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Eastern Canada Superchargers

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To be honest, I'd rather see it back further...say around Walker's Line...if you enter the QEW at Guelph Line, when traffic is heavy, it is practically impossible to gain egress to the QEW Niagara bound...you have to cross all lanes of traffic in a very short distance...:scared:

Guelph Line makes a lot more sense as it will also capture people heading to the 403 to the west end of Hamilton. I think they should put it as close as possible to the junction of QEW, 403 and 407. Somewhere like Brant and N Service Rd - where the Costco or Best Buy are.
 
To be honest, I'd rather see it back further...say around Walker's Line...if you enter the QEW at Guelph Line, when traffic is heavy, it is practically impossible to gain egress to the QEW Niagara bound...you have to cross all lanes of traffic in a very short distance...:scared:
But that makes it a little less convenient to 407 drivers as they will have to cut off the 407 earlier. And it also doesn't work for travelers who are going 403 (from West Hamilton) ->QEW Niagara as they have to go on QEW Toronto which has heavier traffic. As close as possible to the intersection of 403, 407 and QEW makes most sense.
 
But that makes it a little less convenient to 407 drivers as they will have to cut off the 407 earlier. And it also doesn't work for travelers who are going 403 (from West Hamilton) ->QEW Niagara as they have to go on QEW Toronto which has heavier traffic. As close as possible to the intersection of 403, 407 and QEW makes most sense.

MapleView Mall would be a good physical location, as its close to all 3 and has tons of amenities, but there is absolutely no space in that parking lot.
 
I drove by Tranmere today, wow what a "hole in the wall" with ZERO potential (which I'm sure I'm repeating in this thread and elsewhere). I expected an HPWC for confused travelers googling Tesla locations but nothing, just a few Model S's in the small parking lot. You can't even drive by the "storefront" (if you can call it that in this industrial area), the parking lot is a dead end.

So like Mississauga is famous for massive auto parks (Erin Mills, 401 Dixie) and concentrated dealership zones (eg. Dundas St. E strip just past Hurontario). I'd say a good start on the west side of Yonge St. would be a huge Mississauga store with at least 10 Supercharger bays. Then, the next Supercharger station could go into Burlington or even Hamilton.
 
I drove by Tranmere today, wow what a "hole in the wall" with ZERO potential

I actually kinda like Tranmere. It reminds me of the small independent shop that can give personalized attention as opposed to the big flashy dealership. That and they have very good staff there who actually do provide very good, personalized expert attention. But yes, it is no place for Superchargers.
 
I find both (QEW @ Guelph Line) and the BestBuy/Costco locations would be great for killing time,

Our local Costco parking lot is an absolute zoo. I'd stay away from those places. Just asking to be ICE-d over all the time.

I actually kinda like Tranmere. It reminds me of the small independent shop that can give personalized attention as opposed to the big flashy dealership. That and they have very good staff there who actually do provide very good, personalized expert attention. But yes, it is no place for Superchargers.

A lot of people here don't know the history. Tranmere was Tesla's first location in Canada (aside from a small office they used to have downtown). When it was opened we only had Roadsters, and there are only 40-something of them in Canada. Prior to that Tesla service was a guy (Dustin) with a car full of tools.
 
Me too...always had great service there...(nice folks too!)...it is a great excuse for me to take a half day off for a nice drive when I have to get service on the Roadster! :wink::biggrin:

I actually kinda like Tranmere. It reminds me of the small independent shop that can give personalized attention as opposed to the big flashy dealership. That and they have very good staff there who actually do provide very good, personalized expert attention. But yes, it is no place for Superchargers.

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Good point about the 407 drivers...you're correct insofar as the Superchargers are really meant for travelers...

But that makes it a little less convenient to 407 drivers as they will have to cut off the 407 earlier. And it also doesn't work for travelers who are going 403 (from West Hamilton) ->QEW Niagara as they have to go on QEW Toronto which has heavier traffic. As close as possible to the intersection of 403, 407 and QEW makes most sense.
 
You might be correct...I think 80-100,000 vehicles per day use the Skyway bridge...that being said, the traffic in and around Centennial Parkway is ridiculous...

I would have thought T.O. to buffalo/Niagara more traveled then T.o. to sw Ontario. Wouldn't then make the most sense for it to be right on the qew to make it most convenient for those people rather than 403 or 407 travellers?
 
I would have thought T.O. to buffalo/Niagara more traveled then T.o. to sw Ontario. Wouldn't then make the most sense for it to be right on the qew to make it most convenient for those people rather than 403 or 407 travellers?

The Buffalo / Niagara route is definitely heavily travelled and in need of Supercharger support. What a lot of people don't realize is that the 401 between Toronto and Windsor is actually more heavily travelled than from Toronto to Montreal. It's at least 3 lanes pretty much the whole way whereas east of Toronto it's just a 2-lane highway.
 
The Buffalo / Niagara route is definitely heavily travelled and in need of Supercharger support. What a lot of people don't realize is that the 401 between Toronto and Windsor is actually more heavily travelled than from Toronto to Montreal. It's at least 3 lanes pretty much the whole way whereas east of Toronto it's just a 2-lane highway.

Haven't we gone through the statistics before? The MTO statistics say that traffic volumes vary dramatically all the way from Toronto to Windsor, and from Toronto to Montreal. So where are you counting? At Waterloo it's 46000, it goes up west of the 403 (as high as 68400), then drops to a relatively small number (27000) after the 402. Meanwhile on the east side of Toronto, the volumes are higher than 70000 until you get to 35/115, and are about the same as at Waterloo once you get to Port Hope. Further out the volumes are 35,000 to 40,000 (at Kingston) heading east, versus below 30,000 west of the 402. Volumes east of 416 are quite low, below 20,000 most of the way to the Quebec border.

But with such large variations, I can't see how you can justify such an all-encompassing claim.

http://www.raqsb.mto.gov.on.ca/techpubs/TrafficVolumes.nsf/fa027808647879788525708a004b5df8/f51986ea499a13b08525745f006dd30b/$FILE/Provincial%20Highways%20Traffic%20Volumes%202010%20AADT%20Only.pdf

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I would have thought T.O. to buffalo/Niagara more traveled then T.o. to sw Ontario. Wouldn't then make the most sense for it to be right on the qew to make it most convenient for those people rather than 403 or 407 travellers?

Have a look at the traffic volumes near 403/QEW/407 according to the link I provided above... (sorry, I don't see the answer quickly)
 
Haven't we gone through the statistics before? ...But with such large variations, I can't see how you can justify such an all-encompassing claim.

Yes, but it is generally a bit higher to the west. It's a 3 lane highway (currently being widened to 5 in certain areas) vs. a 2 lane highway in the other direction. It's a major travel corridor to the US (Interstate 75 towards the south and to Michigan). And it seems under represented on the Supercharger (current and proposed) front. That's why I'm calling for a Supercharger in London near the 401 / 402 juncture.
 
Yes, but it is generally a bit higher to the west. It's a 3 lane highway (currently being widened to 5 in certain areas) vs. a 2 lane highway in the other direction.

The 401 is 6 lanes (3 each direction) or wider all the way to Cobourg. That's more than 100 km east of Toronto.
The 401 is "only" 4 lanes (2 each direction) west of the 402 junction.

This is plainly visible to anyone in the world thanks to satellite imagery via Google maps.
 
Wouldn't Tesla be collecting real world data now since Kingston, Comber and Woodstock are all open? That information probably settles the east / west volume discussion.

Yes, Tesla will be collecting statistics. But the number of cars using Kingston tells you very little about what traffic is going east from Toronto; I expect that the majority of traffic there does not go through Toronto. My main point is that you can't make a general claim about the 401 west of Toronto vs east of Toronto, the traffic volumes vary drastically in each direction depending upon where you are (primarily, depending on distance from Toronto). Further, the notion that there is more traffic going to Windsor than to Montreal is not borne out by the statistics collected by the Ministry of Transportation of Ontario - if you want to make a simplistic comparison, there's actually greater volume at the Quebec end than the U.S.A end of the highway. Also, the road itself is 4 lanes both east of and west of Toronto; that's not a differentiating factor. So making this broad claim as a justification for the placement of Superchargers is not supported by evidence.

I have no horse in this race, as the saying goes, but it seems crystal clear to me that the next biggest need in the vicinity of Toronto is Cobourg. The route to the east IS important, and is underserved at present, with the distance between the Toronto service centre and Kingston supercharger being larger than is ideal. The route to the U.S. (which I have done, btw) is more than adequately served with the Superchargers at Woodstock and Comber, and there are lots of Superchargers already in operation or under construction in Michigan. Heading toward the U.S. south of Lake Ontario will also be dealt with adequately by the Supercharger in Buffalo. Another one in the vicinity of, say, St Catharines, could come in handy, but I don't see it as a high priority.

Meanwhile, Vancouver Island, with a population close to one million, and notable tourist destinations on the west side of the island and population centres on the east side, has no Supercharger and no plans for Superchargers. Likewise, the east coast will be underserved for the foreseeable future.

Just a bit of perspective for you. :) You guys are all discussing where you can put multiple Superchargers near Toronto, while a significant number of routes could be opened up with one Supercharger on Vancouver Island, and one or two in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.
 
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Pass by the Montréal SC center and they were delivering 2 crates (though there were maybe 2 others) with the same size of those that we already saw for the Cornwall/Kingston/Drummondville SuperChargers...

The service center accepts delivery of tons of parts and equipment for its own use. A lot of it is trucked in generic containers that are about the same size as Supercharger distribution cabinets. Are you sure you specifically saw Supercharger equipment?

I do hope they start construction on Riviere-du-Loup soon. As far as Summer and Fall travel are concerned, it is more important than Cobourg, Lévis, Hamilton or Burlington. The existing network already supports those areas.
 
I think we need to stop debating which new Supercharger sites are needed first in Ontario and Quebec, as all these are needed immediately:

Riviere-du-Loup
West GTA (Mississauga / Burlington / Hamilton / St. Catherines)
Coburg area (eg. Darlington / Clarington / Port Hope all just as good IMHO)

WISCONSIN has 5 Supercharger stations already, with a total population of 5.75 million.
The Golden Horseshoe area of Ontario (basically Niagara to Peterborough) has 3 million more people but the same number of Supercharger stations... well, technically one less at Woodstock is outside of the Golden Horseshoe (but Barrie is inside). Today this is also the business centre of Canada, and I can only imagine there are more (at least prospective) Tesla owners here.

I say we simply need these 3 stations immediately... then let's debate the next ones.
 
I think we need to stop debating which new Supercharger sites are needed first in Ontario and Quebec, as all these are needed immediately:

Riviere-du-Loup
West GTA (Mississauga / Burlington / Hamilton / St. Catherines)
Coburg area (eg. Darlington / Clarington / Port Hope all just as good IMHO)

WISCONSIN has 5 Supercharger stations already, with a total population of 5.75 million.
The Golden Horseshoe area of Ontario (basically Niagara to Peterborough) has 3 million more people but the same number of Supercharger stations... well, technically one less at Woodstock is outside of the Golden Horseshoe (but Barrie is inside). Today this is also the business centre of Canada, and I can only imagine there are more (at least prospective) Tesla owners here.

I say we simply need these 3 stations immediately... then let's debate the next ones.

I imagine Wisconsin has 5 supercharger stations so that you can go between Chicago to Minneapolis. Somebody can dig up the numbers of Teslas and cars traveling along that route, but there is certainly a lot more than 5 million people between those two cities.

What's the west GTA traffic? People that want to avoid the Lawrence station? Once Buffalo is open, you can reach either Woodstock or Toronto, if in transit, or anywhere in between if you're stopping. Coburg area, or anything else between Kingston and Toronto, sure, that distance in the winter is a bit too long, I wouldn't attempt it in a 60...
 
I have no horse in this race, as the saying goes, but it seems crystal clear to me that the next biggest need in the vicinity of Toronto is Cobourg. The route to the east IS important, and is underserved at present, with the distance between the Toronto service centre and Kingston supercharger being larger than is ideal. The route to the U.S. (which I have done, btw) is more than adequately served with the Superchargers at Woodstock and Comber, and there are lots of Superchargers already in operation or under construction in Michigan. Heading toward the U.S. south of Lake Ontario will also be dealt with adequately by the Supercharger in Buffalo. Another one in the vicinity of, say, St Catharines, could come in handy, but I don't see it as a high priority.

I dunno. It seems crystal clear to me that routes to the southwest of Toronto are undeserved. There is no real way to travel the 402 to Sarnia and there is a real need for something in the London area. I'm heading down that way tomorrow and the only way right now is via Detroit when I'd rather be crossing up near Sarnia. I get there's a lot of people here on this forum that travel east of Toronto. That's cool. I don't. If Tesla does monitor these forums, I want to make sure that west of Toronto is represented. There's lots of people pulling for the eastern route so I think we have that covered.

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The 401 is "only" 4 lanes (2 each direction) west of the 402 junction.

Pretty sure that must be old imaginary. I was down to Detroit almost exactly a year ago and there was only a small stretch of 2 lane (each way) well down past Chatham as best I can recall. Lots of highway construction in the Windsor area too. In fact, the same map still shows the Speedsville Rd. bridge over the 401 in Cambridge, but that was torn down a while ago in preparation for 401 widening through the Waterloo Region.