Highways in Canada

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by Andy6

We should do highway numbering schemes in each province.

Manitoba saves 100-series numbers for freeway-ish roads, of which there really aren't any, although 100, 101 and 110 are used for the Winnipeg and Brandon bypasses and supposedly the new semi-freeway in the northwest part of the city will be 190.

At one point after World War II, Manitoba renumbered some of the main north-south routes to match the U.S. Federal Routes of which they were continuations (59, 75, 83 and formerly 29, which was a very short continuation of I-29). This was probably for business and tourism reasons, as creating north-south trade routes has always been a preoccupation in Manitoba. Most of the original low-numbered "Provincial Trunk Highways" (or "P.T.H.") -- 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8 and 9 -- radiated in sort of a clockwise order out of Winnipeg. Provincial Roads are secondary highways that are numbered from 200 upward, with different initial digits predominating in various regions (e.g. 3xx in the north). The numbers of some lesser two-digit highways, and a few of the three-digit ones, appear to be combinations of the numbers of the major highways that they connect, or originally connected (e.g. 13 = 1 and 3 and 68 = 6 and 8).

Good idea. Ontario's system I have never been able to figure out except for the fact that some of the 400-series numbers are just the numbers for old two lane highways with a 4 added to the front.

Quebec's autoroutes are sometimes related to the nearby two-lane highway, sometimes the same number or sometimes rounded to the nearest multiple of 10:

A-5: Route 105

A-50: Route 148

A-40: Route 148

A-73: Route 173

A-85: Route 185


Also, Quebec main highways (two-lane non-autoroute) are numbered in the 100s. They follow the same logic as the autoroutes: generally ascending numbers from west to east and south the north.

Route 101 (westernmost N-S) is along the Ontario border in Abitibi-Témiscamingue.

Route 199 (easternmost N-S) is the Îles-de-la-Madeleine (Magdalen Islands) in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

Secondary highways are numbered in the 300s, again following the logic described above.