“Cargo” Biking With No Brakes?
The above photo was taken in August of 2025 on Dundas Street in east London Ontario as a cyclist decided he could carry a large box on the handlebars of his bicycle. Controlling the loose cargo means that his hands are not available for other purposes, like braking. While approaching a pedestrian crossing he is unable to brake for a pedestrian who thought she had the right-of-way, as shown below.
The only thing that saved him from striking the pedestrian is that he planted his right foot on the ground and used that as his brake.
Carrying cargo by bike is efficient in many circumstances but dangerous when it interferes with basic actions needed to control the bike. In many instances there is little or no attention paid to bike braking even when the bike is a genuine cargo bike. And the same point holds true for other vehicles such as e-bikes and e-scooters. The ability to apply braking is a fundamental and essential matter that must be considered before any vehicle, motorized or not, is allowed on a public roadway.
Clarke Road Traffic Bottleneck Causes More Than Just Resident Complaints
High volumes of traffic, including many heavy trucks, have come to plague local residents along Clarke Road in the north-east end of the City of London. Gorski Consulting has become aware of one of those complaints made to the City and thus additional analyses have recently been conducted. This site contains a long history of study by Gorski Consulting for a number of reasons. That history will be reviewed before details of the latest analysis will be presented.
Site Features
Clarke Road in an arterial roadway that runs north/south at the north-east edge of London, Ontario. Presently the site of concern is an extension of the Veterans Memorial Parkway (VMP) which is described as a north-south municipal expressway at the east end of the City. It is convenient for heavy vehicle traffic to travel from the Highway 401 expressway, onto the VMP and then northward onto Clarke Road to locations north of the City. Similarly southbound trucks can use the same convenient route to reach the VMP and then onto Highway 401 or destinations to the south.
A variety of heavy trucks also originate from the City of London itself. Specialized traffic can include trucks hauling dangerous chemical and explosive materials. A large fuel storage facility has existed from many years at the intersection of Oxford Street and Industrial Road. Many fuel tanker trucks use Veterans Memorial Parkway and pass through the curves of Clarke Road north of Fanshawe Park Road on their travels to and from north of the City. It is imperative that trucks hauling these dangerous materials travel along safe routes designed for their use. The curves on Clarke Road are clearly not designed for such use.
Background
Gorski Consulting has been aware of the special traffic problems at the curves on Clarke Road north of Fanshawe Park Road for many years. Before the year 2005 this portion of Clarke Road had the worse road surface conditions in the area and this prompted Gorski Consulting to conduct some preliminary evaluations of instrumentation that could detect those surface deficiencies. Such experimentation eventually led to formalized procedures involving multiple video cameras along with the sensors of an iPhone attached to a test vehicle that objectively exposed those surface problems.
Another reason why Gorski Consulting was interested in the curves on Clarke Road is because, over many years of reconstructing motor vehicle loss-of-control collisions, it became obvious that roadway curves were an important causal factor in those events. Furthermore, roadway edge drop-off was another causal factor in these loss-of-control collisions and it became known that a prominent edge drop-off continued to reform, despite the City’s regrading efforts, because of the features of those curves.
In the year 2008 the surface of Clarke Road was repaved. However the edge edge-drop continued to redevelop. This was not a surprise because vehicles continued to drop off the pavement surface regardless of the pavement condition. This was a matter of the higher speed of vehicles and the presence of both vertical and horizonal curves forming an unusual road character. Attempts to make the public aware of these potential problems were unsuccessful as no one in an official capacity wanted such safety issues to become public.
Early in the studies it was expected that loss-of-control events would be occurring at this site and this was confirmed by the finding of physical evidence along the roadsides. Yet nothing was ever officially reported about these happenings. As a result Gorski Consulting began documenting the physical evidence that was found and this continued for a full 10 years between 2009 and 2019. The documentations took place only within the curves which existed for only about 300 metres. The result of this work showed that 121 loss-of-control incidents were documented in that 10-year period, or about 1 incident per month.
Early attempts were made to examine where these events occurred and if a repetitive pattern could be established. These events were plotted on an aerial view of the site, shown below. This data shows the events up to the end of the year 2012.
No obvious pattern was observed in the location of the loss-of-control events as they appeared to be scattered randomly throughout the curves.
Attempts were also made to inquire from the City of London about what knowledge they had about these incidents. A Freedom of Information request was made of the City and they replied that no knowledge existed and the inquiry should be made to the London City Police. A further inquire to the police was complicated but eventually the police data was released. The result of comparing the Gorski Consulting data with the London Police data was reported in a Gorski Consulting website article in April of 2017. A passage from that article is reprinted below:
“Gorski Consulting has been monitoring the occurrence of collisions and loss-of-control events at the S-curve of Clarke Road north of Fanshawe Park Road in London, Ontario since the fall of 2009. Comparing our data to that of the London City Police, it has been found that over 80% of the collisions and incidents that occur at this site are not officially documented and therefore no knowledge exists as to how they occurred and what relevance they may have toward a proper understanding of the safety of the curve.”
In 2019 Zygmunt Gorski was appointed to the City of London’s Transportation Advisory Committee and in about a similar time City Staff reports became public about studies on widening of Clarke Road and the building of an extension of the Veterans Memorial Parkway to connect with Clarke Road.
It was at this time that data became available about traffic volumes at the intersection of Clarke Road and Fanshawe Park Road. This intersection was only about 500 metres south of the curves where considerable data was gathered by Gorski Consulting. Additional video sessions were commenced by Gorski Consulting at the curves to understand the current traffic volumes and speeds at the site. In preparation for an upcoming meeting of the Transportation Advisory Committee Zygmunt Gorski asked that an agenda item be attached wherein the data from the curves at Clarke Road could be discussed with committee members. The City Clerk refused to allow the insertion of this item. As a result of this action Zygmunt Gorski submitted his resignation from the Committee. And it was only a few years later when essentially all citizen advisory committees were disbanded by the City.
The video sessions completed by Gorski Consulting in 2019 revealed that a very large increase in traffic volume had developed in comparison to the earlier data commencing in 2009. For northbound vehicles the traffic volume had increased by 50.5%. For southbound vehicles the traffic volume had increased by 46.0%. While this fact was posted in Gorski Consulting articles only a small number of visitors actually accessed those articles. None of this information was made available for the general public to consider.
The last data on the Clarke Road curves posted on the Gorski Consulting website was in the spring of 2020. At this time the Covid-19 pandemic was in full effect. It became of interest to know how traffic volumes and speeds were affected. So on March 27, 2020 another video session was conducted at the Clarke Road site and the results were combined with three other sites, as listed below:
Hamilton Road west of Gore Road in London
Highbury Ave at Commissioners Road in London
Highway 401 at Westminster Drive, south-west of London
The results for Clarke Road were in relation to a half hour time segment between 1600 and 1630 hours. This showed that the 2020 traffic volume had decreased marginally compared to the 2019 data. Similar effects were observed at the other sites so it was no just a unique situation at Clarke Road.
Vehicle speed data was also reported in the spring 2020 website article. In the year 2009 a 60 km/h speed advisory sign was posted at the curves. By October 2019 that speed advisory was lowered to 50 km/h. The data showed that the average speed of vehicles at the curves was 75.18 km/h in 2009 and the average speed was lowered to 72.75 km/h in October 2019. The data from March 27, 2020 showed an average speed of 74.57 km/h. All these speeds are obviously higher than the advised speed.
The site at the Clarke Road curves continued to be monitored by Gorski Consulting until the spring of 2022 when the study was finally discontinued.
Current Status of Clarke Road Site
On July 7, 2025 Gorski Consulting received the copy of a notice of complaint to the City of London from a resident who was responding to a collision on Clarke Road just south of Fanshawe Park Road. The general concern was about the traffic volume, including heavy trucks, and the resulting unsafe conditions at his residence. Gorski Consulting was notified because the complaining resident was aware that a substantial amount of data had been collected. In response to the notification Gorski Consulting attended the collision site and then re-examined the curves of Clarke Road. A large number of trucks were observed such that it appeared that the truck volume had increased from five years ago. We therefore made arrangements to conduct more video sessions to evaluate the current status of the site. Four, 1-hour video sessions were conducted at the following dates and times:
July 30, 1600 hours
July 31, 1300 hours
August 5, 0930 hours
August 7, 1100 hours
The data was summarized to determine the traffic volume and the volume of heavy trucks in each of the video sessions. Again, the summaries were with respect to one-hour time frames. The results are noted below:
July 30, 1600 hours: Total traffic volume = 1139 vehicles, Heavy truck volume = 80 trucks
July 31, 1300 hours: Total traffic volume = 595 vehicles, Heavy truck volume = 120 trucks
August 5, 0930 hours: Total traffic volume = 661 vehicles, Heavy truck volume = 129 trucks
August 7, 1100 hours; Total traffic volume = 676 vehicles, Heavy truck volume = 149 trucks
The 1139 vehicles observed on July 30th was the highest ever recorded in all the previous sessions going back to the first sessions in October, 2009. The 149 trucks observed on August 7 was the second highest ever recorded, surpassed only by the 152 trucks observed in a session commencing at 1357 hours on October 24, 2019.
However there were more details to these results. While completing the analyses of the video sessions it became apparent that the characteristics of the traffic units had changed. In the 2025 sessions there appeared to be many more dump trucks towing pup trailers. Also there appeared to be many more non-trucks, such as pick-ups, vans and SUVs that were hauling large trailers. Thus further analysis was conducted to explore these apparent changes.
A comparison was made with the data from July 30, 2025 commencing at 1600 hours with the same start time on October 27, 2009. We focused our documentations just on dump trucks. We counted how many dump trucks travelled through the site as single unit, without a trailer, and those dump trucks that were hauling a pup trailer. The results are noted below:
October 27, 2009: single unit dump trucks without trailers = 17, dump trucks hauling pup-trailers = 6
July 30, 2025: Single unit dump trucks without trailers = 7, dump trucks hauling pup-trailers = 17
So a reversal of characteristics occurred. In 2025 there were many more dump trucks hauling pup trailers while in the year 2009 it was the reverse.
We then did another comparison whereby we searched for a session completed in the month of July that would match the month of July in 2025. The found session took place on July 13, 2011 commencing at 1105 hours. The results from that session are noted below:
July 13, 2011: Single unit dump trucks without trailers = 13, dump trucks hauling pup-trailers = 1.
So the results were even more dramatic. Only one dump truck was observed hauling a pup trailer in the 2011 session. Yet in the 2025 session 17 dump trucks were observed hauling pup trailers.
Once again we conducted another comparison by looking at the data from August 7, 2025 where we observed a large number of trucks. The results are noted below:
August 7, 2025: Single unit dump trucks without trailers = 31, dump trucks hauling pup-trailers = 22.
Thus on August 7th there were many more observations of dump trucks and more of them were without pup-trailers. Yet 22 of those trucks were hauling pup-trailers which is higher than the July 30th data.
The comparisons also demonstrated a dramatic difference in the traffic volumes at 1100 hours between August 7, 2025 and July 13, 2011. Only 312 vehicles were observed passing through the curves in 2011 whereas in 2025 676 vehicle observations were made. So well over twice as many vehicles passed through the curves in 2025 in the same one-hour (1100 to 1200 hour) time frame.
Over the years residents at the noted curves have also had to deal with vegetation that continually blocked their view when exiting their driveways located on the east side of the road. Looking to the north bushes blocked the view and made it precarious to attempt a left turn. A number of years ago the City of London cut back those bushes but now they have reformed. It is clear that the City has neglected this problem for a number of years now.
Discussion
Overall, it can be said that the numbers of trucks in general increased during the 2025 video sessions but also that the trucks that were observed were also hauling more cargo because of the additional payloads of truck trains and pup-trailers. It is probable that further analysis will reveal that more cargo is also being carried by “non-trucks” hauling trailers but that analysis has not been done. Although no specific analysis had been completed, a review of the video sessions also suggested that there were many more “non-trucks”, such as pick-up trucks, vans and SUVs hauling various trailers, some of them large, through the curves in 2025.
During the long time of documentation of loss-of-control collisions at the Clarke Road curves no official mention was made by news media about any significant collisions. And to the present date Gorski Consulting is unaware of any official reports of significant collisions through the curves. Exploration of police reports and comparing those to the Gorski Consulting data showed that more than 80% the collisions/incidents documented by Gorski Consulting were unknown to police. It is possible that the results of some of the collisions on Clarke Road are only reported in Hospital emergency records but those are not available.
The very large number of cargo-carrying vehicles travelling through the curves of Clarke Road is unlikely to be affected by attempts to change transportation behaviour toward mass transit and active transportation. Regardless of how successfully the City of London manages to divert the population away from climate-changing, personal, motor vehicles there will always be a need to transport cargo, sometimes in very large quantities at once. So if cargo-carrying vehicles are diverted off of the Clarke Road curves they will have to go somewhere else; you cannot just make them disappear.
The City of London has had decades to consider how it should react to the existence of vehicles entering and exiting the Veterans Memorial Parkway at its north terminus and therefore where it meets with Clarke Road. Plans were publicized in 2019 about twinning the Clarke Road bridge over the Thames River just south of Fanshawe Park Road and therefore creating four lanes of traffic. But those “improvements’ will terminate at Fanshawe Park Road. Nothing has been mentioned about traffic problems developing on Clarke Road north of Fanshawe Park Road and particularly at its curves near there. Widening Clarke Road will only entice more traffic onto it and escalate the problems at the Clarke Road curves. A decision awaits but it cannot wait forever.
Many Involved In Suppressing Information About Cyclist Safety
Many persons and organizations in the region of London Ontario are working hard to suppress information about cycling dangers that exist on local roads. Why this is happening is complicated. While there is considerable propaganda distributed throughout official circles that cyclist safety is an important matter, when it comes to actually implementing real solutions, that propaganda falls heavily short.
The example shown in the two photos in this article demonstrate the lack of recognition by cyclists to the dangers around them. Note that the cyclist in the above photos is not wearing a helmet and is carrying some kind baggage suspended from the left handlebar. Above all, cyclists need to understand that they need as much clearance from a passing motor vehicle as possible. Suspending baggage from a handlebar will reduce that clearance. And if the baggage becomes snagged with the passing vehicle a dangerous result will take place. But many cyclists do not comprehend that something loose and soft like a handbag could become snagged. And they do not appreciate that such limited snagging could have dire consequences. Such basic information is not passed onto unsuspecting cyclists because those who investigate cyclist collisions do not pass on their findings to the cyclists who need to know.
Many cyclists develop a blind faith in the belief that the government is there to protect them. So when the Ontario Provincial government introduced legislation a number of years ago that required motor vehicles to stay a lateral distance of 1 metre away from a cyclist this was one of the ways in which cyclists were lulled into a sense of imaginary safety. Cyclists would now be protected because if a motor vehicle driver killed them the driver would be in the wrong. And the driver could go to jail. Too few understand that the value of the door prize won by being right and dead is not worth dying for.
Ontario Law Removing Toronto Cycling Lanes Found Arbitrary And Against Cyclists’ Charter Rights
In a decision released on July 30, 2025, Justice Paul B. Schabas, of Ontario’s Superior Court of justice struck down the Ford government’s Bill 212 which was to remove certain bike lanes within downtown Toronto as the government stated that those cycling lanes were responsible for traffic congestion. In the noted judgment (Cycle Toronto et. al. vs Attorney General of Ontario et. al.) Justice Schabas found that the government bill infringed on cyclists’ rights to life and security entrenched in the Canadian Charter of Rights. Justice Schabas further found that the Government of Ontario provided no satisfactory proof that the cycling lanes were leading to traffic congestion. Meanwhile a number of experts who testified at the hearing explained that, by their presence, cyclists removed motor vehicles from roads and therefore reduced traffic congestion.
Information and evidence was supplied to Justice Schabas from a number of organizations and researchers including:
The Association of Municipalities of Ontario
The Ontario Traffic Council
Ontario Professional Planners
Physicians/Researchers from University of Toronto
Ontario Society of Professional Engineers
Toronto Parking Authority
Toronto’s City Manager
Mayor of Toronto
Canadian Automobile Association
CIMA Engineering Firm
Dr. Linda Rothman, Toronto Metropolitan University
Barry Raftery, Professional Engineer
Dr. Murtaza Haider, Toronto Metropolitan University
Dr. Shoshanna Saxe, University of Toronto
Toronto Cycle
And unidentified others were noted in Justice Schabas’ decision.
There were a number of cycling “facts” reported in Justice Schabas’ decision that need confirmation. For example in a May 2024 report authored by the City of Toronto claimed that “There has been a reduction in traffic accidents involving cyclists”. It has been a long-standing observation by Gorski Consulting that the occurrence of cycling collisions is poorly documented. While cyclist collisions with motor vehicles may be officially documented in police reports if a cyclist is injured, many cyclist collisions do not involve motor vehicles and many cyclist injuries are not officially documented unless a cyclist attends a hospital emergency department. Even in those instances where cyclists are treated at emergency departments, there is minimal or no flow of data from those hospitals to public entities that inform the general public about the status of those incidents. So claims about cyclist collision and injury reduction need to be treated with caution.
The same City of Toronto report was also quoted by Justice Schabas about increases of cycling volumes on the Yonge Street bike lanes. It was stated that the City of Toronto observed an increase in cyclist volumes from between 57% and 180%, which resulted in the Yonge Street cycling lanes becoming permanent. While this data may be accurate one cannot examine how those conclusions were drawn as it is unknown how the data was collected and how reliable the process was. Cities often use the results from automated bike counters imbedded in the surface of a cycling lane but no one has provided an independent confirmation of the accuracy of those counters. In many instances observed by Gorski Consulting cyclists travel randomly into and out of cycling lanes and those riders are missed in the data collections. And it remains unknown exactly how accurately the imbedded sensors are capable of differentiating cyclists from other implements of transportation such as e-scooters or pedestrians walking with carts or other devices. Again, it is important to take a critical look at such data before it is accepted unconditionally.
An example of data that may be misrepresented comes from a memo written on X (Twitter) by Premier Ford on October 23, 2024. There he claimed that “The 1.2 per cent of people who commute by bike shouldn’t be clogging primary roads for the over 70 per cent of people who drive. It’s just common sense”. Justice Schabas noted that the Applicants (Toronto Cycle et. al.) made a request under the Freedom of Information Act “…for records or documents supporting the 1.2% figure used by the Premier”. Justice Schabas noted “…the response from the Ministry of Transportation was that no records were found that were responsive to the request”.
Justice Schabas went on to clarify that
“…the Ministry of Transportation had quite different information at the time which it released on December 18, 2024. The Ministry’s Transportation Tomorrow Survey found that in 2022 4.4% of all trips within the City were taken by bicycle or other micromobility. This compared to just under 60% for automobiles, including passengers and taxi/rideshare trips. The percentage of trips by bicycle or other micromobility rose to 9.3% for trips to downtown Toronto. This can be compared to 28.4% who used automobiles for trips to downtown Toronto in 2022. For trips between Bloor West wards and downtown, the cycling figure was 15%.“
So was Ford’s 1.2% real or was it fake? Where did this number come from? A Premier of Ontario has a duty to report correct facts. Especially when he is deemed by the public to have access to detailed information from the numerous personnel who work in his ministries. Will this assertion ever be clarified for public consideration?
Our collective, and unfortunate, circumstance is that the current status of our society is in the grasp of Donald “Trumpism”. It becomes a common theme that when scientific and unbiased data is available, Trumpists use a loud voice to impress voters with “fake news” about what voters would like to hear. With respect to traffic congestion a large percentage of drivers are frustrated with it and are prime to hear Ford’s loud commitment that he will save them from their difficulties and the scapegoat, cycling lanes, are to blame. It is with detailed facts that Justice Schabas has explained that there is no factual connection that traffic congestion is caused by cycling lanes and this fact can be concluded from the many presentations made to him by experts from a wide variety of organizations.
Justice Schabas also made reference to a November 13, 2024 report by Toronto’s City Manager. Justice Schabas noted
“The November 13, 2024 Report identified a number of impacts that would result from the removal of the target bike lanes. This included reduced safety for cyclists, increased collision risk for drivers, and “minimal improvements in travel time once lanes are removed.” The Report estimated a cost of $48 million to remove the recently constructed bike lanes, in addition to the $27 million spent by the City to build them, noting that their removal will be complex and negatively impact driver travel time and businesses during construction.
The City Manager observed that over the past ten years, 28 people have been killed and 380 people seriously injured while cycling, and that 68% of these collisions took place on streets without safe cycling accommodation. However, serious injuries and fatalities for people cycling has “generally been decreasing” as ridership has increased. The City Manager noted that “independent peer-reviewed research has shown that the introduction of separated bikeways reduces the risk of cycling injury (about 9 times lower risk than a major street with parked cars and no cycling infrastructure).”
Again, there are a number of “facts” reported in the City Manager’s report. How those facts were generated must be considered before they are accepted unconditionally. It was stated that “independent peer-reviewed research has shown that the introduction of separated bikeways reduces the risk of cycling injury (about 9 times lower risk than a major street with parked cars and no cycling infrastructure).” But how was that data collected and how reliable were the conclusions based on this peer-reviewed research? Once something is described as “peer-reviewed” much of the attention toward the details is taken away, not always with justification. Those global comments need to be researched to confirm that they represent reality. One would not want to believe that research peers are somehow compromised yet a naïve belief that all research is uninfluenced by entities that sponsor it ripens one’s acceptance to swallow its poison. All persons, including those with grandiose titles, official robes and honors are capable of being biased. In fact those titles, robes and honors can service the purpose of hiding bias, and that includes judges.
However, having reviewed Justice Schabas’ decision, there is nothing that suggests any form of bias. Indeed, Justice Schabas’s focus on objective fact is impressive. The decision is well grounded on the foundation of the many comments made by experts from a wide range of organizations who told him that removal of the bike lanes would be dangerously harmful to the cyclists who use them and that cyclists will continue to ride on those arterial roads due to necessity.
The Ford government’s argument is that they are not against cycling lanes, they are only against cycling lanes being placed on arterial roadways such as Bloor, University and Yonge Streets in downtown Toronto. Their argument is that cycling lanes should exist along secondary roadways, next to the arterials, and that this will cause cyclists to use those secondary roadways to reach their destinations. This argument is a clever falsehood. It implants the notion that cyclists using the cycling lanes on the arterials roadways can just as easily divert to the secondary roads and that such a redirection of cyclist traffic will be successful.
Studies by Gorski Consulting in London Ontario have examined roadways where cycling lanes were built next to arterial roadways, presumably for the same belief that those cycling lanes will divert cycling traffic from the arterials. Photographic observations of cyclists shows that cyclists continue to ride along those arterial roadways, often on sidewalks, or even riding the wrong way on a single-way cycling lane. Our impression is that cyclists avoid riding a block, two or more away the the straightest route to their destination. This is because cycling takes muscular effort and energy that is not expended by occupants of motor vehicles so that direct routes are very important to cyclists. The Ford government’s argument that cyclists make that choice by themselves is akin to setting up a mouse trap and blaming the hungry mouse for choosing to kill itself when food could be found elsewhere. As a government you know what cyclists are likely to do despite what the laws may say and when you blame the law breakers for failing to follow the law you fail to consider whether the law is improper in its intended purpose.
Removing the arterial road cycling lanes will have a very serious consequence to cyclists, some of whom will pay for the government’s decision with their lives. This lack of respect for human life is balanced on the grounds that certain motor vehicle drivers might gain a short time advantage of a few minutes in their driving time. Thankfully, Justice Schabas was aware of this issue and was unbiased enough to call the matter as it actually stood. Regrettably the Ford government has announced that it will use public taxes to appeal this verdict leaving it to an unpredictable outcome.
Hwy 402 Shut Down A Second Time Due To Surface Problems
Why has Highway 402 been shut down a second time in just over a month near Sarnia Ontario? The public has been told it is due to extreme heat conditions which have damaged the road surface. While anything is possible and high heat often exists in summertime, it is doubtful that temperatures have been any more extreme than what typically occurs.
In a CTV News article posted on June 23, 2025 it was reported that unsafe road surface conditions occurred in the westbound lanes between Oil Heritage Road and Mandaumin Road. No explanation was provided by the Ontario Ministry of Transportation which is responsible for the highway maintenance. A photo was shown of a surface disruption that appeared to be at the junction of two concrete slabs. It was speculated that concrete expansion due to high heat caused the condition. It is not clear why the expansion would have occurred at this specific site as opposed to any other which should have sustained similar temperature conditions.
No further discussion was made public until July 28, 2025 when CTV news reported that another road surface problem occurred in the eastbound lanes within a few kilometres of the previous problem a month earlier. A photo displaying the surface showed an upheaval which appeared to be on an asphalt surface. Once again the explanation was “extreme heat” caused the problem. Again, it is not clear why this could be true as recent temperatures seemed to be similar to what typically occurs in summertime in the region.
Historically, Highway 402 had its share of unusual road surface problems, In the late 1970s, as Highway 402 was just completed west of Strathroy, a major surface upheaval occurred in the eastbound lanes just at the east end of the newly completed highway. This existed for several kilometres. The problem was blamed on a concrete underlayer beneath the asphalt paving and a long section of the surface had to be torn up and reset. For many months huge mounds of broken concrete and asphalt were seen piled up along side the highway which were eventually disposed of.
In the spring of 2019 the Ontario Provincial government announced a pilot study where they were going to increase the speed limit on several sections of expressways including a section of Highway 402. The limit was going to be increased from 100 to 110 km/h. That pilot study eventually turned into a permanant change along Highway 402.
While this speed limit change was being proposed Gorski Consulting observed that the road surface along several segments of Highway 402 appeared to be substandard. Testing was being conducted by Gorski Consulting in the spring of 2019 along several expressways and it was decided that the testing would include the segment of Highway 402 between London and Strathroy. This testing demonstrated that the surface of Highway 402 was in worse condition compared to other freeways in the region. This finding was reported in a Gorski Consulting website article of February 5, 2020 entitled “Testing Shows Safety Differences in Ontario’s Expressways”.
In another article posted on June 13, 2019 (“Drivers Beware – Road Data Shows Important Differences in 400 Series Highways in Southwestern Ontario”) we provided some details of the testing. A large portion of this article is reproduced below:
Drivers Beware – Road Data Shows Important Differences in 400 Series Highways in Southwestern Ontario
June 13, 2019
Drivers in Ontario have an objective way of comparing the safety of road surfaces. In the most recent series of testing, Gorski Consulting has compared the surfaces of Highway 401 and 402 with interesting, and differing, results.
The testing involved driving a test vehicle along each highway and documenting the amount of disturbance of the vehicle motion. The “Lateral Rotation” or sideways motion, and “Longitudinal Rotation”, or forward/back motion were sensed. This data was collected at 30 second intervals or, at highway speed (110 km/h), for approximately 900-metre distances. The averages of these motions were obtained and these will be reported.
It had been previously noted that vehicle motions under 0.0200 radians per second indicate a good surface, values between 0.0200 and 0.0500 indicate varying degrees of danger that could be hiding a local safety problem, and values above 0.0500 indicate that major road surface problems likely exist throughout the tested road segment. However there are other, complicating factors. When road surfaces become slippery due to rain, snow or ice there are greater chances of causing loss-of-control because of the lower tire force. There are also issues of speed of a vehicle and the traffic volume. Thus motions caused to a vehicle travelling at high speed are of greater concern even though the distrubed motion is lower. Similarly roads that have high traffic volumes have a greater chance of causing loss-of-control incidents simply because there are more opportunities available. The results of pervious testing have been uploaded to the Road Data page of the Gorski Consulting website.
The results of the most recent testing on Highways 401 and 402 are summarized here in a set of three charts, shown below. The first chart shows the data travelling westbound on Highway 401 from London to Tilbury. The second chart shows the data travelling eastbound on Highway 402 from Strathroy to London. The third chart shows the data from travelling westbound from London to Strathroy. Discontinuities in the Highway 401 data are because not all the collected data was analysed because there was too much data and it would be too time-consuming to analyse it all; thus various areas of the highway are shown in the chart.
Even without discussing the details of the charts, a simple, visual, comparison of the magnitude of the peaks in the data should demonstrate the large differences in the road segments.
The differences can be noted in numeric form by summarizing the lateral and longitudinal data for all the road segments on each highway as shown below.
The data for westbound Highway 401 indicates a suface that is generally in good condition although we previously reported that local problems exist. In an earlier article we used the example of a large disturbance in motion that occurred near the Merllin Road overpass, west of Chatham, Ontario.
The data for eastbound Hwy 402 show elevated values of lateral rotation. In particular the segment between 1.425 and 2.342 kilometres east of the Scotchmere Drive overpass provided readings of: Lateral Rotation = 0.0239, Longitudinal Rotation = 0.0156. While these values may not be alarming for low-speed, low-volume roads, their existence on this high-speed expressway should necessitate explanations.
However the real problems become apparent when examining the data for westbound travel on Highway 402. In three of the road segments the lateral rotation rose above 0.0300. Specifically, at the road segment approaching the Olde Drive overpass and for approximately 674 metres west of that overpass, the average lateral rotation was 0.0446. Again, this is a value that should be of some concern because it was obtained on a high-speed expressway rather than just on a low-speed urban road.
The three figures below show the condition of the westbound lanes of if Highway 402 on approach to the Olde Drive overpass as well as justs past it. These photos were taken on May 21, 2019. Clearly the lanes are visibly in poor condition.
While some patching has been conducted there are dangerous areas of missing asphalt located along the lane-dividing line which would cause problems when drivers attempt to change lanes. The collected data does not demonstrate this danger because the test vehicle did not conduct lane changes at the time of the testing.
Highway 402 has not been ridden in the past few years west of Strathroy so the surface conditions are unknown. Consequently it is unknown if the road surface problems alleged to come from “extreme heat” are accurate or if other factors may be at play. Certainly high heat is experienced frequently in summer months along Highway 402 and there is no indication that this season has been much different from previous seasons.
In another article posted by CTV News on July 29, 2025 the Mayor of Sarnia has questioned the accuracy of the extreme heat source. Mayor Bradley was quoted as follows:
“The province needs to investigate. It’s the same contractor. Why is this happening? Because of heat? You can’t tell me they’re building roads that can’t sustain high, high temperatures,”
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