Highways in Canada
 

I was looking throughout this site and noticed there wasn't a thread for this!

Let me start with a few pics of highways in London, my hometown.

Highway 401 (freeway)
http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5103/5572922455_df10317d9e_b.jpg

Highway 402 (freeway)
http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5053/5573501750_b51510a3d0_b.jpg

Highbury Avenue (short grade-separated expressway)
http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5261/5573503142_a278968996_b.jpg

Veterans Memorial Parkway/VMP (at-grade expressway)
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3488/3712428637_d119f71db4_b.jpg

All photos by me except the last one which was taken by Adam Colvin.

Despite all the highways in the area, London is the largest city in North America that does not have a freeway to serve 'local' traffic. The Veterans Memorial Parkway is planned to be upgraded to a freeway at some point, however it won't be for another 20-30 years.

I wasn't aware London was larger than Vancouver, what a growth spurt! ;)

I always thought that Winnipeg was larger than London too (and no, the Disreali doesn't count).

Winnipeg's still considerably larger than London .

Vancouver most definitely has a major freeway running through it so I'm not sure where that comment comes from .

Wow, I didn't know all you guys didn't have highways in your cities. - Even Hamilton, which is about the same size as Winnipeg, has 4 (major )highways running through it and around it. - Very scenic highways I might add as well. - The LINC, and Red Creek are very nice.

One thing I learned the first time I drove through southern Ontario - that region has far, far better freeways in the cities than the rest of the country. I'll never forget my first time in K-W, marveling at what seemed like insane freeways for a city of 3-400,000 (at the time). Compared to places like Winnipeg, Calgary or Edmonton, which were more than twice the size yet had nothing on that level.

I realized as I got older than things were a bit more complicated, but at the time it sure reinforced my western stereotypes of "Ottawa spends all the money in S.Ontario and ignores the west". :haha: Seriously - to this day Winnipeg has nothing even remotely comparable, and Edmonton/Calgary are just getting to that point over the last 5 years or so (Deerfoot had traffic lights on it as recently as 6 years ago).

Hamilton at least made sense given its proximity to Toronto etc, and the fact that it's the corridor to the US and Niagara. But K-W just seems so "out of the way" to have a couple of major freeways servicing it. At least from a western perspective. It felt very American - every town over 10,000 people has a freeway in it if you stick to the Interstates.

I'm just going to pop in and say freeways are disgusting and a detriment to a city's urban fabric.

^ exactly. I am not sure why NOT having freeways in a city would be considered a bad thing?

:previous:Yes, because highways like everything else in this world are a complete black and white issue.......

There is definitely a such thing as building too many highways and implementing them poorly into the urban fabric, but there is also a such thing as building necessary highways that benefit the urban area as a whole.

So please, the same way I hate it when people turn cycling threads into a black and white issue / debate, don't turn this thread into a black and white debate. :tup:

Sorry Haljackey, but i think these types of threads may only work on SSC...

Because without them, heavy truck traffic has to go through the city itself, and that is also detrimental to the urban fabric.

A city councillor here proposed banning trucks from Highway 102 to keep them out of a residential area, but that would funnel them through a village of 1,000 people 20 miles west, so now people are saying we should build a by-pass north of the city so that cross country trucks don't have to go near the urban area at all.

http://img821.imageshack.us/img821/1070/unledk.jpg

All of these have been proposed in some form for 30 years.

Look at a map, it just cuts through a tiny corner of Vancouver. Besides the original contention was "that does not have a freeway to serve 'local' traffic". This tiny stretch of the TCH most certainly does not serve local Vancouver Traffic.

Anyway, here's some pictures of some highways I have taken over the last few years:

Highway 1 at Rogers Pass BC
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2629/3719523630_aca53ea3fa_b.jpg

Highway 1 near Spuzzum BC
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2306/4512985000_c839074d6f_b.jpg

Highway 1 at Hell's Gate BC
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2300/4512341253_e703c03388_b.jpg

Highway 97 crossing the William R. Bennett Bridge at Kelowna BC
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4099/4896606489_4d5589b7cf_b.jpg

Highway 7 near Harrison Mills BC
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2105/4512345439_b1e497100b_b.jpg

Secondary Highway 866 near Boyne Lake AB
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3495/3933260244_b88f39c6bf_b.jpg

Highway 63 near Ft McMurray AB
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3330/3658358075_3fcd05033d_b.jpg

Highway 32 near Peers AB
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2575/3819839054_6a2aa7560f_b.jpg

Highway 1 near Calgary AB
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2459/3718714453_cf0b454238_b.jpg

Generally, it's better to have truck traffic skirt the periphery of a city. Lots of traffic is just passing through, and if it isn't, truck warehouses aren't usually located downtown anyway. Trucks go to their warehouse, and then smaller vehicles usually redistribute goods to points within the city.

That by-pass north of Thunder Bay looks like a good idea. Cross country traffic doesn't need to detour into Thunder Bay, Thunder Bay is spared congestion, and the city is still linked to the Trans-Canada Highway.

Too lazy to post a screenshot...
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s...93,-64.723549&spn=0.116871,0.349503&z=12

For a city of ~135,000, Moncton has a fairly impressive highway network. It also has the interesting distinction of having a divided freeway that terminates at a traffic circle at both ends, as well as several at-grade railroad/freeway crossings. For the most part, the traffic in the city is fairly functional, but it does have issues. For starters, our airport is only accessible from one side of a highway, and travelers need to find an alternate route or go around a cloverleaf to get back. Hopefully that'll change though. As well, there are a couple of long stretches with no exits/on-ramps, meaning a lot of traffic stays on surface streets that could flow a lot more efficiently with proper highway access.

Kitchener-Waterloo only has one "freeway" (Conestoga Parkway) which services the city on a west-to-east at the south end of Kitchener, and south-to-north along the east side of Kitchener and Waterloo.

The 401 is in close proximity (running west-to-east essentially dividing Kitchener and Cambridge. While the 401 can be used to go from certain parts of Kitchener to certain areas of Cambridge, it is not a freeway which is dedicated to the area, other than to connect it with the other major cities in the corridor.

Another point. I don't know how much time you've spent in K-W, but in case it hasn't been much, the street layout in this city/cities is beyond bizarre! Two of the main streets which run parallel to one another almost throughout both cities, cross one another TWICE in Waterloo, and then marge without notice in Kitchener. :)

While I don't drive, it is undeniable that the "Expressway" (as it is locally called) enabled the region to become much more prosperous. Hopefully we can get the LRT happening, and improve the area even more.

Well, there is a vast amount of heavy industry in Southern Ontario, notably an auto industry that requires reliable, just-in-time delivery of parts from numerous suppliers located (or at least, that were located) in dozens of towns and cities in the province.

+1 :tup: ....

Winnipeg at least has a ring road....London doesn't even have that. Traffic in London is horrendous. Kitchener and Windsor have crosstown expressways and the traffic flow in those cities is so much better despite all being around the same size.

However, Winnipegs is not really meant for local traffic. It's completely a bypass road. Or at least that is what I got from looking at the maps and driving through. I can't imagine it being used for local traffic until the city fills in the entire circle... which will be so so so many years from now. Winnipeg doesn't have any major expressways serving the local traffic in and out and around communities within. I am actually impressed with Regina's ring road. Albeit not the best designed road out there, it does it's job fantastically. Without it, our city would be in constant gridlock. That, combined with the Lewvan expressway; makes for a good half assed circle that works phenomenally for our little town.

Oh Weber St.. Sooooo confusing.

Not to mention the main street (King) has a King St N, King St S, King St E and King St W. The road does not go in a circle.

Planning in KW is so odd in the sense that it's a grid in both Kitchener and Waterloo, but one grid is the typical N-S, E-W grid, and then move into the other municipality and it looks like an 'X'..

Also, the Conestoga Parkway is one (I know it as 85), but wouldn't you also include the 8 as an expressway?

What are you talking about ? Seriously , do you live in some alternate Vancouver or something ? How can you look at a map and NOT notice the freeway running through the city ?
If a "tiny corner" equals about a third of the Vancouver metropolitan area and pretty much everybody in the lower mainland then I think you need to look at a dictionary . Of course it serves local traffic ... who else would it serve ? You can't exactly argue that people are just passing through Vancouver on their drive to ... the Pacific ocean ? It doesn't go around the city , it goes through it and while it doesn't go directly into the CBD it gets reasonably close .

Burnaby is not Vancouver. Surrey Is not Vancouver. Coquitlam is not Vancouver.

He doesnt live in an alternate Vancouver, he lives in VANCOUVER. No one ever said anything about Metro Vancouver. The City of Vancouver has over 600,000 people making it larger than London and there is no freeway serving the City of Vancouver, Highway 1 touches the border then turns north.

All traffic in the City of Vancouver is surface streets.

Whatever . I'm pretty sure that people who live the area don't stop driving their cars when they reach Burnaby just so that they won't be counted as Burnaby traffic . If we're going to quibble then okay , let's quibble . Firstly , Vancouver has a freeway . Secondly , simply by virtue of it being in the city proper and having access ramps within said jurisdiction it serves local traffic . Thirdly , Granville , Cambie , and the Dunsmuir/Georgia viaducts are also freeways by definition so your contention that all Vancouver traffic is surface is flat-out wrong . Or perhaps now you'd like to debate the definition of a freeway ? Perhaps instead you'd prefer to argue that a freeway can only be used by people who live in a specific jurisdiction ?

If , on the other hand , you don't want to argue the minutiae then just admit that Vancouver has freeways since , after all , it does whether you count only the city proper or the GVRD . Of course , again , if you want to argue that Vancouver has no freeways (even though it does) on false technicalities about "local traffic" then the same applies to London which also has a freeway serving local traffic .

Some highway photos I've taken

Autoroute 5 near Wakefield, Quebec







A5 at Chelsea, Qc with Ottawa in the background



Some 417 westbound pics in Ottawa

















and some others..





Quebec City





5-50 split in Gatineau.

Hamilton was born because of it's geographical location, hub city. With that came the highways, trains, airport, harbourfront ports, etc.

With the completion of the Red Hill Hamilton now has a ring road, QEW, Red Hill, Linc and 403.

I know I'm in the minority here, and they kill neighborhoods, they are eyesores, cars are bad, blah, blah blah.....but i happen to like freeways. I like visiting cities that have them, i love cars, i love driving and i think they are helpful at moving traffic around (except when there is gridlock).

My perception is that it gives a area a big city feel. I know that that doesn't define a city but it is just a perception.

.....maybe it is just because my city (Winnipeg) doesn't have any.

Flame away!

I don't want to argue and quibble, but it appears quite clearly that you do.

All I said was that the city of Vancouver has no highway serving local traffic, I still think thats true and if you dont that's just fine by me. :tup:

What does that even mean, "serving local traffic"? If anyone wants to know how it is, just look at a road map to see the layout of the city. A good portion of Vancouverites will obviously connect to the highway through the McGill and 1st Ave on-ramps. So really, it does partially serve Vancouver City in that respect. But it is not in the same manner as say the I-5 in Seattle, or the 101 and Santa Ana running right beside the downtown district.

Some photos I've taken in Greater Halifax over the last couple of years;

Highway 101 near Margeson Drive interchange (Middle Sackville);

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5102/5608335251_f12eceae10_z.jpg

Highway 102 at Larry Uteck interchange (Bedford/Halifax);

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5221/5608332069_79769fbe60_z.jpg

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5101/5608333585_c45a660a70_z.jpg

Highway 111 near Mic Mac Parclo (widest highway in Atlantic Canada at 12 lanes);

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5024/5608330611_dbd9576482_z.jpg

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5148/5608911440_c7bc08ccac_z.jpg

Highway 118 at Dartmouth Crossing (only C/E system in Atlantic Canada);

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5226/5608325815_6aab22324f_z.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3171/2317162286_7f2f931315_b.jpg
401 and Allen Road Toronto - News 46

OK, people, this picture shows the signage at the junction/exit you have to take when going from Ottawa, Canada's capital and second-largest city in Ontario, to the biggest city in Canada and Ontario's provincial capital.

Anybody notice that there is a particular word that is conspicuous by its absence on this sign?

Considering that that interchange is in the middle of the city I don't really see a need for a sign saying where Toronto is located. You don't see Winnipeg or Kenora on directional signs here at all (example 1, 2), and Duluth doesn't appear until you get near the airport.

The lack of signs pointing to Winnipeg play a funny trick on drug smugglers from Quebec: They miss all three chances to turn to Winnipeg and don't realize that they're about the hit the US border until they see the sign about 200m away from customs. Police then see them turn around and bust them. Happens a couple times a year, though lately most drug busts have been happening up in Nipigon.

That's one thing that's definitely different in the US. There are signs for New York all over a quarter of the country.

Some Alberta Highways...

The QE2 (Queen Elizabeth II) that runs between Calgary and Edmonton

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3105/2769304851_006dd1fab8.jpg
Leg 3 - Edmonton to Calgary by Forest Edge, on Flickr


Deerfoot Trail, the only true grade-separated freeway in Calgary

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3489/3734957390_50b0c07406.jpg
Deerfoot Traffic On A Rainy Day by LostMyHeadache: Absolutely Free *, on Flickr


Glenmore Trail, an expressway that is one of Calgary's major East-West connectors

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1414/3267766590_65a967c87c.jpg
Glenmore/Elbow DSC_0378 by Ronaldok, on Flickr


16th Avenue North, another expressway/major road that is an East-West route... this is the TransCanada Highway btw

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3235/2906795212_d40d33f204.jpg
Image-10-02-08 029 by Surrealplaces, on Flickr


Highway 22 (a.k.a. the Cowboy Trail) that ambles through the foothills -- one of the most scenic highways in Alberta

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4029/4717529737_f1203ab94e.jpg
Cowboy Trail by Surrealplaces, on Flickr


Highway 3 which runs along the southern parts of the province -- this particular shot is in the Crowsnest Pass

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2464/3810937884_bc13a668eb.jpg
0906_0480 Rockies foothills, Alberta by wild prairie man, on Flickr

The 401 at its widest going through Toronto.

http://www.goatoronto.com/images/stories/stock/communications/401%20canada2.jpg

now thats the kind of interchange i love.:cheers:

oh my God!!!:yes:

:previous: Looks like they could add another dozen more lanes.

I would say that the highway doesn't serve local traffic in Vancouver in that someone starting their journey in Vancouver would not take the highway to get to another point within Vancouver. You technically could since there is more than one exit but there would be no reason to use it in this way for 99.9% of the population.

Whitford, you need to see a picture of the basketweave. I looked around for a photo and couldn't find one. That is a very amazing highway feature.

Is the 401 still the busiest highway in North America, or has the Santa Monica Freeway in Los Angeles regained its title from the T Dot?

Is there any other Canadian highway, that is as busy as the 401? In Montral perhaps?

The 401 is basically the only east-west corridor in Toronto, which is why it is so busy. Montreal on the other hand has more freeways spread out more evenly, and it isn't pushed up against a lake, so I don't think they have any roads that are as busy as the 401. Traffic going through Montreal has more options than traffic going through the GTA.

Yeah I doubt anyone would use highway 1 to get around vancouver proper :haha:


Also there is only 4 km of highway in Vancouver proper boundaries, I would hardly say that it could serve local traffic properly

I hope that from now on, all of our metro statistics for Vancouver include Vancouver proper, so as not to suggest to people in Vancouver that all those cities around it are part of it, or something.

God forbid Vancouver is associated with the trashy likes of Surrey! :eek:

God Forbid? 42.2% of Metro Van's population follow no faith. :P

Also the original thing was "Despite all the highways in the area, London is the largest city in North America that does not have a freeway to serve 'local' traffic."

Gotta say there's some great pics here!

Correct. I guess I should have been clearer. While Winnipeg and Vancouver are comparable in this sense, there are a few freeway segments/stubs in these cities that are used by residents in the city/metro. In London's case, they're used for long distance traffic, bypassing the area altogether.

Here's a pic of one of the basketweaves on Highway 401:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/co...Crop.jpg/1280px-401_Basketweave_Crop.jpg

(From the Wikipedia Basketweave article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Basketweave)

Highway 401 is by far the busiest highway in North America, having volumes over 435,000 cars per day in some sections of Toronto. No highway in the US tops 400k. It may very well be the busiest highway in the world but there's no official stat to back this up.

Canada's second busiest highway is Highway 427 which sees a over 340,000 cars per day in some sections of Toronto.

Well Winnipeg has no freeway at all, so, you know, like, whatever.

The Disraeli is called a freeway. And signs do not lie, ever.

Actually... Google maps never lies. And I don't see any of that bold yellowish/orange in Winnipeg!
(Why is that? Especially since Disraeli is labeled as freeway. Even Saskatoon and Regina have the bold yellow, indicating our modest 'freeways'.)

The island of Montreal have only one east-west corridor (Highway 40). We have the 20-720 axe but it is not totally completed in the east and that will probably never happen ...

The highway 40, called ''The Met'' Is very busy. As a truck driver in the city I can tell you that the traffic on the highway is very slow from 7am to 7pm. It is the busiest highway in Québec with around of 200 000 vehicles moving at the kilometer 67 (Between ''the two 15'')

Here a good picture took from the roof of a building close to St-Michel in eastern direction.

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4073/4933794322_89ab1615be_b.jpg

Source : Le calmar on Flickr


Kilometer 67, picture from Wikipedia

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/co..._et_Chemin_de_la_c%C3%B4te_de_liesse.JPG

Wow... That picture of the basketweave is very impressive, and perhaps the defining image of the 401 in the GTA region. Didn't know it even had its own Wikipedia page. Now that is saying something.

Also I didnt know the 427 was the second busist highway in Canada, had always thought it was the autoroute in Montreal. And the volumes here are impressive. The size of these highways here is a direct result of the productive capacity of the Toronto centred Auto Industry, which relies on a "just in time" delivery system.

Your examples from the Thunder Bay area only point to how brutal Ontario provincial highway signage really is.

For starters, Winnipeg is in another province and Ontario signage is totally Ontario-centric. As a general rule, Ontario only posts destination cities (control cities in roadgeek talk) that are in Ontario. Unless it is impossible to do so. For example, the 401 control cities eastbound are Kingston and Cornwall, and you only get Montreal east of Cornwall once picking an Ontario destination would mean your control city is a cornfield. The 417 east from Ottawa has Montreal, but this is because the entire highway in its Ontario portion runs through farmers' fields pretty much.

And this is when there is a destination city on the signs. The photo I quoted has no destination city at all. It just says "416 TO 401". Of course, any tourist from Germany, China or Alabama intuitively knows that the 401 is "Ontario's main street" and runs to Toronto, right?

Plus, once you get to the Prescott junction between the 416 and 401, 100 km south of Ottawa, the signs don't point to Toronto or Montreal either. They point to Cornwall (eastbound) and Kingston (westbound). I guess MTO expects everyone in Wagga Wagga, NSW and Minsk, Belarus to know that Toronto lies west of Prescott!

It is equally bad in Toronto, where unless I missed it there is not one single directional sign pointing to Montreal in the entire GTA. Well, I think there may be a lone distance sign that has Montreal on it in the Port Hope or Cobourg area just as you emerge from the contiguous urban sprawl.

Anyway, signs on major highways are supposed to be for people who don't know the environs and need to find their way.