Following The Chaos That A Detour Makes – A 3 Part Series

by | Sep 10, 2022 |

Detours that create chaos should not be taken lightly. While users can be accommodating to them, improper detours heighten the probability that a serious accident will eventually happen. This is the case at a detour of the multi-use pathway of the Thames Valley Parkway in London Ontario. Highlighting this chaos needs to result in changes to how detours are planned for vulnerable pedestrians, cyclists and other non-motor-vehicle travellers.

The General Safety Problem

Certain unknown individuals at the City of London made decisions that led to the creation of a detour around the construction site of the Thames Valley Parkway between Blackfriars Bridge and Gibbons Park. Users/cyclists proposed an alternate (and safer) route that would take cyclists along the west bank of the Thames River, through Gunn Street and Gibbons Park. The City initially accepted this change. But subsequently individuals at the City of London decided that both detours ought to be publicized as acceptable routes.

Review of these decisions by Gorski Consulting indicated to me that the creation of the original detour was a poor decision from poor planning and/or a lack of understanding. Shortly after the two detours were in place, Gorski Consulting began to conduct video observations along the original detour route. As expected these observations revealed some serious safety issues. Those issues rest at the three locations of the detour route shown in the map below.

A Chaotic Example

As an example, the following three images are frames taken from video that was taken on August 24, 2022 on Talbot Street between Oxford and Ann Streets. This date is just 2 days after the TVP was closed and the detour became an advised alternate route. The images show a cyclist following the originally recommended detour.

This view shows a male cyclist travelling eastbound on Ann Street toward Talbot Street. This is the detour route recommended by the City of London. As the cyclist approaches the intersection at Talbot Street he is supposed to make a left turn to travel northbound under the CNR underpass and toward Oxford Street. However, something else happens…
In this image the cyclist is now riding northbound on the west sidewalk of Talbot Street and toward the CNR underpass. Thus, rather than making a left turn by crossing Talbot Street the cyclist decided to travel onto the west sidewalk. Given the high traffic volume on Talbot the cyclist decided not to attempt to cross and to travel along the west sidewalk instead. The problem though is that the sidewalk on this west side of Talbot Street comes to an end at the CNR underpass – unknown to many cyclists performing this same action. So what does the cyclist do?
This third image shows the cyclist now walking his cycle over top of the CNR railway Trussell! How did he get there and why did he get there? Our upcoming articles will provide some answers.

Future Articles

From my analysis it appears that individuals at the City of London failed to understand how cyclists behave in urban environments. This lack of knowledge or understanding has created the chaos along the detour that is about to be discussed. Given the extent of detail that is required, this discussion will be broken into three articles, each article focusing on one of the three areas of concern shown in the above map. These articles are now being assembled and will be posted on the Gorski Consulting website shortly.

Highway 401 Damaged Cable Barrier – Continued, Unadvertised Safety Problem

by | Sep 5, 2022 |

“High Tension” is a crucial phrase that is essential to protecting the occupants of vehicles that strike High Tension Cable Barriers. When high tension is lost bad things happen.

Not much interest was shown by the public when Gorski Consulting posted an article on May 7, 2022 on our website regarding unrepaired damage to the median cable barrier along Highway 401 between London and Tilbury Ontario. On September 2, 2022 I took another drive along this portion of Highway 401. I observed that the problem is even worse than previously reported.

I travelled about 68 kilometres along the cable barrier between Colonel Talbot Road (near London) to Victoria Road (near Ridgetown). Along this route I observed 4 distinct areas where the cable barrier was damaged and unrepaired from previous impacts. These areas are noted below.

1st Area of Damage: East of Union Road

This view is looking westbound on Highway 401 and approaching Union Road. Unlike other areas of damage the cable barrier appeared to retain its tension on approach to the zone of damage.
Note that, the cable barrier beyond the area of impact appears to have retained its tension and this is a good result. However the lack of repair of the damage is not a good result.
Note how the cable barrier at this Union Road location appears to have maintained its tension beyond the area of impact. This good result is not always the case as will be seen at other locations.

2nd Area of Damage: West of Furnival Road

The second area of cable barrier damage was observed while travelling westbound past Furnival Road. The cable was located at the edge of the eastbound lanes so the photos below show the view looking across the median. The area of impact damage was located just west of the overpass of Furnival Road.

Upon my return trip in the evening, travelling eastbound, I took the following photos of the same location, west of Furnival Road. In the following photos, several hundred metres west of the area of impact, it is apparent that the cable barrier has lost its tension. In fact the closest cable barrier anchorage is located about 2.8 metres west of Furnival Road. We will see shortly that the impact damage to the cable barrier is just west of Furnival Road. And it will be revealed shortly that the anchorage at the east end of the cable barrier is about 790 metres west of the overpass of Furnival Road. Therefore the cables would be loose for about 2.1 kilometres.

At the right edge of the photo below is a green sign indicating that Furnival Road is 1 kilometre ahead. However this distance may refer to the start of the exit lane and not to the overpass. We can also see the overpass of Furnival Road in the background. It is also possible to see the faint orange colour of traffic cones positioned at the impact location of the barrier. So this gives us the ability to estimate the location of the area of impact.

As we approach the area of impact we can see that the cable barrier is still without tension on all 4 cables.

Just beyond the area of impact the photos below show that the cable barrier continues to exhibit no tension in all 4 cables. This condition exists until the cable reaches an anchorage point just west of the Furnival Road overpass, as shown in the photos below.

In the photo below we see an turn-around driveway in the centre median which is also the location where the cable barrier ends at an anchorage and another anchorage begins for a new length of cable. This turn-around driveway is located 790 metres west of Furnival Road.

Note how the cable barrier is without tension at all 4 cables up to the point where it reaches the anchorage point. Then, upon gaining a new anchorage at 790 metres west of Furnival Road, the cable barrier seems to contain tension all the way up to the overpass at Furnival Road, as shown in the photos below.

3rd Area of Damage: East of Dunborough Road

Next we progress further eastward to a location about 12 kilometres east of Furnival Road, at the Dunborough Road overpass shown below. Dunborough Road is located just east of West Lorne Ontario and just over 2 kilometres west of the West Lorne En Route service centre. As can be seen in the photos, a new section of cable barrier begins at the Dunborough Road overpass along the north edge of the eastbound lanes. However, as we look closer at the anchorage point of the barrier, the cables appear to have lost their tension.

As we continue to travel around the sweeping left curve of the highway we can see, in the photos below, the loss of tension in the cables for a substantial distance.

We then reach the area of impact of the cable barrier which is located just west of the exit to the West Lorne En Route service centre. The photos below show the damage to the cable barrier resulting from this impact.

In the photo below we can see some tire marks on the far side of the median. Although I have no information about this collision these tire marks suggest that a large truck was westbound, entered the median, and then struck the cable barrier on the far (eastbound) side of the median in the foreground. Further research is needed to determine whether this suspicion is correct.

East of the area of impact the photos below show that the cable barrier has lost its tension (at least) in the top two cables. This loss of tension continues for several hundred metres until another anchorage point is reached at the location where the curve of the highway ends about 2.2 kilometres west of Coyne Road.

4th Area of Damage: West of Coyne Road

In the two photos below we see the loose cable barrier from the Dunborough Road impact and it terminates at a new anchorage point adjacent to the En Route service centre in the eastbound lanes of Highway 401. This location is about 1.4 kilometres east of Dunborough Road or 2.2 kilometres west of Coyne Road. It is also only about 350 metres west of the exit to the En Route service centre. A new length of cable barrier begins at this point.

Yet, when we look at the cables along this new section they also appear to have lost their tension. The second cable from the bottom certainly looks to be loose. In the background, next to the white truck we can see a small orange cone and this is the location of another impact the cable barrier.

I almost missed taking a photo of this additional area of damage however an out-of-focus view is shown below. In the background the entrance/exit can be seen to the En Route service centre located in the westbound side of the highway. So this location is just west of Coyne Road.

The photo below shows the status of the cable barrier just east of the area of impact. Its position can be noted by the tall masts of the lighting at the entrance to the En Route service centre on the westbound side of the highway. Also in the background is the overpass of Coyne Road. The cable barrier contains loose cables, most notably the third cable from the bottom is very loose. This is caused by the impact damage of the barrier just west of this location.

The photo below shows the cable barrier as it reaches its next anchorage point at Coyne Road. The bottom cable appears to be loose at this location. But we also know, from the previous photo, that the third cable from the bottom is also loose.

Beyond Coyne Road the photo below shows that the cable barrier starts from a new anchorage. It is not clear in this photo whether the cable in this new section contains proper tension however we did not observe any further impact damage until the damage east of Union Road which is about 20 kilometres east of this location.

The following three photos are of the damaged cable barrier just east of Union Road. These views were taken while eastbound on our return trip.

Summary

In summary impact damage to the cable barrier on Highway 401 caused the barrier cables to be loose for a distance of 2.1 kilometres west of Furnival Road. Two additional impacts to the cable barrier between Dunborough Road and Coyne Road meant that an additional 3.6 kilometres of cable was left loose. Thus a total of 5.7 kilometres of cable were observed to be loose in the 68 kilometre distance between Colonel Talbot Road and Victoria Road. Stated differently, 8.4 percent of the total cable length was observed to be in a state of disrepair. There is no information available to determine the level of danger that exists when a vehicle makes contact with loose cables from a damaged barrier. Yet my review of similar incidents in other collision environments indicates that such an interaction could result in worse injury consequences than if no barrier existed at all.

In my website article of May 7, 2022 on this topic I made the following comment which still applies:

“It is easy to get information on the effectiveness of high-tension cables barriers especially from those organizations who either sell them or use them on their highway systems. But what about information that demonstrates their in-service performance and whether the barriers are being repaired in a timely fashion? Silence.”

The level of silence today is quite deafening. There has been no news media coverage of this issue. Certainly OPP vehicles travel along Highway 401 on a regular basis yet I have not heard or read of a single complaint or warning from police about this safety hazard. And there is no reason why the Ontario Ministry of Transportation should be allowed to cause these conditions to exist.

Are Construction Detours More Complicated and Dangerous When Cyclists Are Involved?

by | Aug 28, 2022 |

A detour of the Thames Valley Parkway in London Ontario has caused cyclists to travel through undesirable road conditions such as this narrowing of Talbot Street as it travels through the underpass of the Canadian Pacific Railway line.

Construction detours are a necessity of life. However with the increase in cyclist traffic in North American cities the relatively simple detour route may require new considerations. In previous years, when motor vehicles dominated traffic volumes, there was less need to focus on the qualities of the roadway on which traffic was diverted. However, as cyclist volumes are increased there is a greater need to consider how those cyclists will mix with motor vehicle traffic. Also certain roadway characteristics that may be unimportant to motor vehicle travel may be of great importance to the safety of cyclists.

The Talbot-Grosvenor Detour

An example of the complexity of the problem is demonstrated in the construction detour in London, Ontario that was necessitated when the north branch of the multi-use pathway, the Thames Valley Parkway (TVP), needed to be closed for construction.

The TVP is a shared use facility that allows non-motor-vehicle traffic to travel through London. It generally follows the banks of the Thames River. The area of construction of the TVP is in the north-south section between the Blackfriars Bridge and Western University. Recent traffic counts indicate that about 84 cyclists and 102 pedestrians use the facility every hour. In addition another 7 special users (wheel-chaired, e-scooter, skateboard, etc.) also use the facility every hour.

Employees at the City of London developed a detour of the construction site on city streets that would take cyclists through several challenging roadway features. Three areas of concern can be noted.

Three Areas of Concern

Firstly, the detour required that cyclists make a left-turn to travel northbound on Talbot Street. Although Talbot Street is a two-lane roadway it is very busy and few gaps in traffic would be available for a cyclist to complete such a turn. Traffic volume data from August 23, 2018 available from the City of London indicates an AADT of 14,000.

Secondly, the same detour caused cyclists to travel through the narrowing of Talbot Street as it passed under a narrow underpass of the Canadian Pacific Railway line. And thirdly the detour caused cyclists to travel down a steep downgrade of Grosvenor Street into a busy parking lot at Gibbons Park.

This map shows a view of the Thames Valley Parkway (blue lines) and the detour (orange lines). The three orange circles indicate locations along the detour where challenging conditions exist for cyclists.

Some examples of the challenges existing at the detour are shown in the figures below.

In this example, looking west, a cyclist using the detour approaches eastbound on Ann Street in preparation to making a left turn on Talbot Street (in the foreground).
After some delay, bumper to bumper traffic has come to a standstill allowing the cyclist to make the left turn. However, rather than travelling on the road the cyclist opts to travel on the east sidewalk of Talbot.
Understanding the importance of her safety the cyclist continues riding on the east sidewalk. Rather than endangering herself by riding on the narrowing of Talbot Street she proceeds using the sidewalk underneath the underpass of the Canadian Pacific National Railway line.
In a second example these two riders avoid making the left turn onto Talbot Street by turning onto the west sidewalk, as shown in the next image.
Again the cyclists avoid the dangers of the underpass by riding on the sidewalk. However there is a problem. The west sidewalk on which they ride comes to an end at the underpass. So they must still find a way of crossing Talbot Street before reaching the underpass.
As shown in this northward view, traffic is bumper to bumper at the underpass and the orange arrow at the upper left of this photo shows the sign that warns that the west sidewalk comes to an end. Thus cyclists would have to attempt to cross this line of traffic in order to continue riding northward along the detour.
Looking in the opposite direction (southward), the intersection at Ann Street is shown in the foreground. A solid line of northbound traffic on Talbot would make it challenging for cyclists to enter this line with a left turn from Ann Street.
A further complication is noted here where concrete mixer trucks use Ann Street to come in and out of the concrete mixing plant at the west end of Ann Street. The visibility afforded to drivers of concrete mixer trucks is limited under most circumstances. However it is even more so when the truck is not equipped with convex mirrors at its front corners. This makes it more difficult for the driver to detect the presence of cyclists near the truck.
In this closer view of the front end of the concrete mixer truck it can be seen that it is not equipped with convex mirrors at its front corners. The presence of these trucks in the vicinity of cyclists in the zone of detour should raise some concern. Prior investigation of potential conflicts like this should be required before a detour route is selected.

The third safety issue along the detour is the steep downgrade of Grosvenor Street leading into the busy parking lot of Gibbons Park. The downgrade contained a maximum of 15.7 percent which is a steep slope considering the environs of south-western Ontario. Additionally it became known that construction was supposed to take place at the bottom of the downgrade. A sewer pile was installed and this required that a trench be dug across Grosvenor Street at the bottom of the downgrade. This is precisely at the location where cyclists would reach their highest speeds. The site of the construction is shown in the following photo taken from the parking lot of Gibbons Park.

This view is looking east from the parking lot of Gibbons park. It shows the downslope of Grosvenor Street in the background and the trench that was dug across the road in order to install a new sewer pipe. In deciding the direction of the detour personnel at the City of London ought to have known that construction would take place along this portion of the designated detour. It is not clear why City personnel decided that the detour route should pass through this location where it might pose safety risks to cyclists.

One cannot get into the minds of the persons who decided that this detour route was a reasonable decision. There must be some unknown reason why it was selected despite such safety concerns.

Brief documentations of cyclists travelling down the slope of Grosvenor Street were conducted between August 18 and 22, 2022. These observations showed that one cyclist reached a speed of over 57 km/h at the base of the downslope. While this single observation may not reflect the actions of many cyclists it has been demonstrated in previous testing by Gorski Consulting, at other locations in London, that a large percentage of cyclists reach high speeds on downslopes.

While speed is not the only factor that leads to cyclist collisions (and injuries) it must be noted that high speed is any important factor. This is particularly so at the Grosvenor Street site because cyclists ride into a busy parking lot at the end of the downslope. Drivers pulling into and out of parking spots would not be accustomed to looking for cyclists travelling at high speed toward, and past them. Given the typical actions of such drivers they would be more preoccupied with searching for the parked vehicles around them, to avoid hitting them, such that their focus would be on the very limited area around their vehicle.

A short time after the detour route was officially announced cyclists began to complain about its shortcomings. An alternative route was proposed taking cyclists along the west bank of the Thames River which avoided most of the safety problems of the original route. After some consideration the City announced that both routes would be accepted leaving cyclists to chose between the two. While this decision appeared reasonable it did not recognize that some cyclists would likely be unfamiliar with the area and may not be able to judge for themselves which route should be taken. Directing such inexperienced cyclists through the original detour could create unintended safety consequences. Unfortunately the City’s decision still stands until the construction is completed at the end of September, 2022.

Summary

Modes of transportation in North American cities are expected to continue to evolve in the near future as the world responds to a global climate crisis. Mass transit, various forms of e-vehicles, walking and cycling are all expected to push aside the motor vehicle that has dominated transportation for the past 100 years. With these new forms of motion there will be challenges as the road system needs to accommodate them. There will be times when accommodation is not ideal and conflicts will exist. For cyclists it means that travelling on roadways designed exclusively for automobiles is likely to continue for some time into the future even though great strides in changing the system occur. Road construction projects and changes to improve cycling environments will necessitate that cyclists be displaced onto detours that are normally thought of in terms of motor vehicle travel. It takes time to reverse that logic. More and more those who plan detour routes will have to have an understanding of the complexity of the new modes of transportation that are evolving. Those detours will have to consider that all users of the detour need to pass through it with a similar level of safety.

Judicial Inquiry into Red Hill Valley Parkway Continues

by | Aug 26, 2022 |

This view of the Red Hill Valley Parkway in Hamilton Ontario was taken in September, 2020, at a time when its posted maximum speed was reduced to 80 km/h. Officials believed this was necessitated due to the perceived safety problems that became reported over several years of controversy.

Forgotten to most, the Judicial Inquiry into the Red Hill Valley Parkway (RHVP) controversy is continuing in Hamilton Ontario. The inquiry was requested by the City of Hamilton, as noted in the following excerpt taken from a letter to the Superior Court of Ontario:

“At a meeting held on March 20, 2019, Council of the City of Hamilton passed a
resolution requesting a judge of the Superior Court of Justice to investigate matters
relating to a failure to disclose to the City Council a draft report prepared by Tradewind
Scientific Ltd., dated November 20, 2013 with respect to the friction levels on the Red
Hill Valley Parkway in the City of Hamilton.”

Complaints about the slipperiness of the surface of the RHVP had been reported on a number of occasions and several serious collisions were noted that could be related to that cause. Eventually it was discovered that a technical report prepared for the City of Hamilton by Tradewind Scientific in 2013 confirmed the substandard surface conditions however that report seemed to have become lost, or perhaps purposely hidden. The Judicial Inquiry was created to obtain the facts about how these events occurred. Meanwhile a class action lawsuit claiming $250 million dollars was announced against the City of Hamilton with respect to these events. Presumably the lawsuit is awaiting the completion of the Inquiry before moving forward.

However the Judicial Inquiry seems to be dragging on and on. One reason for the delay was the COVID-19 epidemic. Never-the-less millions of dollars have already been spent for the inquiry and its completion does not appear to be on the horizon. Yet, useful details are emerging, if one had the time to read through its transcripts. Up to July 20, 2022 the Inquiry has produced transcripts with a total of 9025 pages of testimony. And this only includes the testimony of witnesses. The testimony of expert witnesses is still forthcoming.

A twist in the proceedings occurred when the City of Hamilton requested that 56 documents in its possession should not be disclosed claiming “solicitor-client” or “litigation” privilege. A separate decision was requested the Judicial Inquiry and that was rendered on August 9, 2022 by arbitrator Frank Marrocco of Stockwoods Barristers. The decision did not bode well for the City of Hamilton and now the Inquiry is in a holding pattern as it awaits whether the City of Hamilton will appeal the decision.

…and the holding pattern continues and the Inquiry drags on and the costs continue.

Ultimately the taxpayers of the City of Hamilton will be paying for the costs of the Inquiry and for the results of the class action lawsuit which is still to come.

Much of the focus of the Inquiry may be on the actions of the Director of Engineering Services for the City of Hamilton, Gary Moore. The Tradewinds report was given to Moore and his actions seem to be at issue since the report became missing. His latest testimony was completed in July, 2022 just before the actions of the Inquiry were stopped to deal with the City of Hamilton privilege issue.

It remains to be seen how interested the public may in these proceedings. How a municipality’s actions may be hidden from public scrutiny may be a central theme in the Inquiry. Who was at fault for such secrecy? And how can such developments be addressed in the future in the actions of other Ontario municipalities? It requires the public’s vigilance to keep this proceeding in its busy radar when so many other issues take away the public’s attention.

Pretty Flowers Do Not Help In Understanding Vehicle Fire and Multiple Deaths

by | Aug 21, 2022 |

We can’t show you the burnt out vehicle or collision site where 3 persons perished on Conestoga Drive in Brampton on August 20, 2022, because those photos are copyright. And you don’t need to know how or why those fatalities occurred. So here is a picture of some pretty flowers.

Why did a vehicle catch fire after it struck a tree near the intersection of Conestoga Drive and Elmwood Ave in Brampton in the early hours of Saturday, August 20, 2022? Three persons in the vehicle perished. Did they die because of the impact force or because of the fire? Is that important?

Some news media, such as CP24 News, provided photos of the vehicle and the collision site along with their articles. But those photos are copyrighted. So they cannot be shown in an independent site such as ours. And if we had something of importance to convey to the public that could relate to their safety we could not do that with examples from this collision site.

What we can convey, in words, is that the vehicle appeared to strike the tree head-on without any post-impact rotation or travel. So all the pre-impact kinetic energy was dissipated at impact. This would have been a revelation 30 years ago because it would have been an obvious sign of someone attempting to commit suicide. In olden days when vehicles were not equipped with electronic stability control they would travel around a curve, rotate, and then strike a tree with their sides. Although this was not helpful it was sometimes preferable because the impact as not always central, resulting in a less-severe change-in-velocity and allowed some of the vehicle’s kinetic energy to be dissipated in non-harmful post-impact rotation and sliding to rest.

What we see in the present collision is suggestive of the infamous Princess Diana collision of her Mercedes in a Paris tunnel in 1997. That Mercedes was equipped with a primitive, mechanical, stability control system which caused it to straighten out after initial contact with Fiat Uno. While straightening out is often desirable it can also be lethal and undesirable. And these matters need to be discussed.

Another bit of fact is that of Newton’s Third Law of Motion which states that “for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction”, might apply here. Rephrased, it means that when the front end of a vehicle is crushed by the impact of a tree, the severity of that impact is not only displayed in the crush of the vehicle, it is also displayed in the damage to the tree. So if we have a severe impact it should be displayed in severe damage to the tree. As much as officials covered up the vehicle with a blue tarp they did not cover up the tree. And some closer views of the tree which were shown by other news media after the damaged vehicle was removed showed less than expected damage except for scaring from the flames. The result is that either this tree was very robust and made of iron, or the impact was not as severe such that three occupants should have perished from the impact force.

Next we are informed by police and news media that the reason why the vehicle crashed is unknown and no one can speculate. Well up to now speculation has not be against the law. And if speculation must be applied because no meaningful information has been revealed, then we will speculate. None of the site photos helped to demonstrate that Conestoga Drive contains a sweeping curve as it approaches Elmvale Ave. And in such circumstances is it very common for vehicles to go out of control and travel to the outside of the curve, as is what happened in the present circumstance. But why did this happen? A single overhead photo provided by CP24 News showed the surface of the Conestoga Drive for some distance before the tree impact. In the corner of that photo, which is furthest away from the impact, the condition of the road surface could been as heavily cracked and possibly patched. If one looked at a current view of the road surface on Googlemaps, which is often several years old, one would see that the road surface was in poor condition. We are not able to travel to the collision site and examine the road. And the police and news media, in their goodness, have not provided a view of the road surface on approach to the tree impact. So, beyond the heightened speed of the vehicle, and or perhaps the inexperience of its driver, was the cause of the collision due to a loss-of-control due to the poor condition of the road surface? We will not know. And this is speculation. But it is speculation from a lot of past experience in examining thousands of serious collisions.

As the State Farm Insurance commercial says “You’re in good hands”. No need to pursue what really happened because you will never know. And without remediation the next, multiple-fatal collision is just around the next future curve.

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