Official Fredericton, NB projects thread

[Freddypop]

Originally Posted by OliverD

Looks like they are building a patio or something along the front of the easternmost portion of the building.

Yeah...noticed that but more likely just accessible upgrades to whatever will be going in there

[jonny golden]

Not being from Fredericton, I had the pleasure of driving through the intersection of Prospect & Regent for the first time in a long time. Much better than before the upgrades were done. I still find Prospect congested though.

[OliverD]

Originally Posted by jonny golden

Not being from Fredericton, I had the pleasure of driving through the intersection of Prospect & Regent for the first time in a long time. Much better than before the upgrades were done. I still find Prospect congested though.

A busy car-oriented retail corridor is never not going to be congested.

[Freddypop]

Originally Posted by jonny golden

Not being from Fredericton, I had the pleasure of driving through the intersection of Prospect & Regent for the first time in a long time. Much better than before the upgrades were done. I still find Prospect congested though.

Yes, it is much improved. There were provincial stats that stated the intersection had the highest daily volume of traffic in the Province

[jonny golden]

Originally Posted by Freddypop

Yes, it is much improved. There were provincial stats that stated the intersection had the highest daily volume of traffic in the Province

Yeah, especially being close to the highway I can see that.

[jonny golden]

Originally Posted by OliverD

A busy car-oriented retail corridor is never not going to be congested.

Yeah that's true. I don't know what if anything could be done to make Prospect Street less congested.

[Taeolas]

Originally Posted by jonny golden

Yeah that's true. I don't know what if anything could be done to make Prospect Street less congested.

The Roundabout they're planning to link Route 8/Vanier Highway and the Hospital will probably help a little. But really it's diverting a trickle in a flood basically.

[OliverD]

Originally Posted by Taeolas

The Roundabout they're planning to link Route 8/Vanier Highway and the Hospital will probably help a little. But really it's diverting a trickle in a flood basically.

That's a good point – that will at least divert some traffic that is simply bypassing the area. But doesn't do anything for all the traffic whose destination is on Prospect.

[jonny golden]

Originally Posted by OliverD

That's a good point – that will at least divert some traffic that is simply bypassing the area. But doesn't do anything for all the traffic whose destination is on Prospect.

Has the city ever engaged the services of a traffic engineer to look at Prospect? Again, I don't have any idea what if anything could be done to alleviate the congestion there.

[OliverD]

Originally Posted by jonny golden

Has the city ever engaged the services of a traffic engineer to look at Prospect? Again, I don't have any idea what if anything could be done to alleviate the congestion there.

Presumably that would have been done when the roundabout was built and when the Prospect/Regent intersection was reconfigured.

[jonny golden]

Originally Posted by OliverD

Presumably that would have been done when the roundabout was built and when the Prospect/Regent intersection was reconfigured.

Maybe "it is what it is".

[Taeolas]

They did take a their time to figure out how traffic flows in that area of town. If you remember (or don't remember) they specifically waited for the Route 8 roundabout to be finished before upgrading the route-8 overpass and the Prospect/Regent intersection.

One thing that I wish they had not changed is the entrances to the Irving. In the original plans for Regent and Prospect, the cross-lane turns into the Irving were not there. While not much ado was made about it, it is obvious someone put pressure and the openings were put back in late in the intersection renovations. Closing those back up would probably smooth out many of the wrinkles in the traffic flow there.

The intersection itself is somewhat hindered by the businesses around it. There isn't really room for a full sized roundabout that it would need, and the lanes are pretty much at capacity as is. Any further improvements would have to focus on diverting traffic from the intersection in the first place. Route-8/Vanier Highway roundabout would be one such improvement.

I have no idea how it could be done, but if the New Maryland Highway traffic could be routed away from the mall and that intersection that would greatly help as well. But I have no idea how to do that as the highway is already the most direct route from New Maryland to the core.

In the long term future, the city will probably need to bite the bullet and start planning to upgrade Regent and Smythe into full 4-lane boulevards leading into the core. Beaverbrook/Dondonald would probably need similar upgrades to serve as an East/west connector on the southern edge of the core.

Prospect would probably need to be made somewhat controlled access with allowed U-Turns at lights and only allowing entrance/exit from the direction of travel (so no crossing lanes except at lights) (As noted above this should/could be done a lot sooner and would probably help things out)

Personally, I don't find Prospect/Regent that bad normally, even when I'm up there around 5 or on Saturday afternoons. The two turning lanes from south Regent onto Prospect work well and seem adequate for the traffic flow most of the time. Sure if you're at the end of the line you may need to wait for an extra cycle, but rarely has traffic seemed that backed up.

[OliverD]

Originally Posted by Taeolas

In the long term future, the city will probably need to bite the bullet and start planning to upgrade Regent and Smythe into full 4-lane boulevards leading into the core. Beaverbrook/Dondonald would probably need similar upgrades to serve as an East/west connector on the southern edge of the core.

No no no no no no no no no no no no.

https://www.citylab.com/transportati...demand/569455/

[jonny golden]

Originally Posted by Taeolas

They did take a their time to figure out how traffic flows in that area of town. If you remember (or don't remember) they specifically waited for the Route 8 roundabout to be finished before upgrading the route-8 overpass and the Prospect/Regent intersection.

One thing that I wish they had not changed is the entrances to the Irving. In the original plans for Regent and Prospect, the cross-lane turns into the Irving were not there. While not much ado was made about it, it is obvious someone put pressure and the openings were put back in late in the intersection renovations. Closing those back up would probably smooth out many of the wrinkles in the traffic flow there.

The intersection itself is somewhat hindered by the businesses around it. There isn't really room for a full sized roundabout that it would need, and the lanes are pretty much at capacity as is. Any further improvements would have to focus on diverting traffic from the intersection in the first place. Route-8/Vanier Highway roundabout would be one such improvement.

I have no idea how it could be done, but if the New Maryland Highway traffic could be routed away from the mall and that intersection that would greatly help as well. But I have no idea how to do that as the highway is already the most direct route from New Maryland to the core.

In the long term future, the city will probably need to bite the bullet and start planning to upgrade Regent and Smythe into full 4-lane boulevards leading into the core. Beaverbrook/Dondonald would probably need similar upgrades to serve as an East/west connector on the southern edge of the core.

Prospect would probably need to be made somewhat controlled access with allowed U-Turns at lights and only allowing entrance/exit from the direction of travel (so no crossing lanes except at lights) (As noted above this should/could be done a lot sooner and would probably help things out)

Personally, I don't find Prospect/Regent that bad normally, even when I'm up there around 5 or on Saturday afternoons. The two turning lanes from south Regent onto Prospect work well and seem adequate for the traffic flow most of the time. Sure if you're at the end of the line you may need to wait for an extra cycle, but rarely has traffic seemed that backed up.

I found the intersection itself very efficient. But to get to the end where the car dealership is, it's that drive I found congested. Maybe I just hit a busy time.

[Freddypop]

Originally Posted by jonny golden

I found the intersection itself very efficient. But to get to the end where the car dealership is, it's that drive I found congested. Maybe I just hit a busy time.

It is congested but those are the things we have to live with in a growing city. Traffic within and around Freddy has increased significantly in the past 2-3 years especially.

[jonny golden]

Originally Posted by Freddypop

It is congested but those are the things we have to live with in a growing city. Traffic within and around Freddy has increased significantly in the past 2-3 years especially.

True. Compared to a lot of other places, It's not really that bad. It's great to see Fredericton growing. I'd like to see more development in the area around Knowledge Park too.

[Taeolas]

Originally Posted by jonny golden

I found the intersection itself very efficient. But to get to the end where the car dealership is, it's that drive I found congested. Maybe I just hit a busy time.

Keep in mind as well that that end of the traffic network is messed up at the moment. There's construction on the lower end of Smythe street for the new roundabout, and more importantly, the upper end of Smythe street is closed off for further work. That means all the traffic that would normally go up Smythe is redirected onto York and much of it is heading over to Regent instead of back onto Smythe.

[jonny golden]

Originally Posted by Taeolas

Keep in mind as well that that end of the traffic network is messed up at the moment. There's construction on the lower end of Smythe street for the new roundabout, and more importantly, the upper end of Smythe street is closed off for further work. That means all the traffic that would normally go up Smythe is redirected onto York and much of it is heading over to Regent instead of back onto Smythe.

Good point. I can see that there would be more traffic on Prospect between Regent & Smythe due to that construction. When all the work is done things should flow a lot better.

[NB_ExistsToo]

Originally Posted by OliverD

No no no no no no no no no no no no.

https://www.citylab.com/transportati...demand/569455/

It looks like this article is reaching quite a bit. Even their graph shows there's an initial benefit to increasing lanes, but the side effect is infrastructure is then built up.... this could be from increased housing, businesses, etc just capturing the benefits of the new road.

So the article just states "more roads... more buildings... more traffic" But that's mostly because city populations continue to increase, that traffic has to go somewhere.

Look at SJ, we have a nice divided highway out to Quispamsis, but really the traffic is non-existent, mostly because the population has been stagnant/decreasing for decades.

[jonny golden]

Originally Posted by NB_ExistsToo

It looks like this article is reaching quite a bit. Even their graph shows there's an initial benefit to increasing lanes, but the side effect is infrastructure is then built up.... this could be from increased housing, businesses, etc just capturing the benefits of the new road.

So the article just states "more roads... more buildings... more traffic" But that's mostly because city populations continue to increase, that traffic has to go somewhere.

Look at SJ, we have a nice divided highway out to Quispamsis, but really the traffic is non-existent, mostly because the population has been stagnant/decreasing for decades.

The question I would have is can Prospect Street be upgraded somehow? Does the city see a need there? Do the citizens voice any displeasure about it? Or will it remain as it is indefinitely? Only asking.