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.
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