Highways in Canada

[sonysnob]

Originally Posted by ssiguy

Have to say I hate all those damn medien barriers they have on all the Ontario freeways now.....they are so damn high that sometimes I felt like I was driving in a 200km tunnel.

Totally agree with your sentiment. Concrete barriers are safe, but hopelessly boring to look at. Give me box beam and bridges with steel railings any day.

[eemy]

They're also handy for blocking some of the lights of the oncoming traffic. Headlights can be quite an irritation on Hwy 11 between Barrie and Orillia which only has the bollards and railings.

The tall wall is actually designed to redirect vehicles that collide at oblique angles to the barrier. I'm guessing the combination of the almost head-on nature of that collision, plus the fact that it was a transport truck, lead to the barrier failing.

[Symz]

Originally Posted by Duke-Of-Waterloo

Sometimes the tall walls are no match for transport trucks...

On Highway 401 near Guelph Line in Milton last winter.

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This looks straight out of a transformers movie or something. That is pretty damned scary..

[MolsonExport]

^exactly. That video scares the shit out of me, given that I am on that highway all the time with my family.

[Wharn]

Originally Posted by Duke-Of-Waterloo

Sometimes the tall walls are no match for transport trucks...

On Highway 401 near Guelph Line in Milton last winter.

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Holy Christ, that guy has some good evasive driving skills. The car in front of him was particularly lucky, it could have easily been smashed. Just unbelievable how quickly these things happen, I have a feeling most drivers I know would not have been able to avoid that. Today I also had a near head-on experience on Clarke Road in London, some idiot in a pickup was way over the dividing line on a dogleg. Literally had maybe a second to react, only doing 70 km/h and not 110-120. People forget how dangerous driving actually is.

Apparently this was picked up by CNN and the BBC, the latter of which declared it was commonplace in Canada (or Canader, as they call it) to have dash cams for insurance purposes. Never seen anyone with one, but sounds like a decent idea.

[MountainView]

Originally Posted by Symz

Every time I look over at the Ontario tall walls I see dead raccoons, possums and whatever else tries to cross the road only to find that there's no way to cross for..., well, there's no way to cross. I understand they are much safer for us drivers, but I think they failed in terms of the wildlife.

What you need is this then!!

Wildlife Bridge on the TransCanada just outside of Calgary (photo by me - Feb 2010)

[Airboy]

http://www.arc-competition.com/partners.php

Wild life design Competion

[J-MAN]

I'm not sure if this has already been posted but I'll post it anyway.

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[vid]

That bit with the windshield wipers is trippy, dude. But anyway, now I know what it's like to be in Saskatoon.

[MountainView]

From " le calmar's " album of Ottawa:

HWY 417 looking East from the Maitland Rd overpass:

[JHikka]

Highway 1 approaching Uptown Saint John from the east. I took this photo about four years ago, and should probably go up and take another soon..

[J-MAN]

Some highway near Winnipeg (I'm guessing it's the Perimeter highway).


Source:http://lechampiondumonde.com/

[go_leafs_go02]

Originally Posted by J-MAN

Some highway near Winnipeg (I'm guessing it's the Perimeter highway).


Source:http://lechampiondumonde.com/

I have a picture somewhere of that same interchange from the same vantage point - just in summer, as I descended to land at Winnipeg's airport.

[Andrewjm3D]

Originally Posted by J-MAN

I'm not sure if this has already been posted but I'll post it anyway.

If only it really was a 5 minute drive. Anybody who's driven cross country knows the stretch from from Winnipeg almost all the way to Calgary is pretty flat and featureless. Most people I know that make the trip now drop down through Detroit then back up through Sunburst or Billings.

[go_leafs_go02]

If you're in Southern Ontario, to get to any place in Manitoba or points further west, it's usually quicker to drop down below Chicago and drive through the states.

[leftimage]

Winnipeg Sask video reminds me of one I did last February: Montreal-Toronto in 4 minutes! A few notes:

-There was an accident on the 401 (you see us passing it midway) that created toxic traffic lengthening the trip by at least 1h45.

- It was in February so the sun set pretty early and the Eastern Ontario, Quebec portions are in the dark.

- After traffic I was going about 130km, only because many others were going even faster!

- watch in 1080 if you like

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Second video shows the ville-marie tunnel... probably one of the longest tunnels in Canada? Running through downtown montreal, also available in 1080

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[eternallyme]

Originally Posted by Blitz

The concrete medians are life savers. So many accidents happen on Hwy 401 when a car crosses a grassy median and causes mayhem on the opposite side of the highway.

The only part of the highway from Windsor to Oshawa that doesn't have concrete medians is the stretch between Tilbury and London. Even though traffic volumes in that stretch are relatively low, the accident rate is higher.



It'll be a shock the first time you drive in Michigan (or most of the U.S. for that matter). The ramps in Metro Detroit basically dump you right onto the interstate and you better be ready for it!

That section from Tilbury to London probably doesn't need barriers until it is widened to 6 lanes (and other sections should be higher priorities IMO, particularly from Kingston to Cobourg where traffic volumes are higher - about 40,000 versus 25,000 cars daily). The median there appears to be about 15 metres wide, which although substandard to modern highways, is probably acceptable given the traffic counts. (Before upgrades, Windsor to Tilbury had a median less than a lane wide, which was incredibly dangerous!)

[sonysnob]

That Ville-Marie video is great. It must have been shot really late at night for traffic to have been that light.

720 is definitely one of Canada's best urban drives.

[Symz]

Originally Posted by eternallyme

That section from Tilbury to London probably doesn't need barriers until it is widened to 6 lanes (and other sections should be higher priorities IMO, particularly from Kingston to Cobourg where traffic volumes are higher - about 40,000 versus 25,000 cars daily). The median there appears to be about 15 metres wide, which although substandard to modern highways, is probably acceptable given the traffic counts. (Before upgrades, Windsor to Tilbury had a median less than a lane wide, which was incredibly dangerous!)

You're right, that section won't see barriers until it is widened to 6 lanes. I'm guessing it is a portion of the 401 that sees less traffic and that's why it hasn't been done.

It always amazes me though when I drive up to Algonquin or anywhere north of Toronto to camp and I endure the crazy traffic starting around where the 403 starts at the 401. Either highway, 401 or 403 is nuts with tonnes of cars and everyone's doing 140-150. It amazes me on my way home because I make it down here past Tilbury and it's 6 lanes with a median dividing and there's TONNES of road space and hardly any cars as compared to what I was just driving through for 3-4 hours. It almost seems like a waste to have that much road for the amount of traffic.

[sonysnob]

Originally Posted by Symz

You're right, that section won't see barriers until it is widened to 6 lanes. I'm guessing it is a portion of the 401 that sees less traffic and that's why it hasn't been done.

It always amazes me though when I drive up to Algonquin or anywhere north of Toronto to camp and I endure the crazy traffic starting around where the 403 starts at the 401. Either highway, 401 or 403 is nuts with tonnes of cars and everyone's doing 140-150. It amazes me on my way home because I make it down here past Tilbury and it's 6 lanes with a median dividing and there's TONNES of road space and hardly any cars as compared to what I was just driving through for 3-4 hours. It almost seems like a waste to have that much road for the amount of traffic.

You're right... Windsor to Tilbury really is a luxury at six lanes. Really, they probably could have gotten away with just slapping a tall wall between the old existing lanes of the highway instead. But... (and I say this after having driven to Windsor from Toronto yesterday, and back to Toronto today), that the six lane stretch really breaks up the otherwise monotonous drive between Windsor and London.

Lets hope before 2020 they actually eight or ten lane the 401 between Milton and the 407.