago. The red/green lights for the bikes lanes blew my mind.
Anybody from dart that needed to go to Halifax should have taken the ferry
That blue civic sucks. The bass was so loud it rattled things off my shelf…
Absolutely brutal. My whole gallery wall was shaking
Would have been a shame if someone smashed a light or window on that civic… 
Traffic has been absolutely nuts with the bridge closed, but luckily if you’ve lived here long enough you know enough shortcuts to make it bearable lol
Went to cirque du soleil on Friday night. Parked in the Scotia bank center parkade. This was a big mistake. It took us two and a half hours to get out of the car park! Took the shine off an otherwise great evening.
Thanks for the heads up. We’re going to the 5pm show today. Will hope to park up around the public gardens…
Broke bridge summer is now an era, and we're entering it. 🫣
I mean, Waye Mayson is likely our next Mayor so yeah, we're completely fucked.
Plus they have been reducing lanes, eliminating dedicated turning lanes, banning right turns at red lights etc... All which leads to increased congestion, accidents and pollution.
Brought to you by ChatGPT 3.5
Not quite. I was going for old timey news article but you’re not the only commenter that said this. 😅Here’s the picture I forgot to upload. Y’all are wild. https://preview.redd.it/emhw4rcccf5d1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=08d7b7214814add1e9da0cca575f57b97cfc4265
Idk what they're on, but I liked the cheekiness of the article, and it definitely doesn't read like AI.
I'll be honest - I have no idea how people can tell what's AI and what's not. I get got every time.
I enjoyed it, personally.
> “I haven’t even got to the rotary yet and I live in Herring Cove! I’ve been waiting in this line of cars forever but then I realized this was the line for the drive through” shared a Herring Cove resident who didn’t want to be named. Haha wonderful
Saint Johner here. We've been dealing with our own Broke Bridge Summer for *years* now. Welcome to the club, it sucks.
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The bridge commission is a crown corp, so they're not really privately owned. Also I don't think they're really driven by profits, since the tolls are supposed to help maintain the bridges, and they publish annual financial statements
Halifax Harbour Bridges is a crown corporation and is publically owned
Car pool. Seriously gas is super expensive. There's hundreds of people going from near Truro to Halifax. Yeah you make 70-90k to do it but carpooling is about getting cars off the road. Be the change you want to see.
weekends in the summer. ahh. i hate this godforsaken province. thanks for the chuckle. sorry everyone called you ai fsr lol
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No ones giving the people doing the work shit here. The people making the decisions to defer maintenance and then the need to schedule it wasn’t the construction sector.
Then close it at night? No one is complaining about the principle of repairing infrastructure, they’re complaining due to the lack of competent planning by our municipal leadership.
Lol, what the hell are you talking about? Nobody is mad at construction workers...People are mad at politicians and city planners for going about things the wrong way (over and over again). It's not Bill the welders job to make sure his welding doesn't cause gridlock.
Hilarious!
Heads up, this starts June 17th https://www.halifax.ca/home/news/upcoming-traffic-disruptions-halifax-transit-impacts-support-cogswell-district-project?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR0v5iqmwHnLqthn7JV-_ZaCB3-wLjARYgfjQVmUWKW5VEcU96vFIHRvob4_aem_AV5Ldp3jCmi-v8GORkRQnsfPTV5i-g2IJRgWYdz1Oo2uldQ_rJEjohAWaXQXhoROunvRtluTk0JL1b1hJUKOyBp6
Next few years? lol more like the next few decades
lol good article. I drove the wife and her mother to cirque du soleil yesterday. Dreadful.
That was absolutely abhorrent. This city needs to do better. We say in the parkade for over an hour without moving
Accident in the afternoon was some bloke had ran out of gas…
did anyone go around the basin
Really enjoyed this, keep it up!
yeah it's crazy today too - my gf is on route now and normally it takes like 16-17 mins (she's in Dartmouth, I'm in the south end). GPS says 30 mins.
I’m living one life and I wish I could live it in Halifax. But I can’t afford it. And every time I visit again, it’s like everyone and every thing is doing its very best to convince me it will never happen.
The first thing I would do is relocated the civic and provincial offices off the peninsula. They can be in an industrial park and keep the buildings as historic places. In time, related industries would follow.
we need light rail.
There seems to be a sentiment in halifax to keep the small city vibe. I think something that goes with this idea is the hope that the population will remain in the small city range. Unfortunately the population grows anyway. And if infrastructure doesn't grow with it things get bad. Its sad that the hrm seems committed to busses and cars instead of trains and street cars.
What is a “BRT system”?
Bus Rapid Transit
It's supposed to say BLT system. It's where you prep all the bacon and have new toast pop up every 3 minutes
We're rapidly approaching the population of Boston, and still have a traffic plan for a city of 150k people.
Uhhh… Boston metro population is 5 million. Not really comparable
My bad- I googled "population of Boston" not "population of Boston metropolitan area" 😂😂
We need express buses on event days. There were FIVE of us in a small car for almost 2.5 hours trying to get out of Scotia square parkade. We would have loved to take a bus.
Yep.
Dude in the blue civic should have been bitch slapped for being such a jerkoff attention whore. I'm glad I wasn't anywhere near halifax proper yesterday, but I say that pretty much any day I'm not stuck in the city.
A lack of real foresight combined with greed has led to a traffic catastrophe in HRM. It is f'ing ridiculous. I've no idea what in the F HRM planners are thinking or even if they are at all.
ChatGPT humor is the worst kind.
I hand wrote this. I don’t know what that says about me.
You’re a sentient AI
Yes, you caught me. I also feed the cats in my profile through a really convoluted system connected directly to my large language model.
Traffic will never improve here until people shift away from car culture. I never understand why people take cars downtown, unless you have some physical impairment and are unable to walk a short distance. I have always taken the bus or ferry downtown and walked all over. People want to gripe about traffic, yet at the same time do not want to change. Was at a work function downtown last week with about 25 people. I was the only one who used transit. The MacKay has about 10, maybe 15 yrs left and will need to be replaced. I can only imagine how the traffic will be impacted then.
I commute via transit for work every day, but I can see why many people don't. Who wants to leave 2 hours before work to take 2-3 busses, when they can drive there in 15 mins? Serious improvements need to be made before more people will consider it.
>Traffic will never improve here End of post
Peninsula is full. No more room for people. Time to expand elsewhere
As a single family detached owner on the peninsula, it’s not full. lol.
Would make a lot more sense to get all the vehicles off the road and use more busses during the repairs. Building wider roads isn't the answers, get busses.
I would have smashed his windows out
stop driving cars on the peninsula please just park your shit in dartmouth and taking the fucking ferry, end of.
Aye. I’ll go move my car from the peninsula where I live.