Highways in Canada

[vegeta_skyline]

Originally Posted by GreaterMontréal

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/62/A-19.png/800px-A-19.png

Now that's a highway system done right, easily the best in Canada. Heck its right up there with most big US cities.

[FrAnKs]

Since we have crumbling infrastructure and giant potholes, Montréal is not a very good example at the look of it.
Also, Montréal's Expressway system is not completed. There is many missing links.

[ssiguy]

It's funny but in Canada the older cities have the best highway networks ie Montreal, Quebec, Halifax, Ottawa, Toronto, and Hamilton while the newer ones especially in Western Canada have the worse.

[Innsertnamehere]

montreal did go a little crazy with infrastructure in the 1970's, and Atlantic Canada get huge highway funding money from the Feds for a lot of their projects that the rest of the country has to fund by themselves. Ottawa, Toronto, and Hamilton get to tap into over 1/3rd of Canada's taxbase. Vancouver has a very specific anti highway policy as well, tending to expand its skytrain network instead.

as for the smooth pavement, highway 7 (the 4 lane road depicted in sonysnob's photos) was only widened last year, so it will obviously look perfect. Provincially maintained roads in Ontario are generally smooth (with a couple of exceptions such as the 427 north of the 401) but the municipally maintained roads are pretty bad in my experience.

[FrAnKs]

Originally Posted by ssiguy

It's funny but in Canada the older cities have the best highway networks ie Montreal, Quebec, Halifax, Ottawa, Toronto, and Hamilton while the newer ones especially in Western Canada have the worse.

Maybe, but something I like about cities of Western canada is their ring-road such as Edmonton and Calgary.

Vancouver seems not so bad aswell ! I noticed some recent improvements like South fraser perimeter road aswell as golden ears way.

[FrAnKs]

The Expressways system of Québec as of 2013.

Shown on the map :

-A20 extension Between Rivière-du-loup and Rimouki (Super-2)
-Route 185 transformation into A85 between Rivière-du-loup and NB border
-A73 extension north of Québec city
-A73 extension South of Québec city to St-Georges
-A410 extension as the Sherbrooke's southern ring
-A35 extension Between St-Jean-sur-Richlieu to the US border.
-A19 from Laval to the North shore of Montréal
-A5 north of Gatineau to Wakefield.

Though, there is many other projects missing.

[dmuzika]

Originally Posted by FrAnKs

The Expressways system of Québec as of 2013.

Shown on the map :

-A20 extension Between Rivière-du-loup and Rimouki (Super-2)
-Route 185 transformation into A85 between Rivière-du-loup and NB border
-A73 extension north of Québec city
-A73 extension South of Québec city to St-Georges
-A410 extension as the Sherbrooke's southern ring
-A35 extension Between St-Jean-sur-Richlieu to the US border.
-A19 from Laval to the North shore of Montréal
-A5 north of Gatineau to Wakefield.

Though, there is many other projects missing.

Does that include an extension of A720? I saw this on its Wikipedia page:

Future plans from the provincial transport ministry (Le ministère des Transports du Québec, or MTQ) are to extend this tunnel to Autoroute 25 at its Souligny Avenue interchange. The right-of-way has existed since the original layout of the 720, and buildings along the extension were demolished at that time, even though the 720 was not completed due to cost constraints. The government of Montreal would instead convert the portion of Notre Dame east of the Jacques Cartier bridge into a six-lane urban boulevard, instead of a sunken limited access expressway. It is currently an undivided four-lane city street. The final project has been approved, and work began on Souligny Avenue to double the span of the travel lanes. In late July 2009, there was an Autoroute 720 westbound shield that has been installed on this stretch. It was originally envisioned that Autoroute 20 would extend from the Turcot Interchange, along the route of the 720, to the Lafontaine Tunnel.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quebec_Autoroute_720

Does anyone know anything more about that?

[ScreamingViking]

Thanks for the pictures of the 407E construction work - I used to live out in that area... may just have to take a drive out there soon to see it.

[ScreamingViking]

Originally Posted by ssiguy

It's funny but in Canada the older cities have the best highway networks ie Montreal, Quebec, Halifax, Ottawa, Toronto, and Hamilton while the newer ones especially in Western Canada have the worse.

Parts of Hamilton's network - the Lincoln Alexander Parkway and Red Hill Valley Parkway - were proposed in the 1950s-60s and didn't get realized until 1997 (the Linc) and 2007 (the Red Hill). It was a huge debate locally, and could have easily swayed the other way... the city would still have the QEW and 403 but in "network" terms it wouldn't have been comparable.

[1overcosc]

Montreal clearly has the most extensive urban freeway network in Canada. I wonder what the negative effects on the city's growth are though.

Yes Montreal has its high density urban core and extensive subway system serving it but its outward sprawl is bad even by North American standards.

In every other city in Canada there's a trend towards increasing density of new suburban development. New subdivisions on the urban fringe tend to be conservative of land use, with smaller lots and more compact housing--heck Ottawa's new suburban subdivisions are mostly townhouses & duplexes. There's also a trend towards intensification-created high density suburban 'downtowns'--like Mississauga City Centre or Metrotown in Vancouver for example. Montreal doesn't really have any of that. I have zero statistics to prove this, but I suspect that if you take the population density of each CMA excluding its pre-war area, Montreal is the lowest.

I wonder if this massive freeway network is contributing to the failure to densify suburbs. I know in Toronto the shortcomings of the road network is certainly a strong market factor driving up its suburban density.

[GreaterMontréal]

Originally Posted by FrAnKs

Since we have crumbling infrastructure and giant potholes, Montréal is not a very good example at the look of it.
Also, Montréal's Expressway system is not completed. There is many missing links.

No, the highways in Montréal are not crumbling, the City streets have potholes, but the highway system is in good shape. Yes, Turco is in bad shape. And for the suburbs not enough dense, small independant cities are now part of the cma, they grow like small cities, aka no real density.

[sonysnob]

Originally Posted by vegeta_skyline

Now that's a highway system done right, easily the best in Canada. Heck its right up there with most big US cities.

While the existing Montreal Autoroute network is already fairly dense, several additional roads were contemplated in the area.

The web design is painfully archaic, but this website has some good information on the autoroutes and bridges of Montreal and area:
http://www.montrealroads.com/

[middeljohn]

Montreal has a very American style of freeways; concrete pavement, short on ramps, narrower lanes. Freeways much closer proximities to each other as well.

[FrAnKs]

I think it's true. I always found the layout of Ontario expressways to looks like a bit more European.

[sonysnob]

Originally Posted by FrAnKs

I think it's true. I always found the layout of Ontario expressways to looks like a bit more European.

European eh?

I have always thought of Ontario's Expressways as being somewhat typical of Midwestern US cities. The layout and design of freeways in Ontario aren't all that different from what either Detroit or Chicago have, in my opinion.

I've always thought that Montreal's freeways are similar to some of the congested and beat up roads in the New York or Philly Metros.

[FrAnKs]

Darn,

Well it's just me.

I think it's some of the blue signs on the 401 in Toronto that remind me of some Euro roads.

[middeljohn]

Ontarios freeways have a much better design and build quality than anything I've seen in the midwest. Particularly the longer on ramps and wider shoulders. Also, the tar surface makes the white stripes more visible.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by middeljohn

Montreal has a very American style of freeways; concrete pavement, short on ramps, narrower lanes. Freeways much closer proximities to each other as well.

To me narrow lanes, and tight and short exit and entry ramps, remind me more of European highways than American ones.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by vegeta_skyline

Now that's a highway system done right, easily the best in Canada. Heck its right up there with most big US cities.

It's an impressive network but it's proven fairly challenging to maintain given Quebec's population and tax base and the fact the federal government does not have a dedicated highway program that helps out the provinces with highways (except for the occasional case by case project).

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by FrAnKs

This map exaggerates how much of A-85 is complete. It's more like a third that is complete there.