For highways to perform…

For highways to perform optimally, highway interchanges must perform optimally - and so must the arterial road at the highway interchange. While the connecting arterial road are often the responsibility of the local municipality, the local municipality must have Provincial MTO consent for any changes in road design within 500m of the interchange.

Why is this Provincial MTO blanket 500m consent zone the same when dealing with:
- a low traffic volume country road intersecting a highway
- a busy municipal road like Yonge Street with 50,000-60,000 daily traffic volume intersecting a 400-series highway with about 500,000 daily traffic volume
Clearly this Provincial MTO 500m consent zone should be significantly increased for major high traffic volume arterial roads intersecting with 400-series highway interchanges! The Provincial MTO 500m consent zone should be increased to 2km-3km to allow Provincial MTO more say on any traffic restrictions on connecting arterial roads like lane removal, addition of new signalized intersections, etc,.. that would negatively impact a provincial highway interchange and the highway itself.

Roads are for people - all people,... drivers, cyclist and pedestrians. A true analysis should compare the volume of people being moved in vehicles VS cyclist VS pedestrians on the arterial road and allocate infrastructure accordingly.