Highways in Canada

[FrAnKs]

Originally Posted by Laceoflight

What!?!! WE WANT MORE.

ahahah ! Tu va devoir attendre, j'en fais une aux 2 semaines pour avoir un meilleur ''contrôle'' de qualité
D'ailleurs je t'invite, si ce n'est déjà fait à faire un tour de ma liste de vidéos!
J'ai déjà fait une vidéo de l'embarquement vers les îles et il y aura aussi une 2ème partie pour la route 199 dans les prochains mois !

[FrAnKs]

Originally Posted by BretttheRiderFan

Awesome videos and channel Frank! There is a western counterpart to you that I discovered on YouTube a while back. I'll be checking out your catalogue now.

Thank you very much ! Have fun
My goal is to go further in the coming years.

[FrAnKs]

Originally Posted by ghYHZ

Wow....thanks for posting! Brings back lots of memories. The Magdalen Islands are an easy drive for me. Bbeen there several time: 45 min to the NS-PEI Ferry. A 75 min crossing then a hour to Souris PEI. The 5 hr Magdalen Ferry is a mini-cruise!

http://www.traversierctma.ca/en/

And the beaches!! White sand and the lagoons in mid to late August......bathtub warm!

What a wonderful place eh ? It was exotic even for myself... and it is my own province ! wasn't an easy drive for me... it's a 10hrs drive from Quebec city, plus the Ferry trip. We did it in 2 days because we stayed overnight in Dieppe. But the Ferry cruise was very enjoyable. 5hrs is not too much when you are with someone else ! The time for walking, talking, eating, and you're almost there !

[FrAnKs]

Originally Posted by SignalHillHiker

Gorgeous video, Franks. Reminds me of Miquelon - is there any proper, dense town there like St-Pierre?

I had no idea it used to be administered with us. Also very cool to see a place where anglophones were assimilated lol.

Roads look to be in very good condition for a place that freezes and thaws so much.

Thank you ! It sure has some similarities with St-Pierre et Miquelon... as it is practically in the same area except SPM looks much more rocky such as Newfoundland. And no, there is no proper dense town in the Magdalen Islands. But surprisingly, it is generally quite dense, in the sense of there is houses everywhere, all the time, but with lots of space between them !
Yeah it was administrated with Newfoundland for a certain period of time and they joined us at the Quebec Act.
And sorry for the Anglophones, my goal wasn't to point out the assimilation, but rather talking about their long contribution to the Islands but today these anglophones would be hard to find lol
For such an isolated place, the road is in good condition, thats true !
And you would be surprised, this place is where they get the smallest amount of snow aswell as the fewest freezes in the entire province of Quebec. The Maritime weather Regulates the climate all year long.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by FrAnKs

For such an isolated place, the road is in good condition, thats true !
And you would be surprised, this place is where they get the smallest amount of snow aswell as the fewest freezes in the entire province of Quebec. The Maritime weather Regulates the climate all year long.

Also very little heavy (truck) through traffic helps a lot!

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by FrAnKs

Thank you ! It sure has some similarities with St-Pierre et Miquelon... as it is practically in the same area except SPM looks much more rocky such as Newfoundland. And no, there is no proper dense town in the Magdalen Islands. .

Yeah, Cap-aux-Meules is not even close to being a dense town like St-Pierre.

Cap-aux-Meules is actually IMO less dense than many comparably-sized Quebec towns that are on the mainland.

[SignalHillHiker]

I wish all of our towns of 5,000-6,000 people had the same urban form as St-Pierre. It reminds me of aerials of St. John's from the 1940s - town, then farms. No suburbia.



We just get stuff like this...

• Video Link

Sounds like it's comparable to Fogo and Change Islands, Franks - especially Change Islands, which doesn't really have an anchor town but just has houses strung along it.

I love small islands like that, when you can really feel it's an island.

[Acajack]

When I think about it, development patterns on the Iles de la Madeleine are more "Atlantic Canadian" than they are mainland Quebec. Which kind of makes sense...

[FrAnKs]

Originally Posted by Acajack

When I think about it, development patterns on the Iles de la Madeleine are more "Atlantic Canadian" than they are mainland Quebec. Which kind of makes sense...

Absolutely true. There is nothing more Atlantic than the Magdalen Islands!
At the same time, it's weird to say that it is ''officially'' situated in Central Canada being part of Quebec

[SignalHillHiker]

There's something... I don't know if it's necessarily Quebec, but there's something foreign about it. I don't think you'd be able to trick me into interpreting a picture from the Magdalen Islands as being from here.

[FrAnKs]

Originally Posted by SignalHillHiker

There's something... I don't know if it's necessarily Quebec, but there's something foreign about it. I don't think you'd be able to trick me into interpreting a picture from the Magdalen Islands as being from here.

Because it's FRENCH, and FRENCH is classy













• Video Link

[SignalHillHiker]

Hahaha. Love it!

[FrAnKs]

Originally Posted by SignalHillHiker

Hahaha. Love it!

That wasn't you who shared me that a little while ago ?

[dmuzika]

Southwestern BC was getting hammered this past week. Vancouver was cut off from the rest of BC (and Canada) with all four highways (1, 3, 5, and 99) being closed on Thursday due to either freezing rain or avalanche hazard (http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-co...-lower-mainland-to-rest-of-b-c-1.3975497) and hundreds of people were stranded overnight on the Coquihalla. Last night people were also stranded on a closed Coquihalla, http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/coquihalla-bc-storm-feb-2017-1.3977973.

[flipper316]

Originally Posted by Marshal

Agreed. Remember the lights at Hwy1 & Lonsdale, and even worse, at the 91-91A intersection. When I first moved here from the east, I split my gut laughing at that one . . . freeways destroyed by traffic lights, and we are still doing it. SFPR is a decent road but a big disappointment in its half done form.

NO kidding 99, 91 and SFPR AND GEW should've been built 6 lanes and full freeway standards right from the get go. You can throw in Mary Hill Bypass and 91A as well.

[flipper316]

Originally Posted by urbancanadian

As far at Metro Vancouver is concerned, I would say that there is a bit of an outdated misconception that the freeway system is bad. The freeway system is small, sure. But that's by design as the region has prioritized creating a region of shorter commutes, as well as some unique geography and the political leanings of the populace.

Essentially there are three main freeways in the region:

Highway 1: Was just rebuilt nearly from end to end. It's now a very modern roadway by any standard. The eastern-most section (east of 208th Street) is gradually being expanded and modernized towards Abbotsford. The western-most section on the north shore is probably now the biggest issue. The section north of the Ironworkers Memorial Bridge is going to be completely rebuilt starting soon. West of there could be better but it's tricky because it's built on the side of a mountain which means it's going to be enormously expensive to expand, let alone any expropriation costs.

Highway 91: This is arguably our first freeway built to modern standards. It's generally only two lanes each way but allows for more. The biggest issue is the stoplight at 72nd Avenue which has been the result of a dispute between the Province and Delta on the design of an interchange. This has now been resolved and an interchange is planned.

Highway 99: This is now by far the worst freeway in the region design-wise. It has a 50s-era design with a hodgepodge of outside bus lanes, counter-flow lanes, a scary tunnel, and other fun stuff. The section from the Oak Street Bridge to Highway 91 (south) is being completely rebuilt to very modern standards, much like was done with Highway 1. The southern section will probably be widened as phase 2, but it still functions quite well and would only need to see a couple overpasses rebuilt for the widening.

There are a couple freeway stubs (Knight Street, Highway 91a, Golden Ears Way) which are all perfectly fine. The last two are pretty much brand new.

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Highway 17 (SFPR) is a rare, newly built highway which was originally supposed to be a freeway, but was downgraded to save on costs. This road is hit or miss, as most roads seem to be in their first iteration in Vancouver. Less than half the interchanges were built, but will be built as needed (some already are).

***The thing is, no government is going to risk building an expensive new 6-lane freeway through farmland in Metro Vancouver. There are too many political issues that this runs. First, spending that kind of money on road infrastructure would cause many to wonder if it's too much and not enough on transit (a BIG issue right now). Second, the public might be skeptical of an "unproven" new route, preferring money to be spent upgrading existing bottlenecks. Third, the loss of agricultural land is a very important topic to many voters. Removing too much of it at once might turn the public against the government.

All of these issues (among others) combine to create the reality that is building new roads in Metro Vancouver. It needs to be done incrementally or you might not get a chance to build another one.

Couple of corrections. Don't think Highway 1 east of 208th is getting any upgrades. Yes, evenutally there's going to be a new interchange at 216th with the HOV lanes extended from 208th to 216th. As far as anything east to Chilliwack with the way the BC government drags their heels on road infrastructure I doubt we'll see anything done in our lifetimes.
Highway 99 south of 91, again I doubt we'll see anything done in our lifetimes. Stuck with an outdated 4 lane "freeway" Shame too because the money the're spending on the bridge and 99 upgrades wasn't that the same cost for the Port Mann and Highway 1 upgrade from the Cassiar to 208th?

And last correction, I wouldn't call GEW a freeway stub since it has traffic lights on it.

[flipper316]

Originally Posted by swimmer_spe

If Toronto had 3 times as much RT as it has now, then Singapore would be a good comparison. The subway is about 70km in Toronto, whereas it is almost 200km in Singapore.

Just a heads up Highway 99 is only getting HOV lanes added from pretty much Oak Street Bridge to Highway 91. Pretty much the entire stretch from Oak Street Bridge to south Surrey/White Rock will still only have 4 general purpose lanes.

[Metro-One]

Some new model pics of the highway 99 upgrade:

Originally Posted by makr3trkr

New project renders
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tranbc/

[Metro-One]

Originally Posted by flipper316

Just a heads up Highway 99 is only getting HOV lanes added from pretty much Oak Street Bridge to Highway 91. Pretty much the entire stretch from Oak Street Bridge to south Surrey/White Rock will still only have 4 general purpose lanes.

It is obvious that you don't know how to read schematics.

Between the south end of Oak Street Bridge and the southern end of the project at the 91 T interchange the only portions that will have only 4 general purpose lanes plus 2 HOV will be a 500 meter stretch in the middle of the Richmond 91/99 interchange (which makes sense given the add/drops with the ramps) and a 1km stretch on the extreme southern end of the project. Everywhere else the project ranges from 6 to 10 general purpose through lanes plus 2 HOV/Bus lanes.

So, including the HOV/Bus lanes, from north to south, the general through lane counts are as follows:

Oak Street Bridge south to the Richmond 91 interchange: 8 lanes.
Middle of 91 Interchange: 6 lanes
91 Interchange south to Steveston Interchange: 10 to 12 lanes.
Middle of Steveston Interchange: 8 lanes
The bridge itself to the 17A Interchange: 10 lanes
17A Interchange to SFPR Interchange: 12 lanes
Middle of SFPR Interchange: 8 lanes
SFPR to BCR overpass: 8 lanes
Final km from BCR overpass to 91 Interchange: 6 lanes.

End of project.

From there it will remain 4 lanes plus a bus shoulder to White Rock. I have never experienced a traffic jam or delay on this section of highway so expansion is not really required for now. With that said I do wish that this project did extend the proper HOV/Bus lane to King George Interchange with a Bus ramp.

It is fine to have gripes with highway projects in BC, but when you fabricate lies or completely exaggerate a situation it only weakens your point.

You may also have been looking at old diagrams, the section between Oak Street Bridge and the Richmond 91 Interchange has had a new updated design posted a couple months back.

[GreaterMontréal]

Couillard s'engage à élargir certains tronçons de l’autoroute 50

Mais samedi, il s'est engagé à élargir la 50 à quatre voies par phases. Les secteurs les plus dangereux seront priorisés, si bien que les citoyens de l'Outaouais devront s'armer de patience avant de voir une autoroute à quatre voies sur toute sa longueur.

http://ici.radio-canada.ca/nouvelle/1017...t-elargir-certains-troncons-autoroute-50

very good news