Highways in Canada

[haljackey]

Ontario's "Freeman" Interchange in Burlington, recreated and expanded in SimCity 4.




Video tour:
• Video Link

[JHikka]

Originally Posted by Acajack

Does this new highway through Maine even have a realistic chance of getting built?

Also, as for Quebec doing its part, it's a bit late but I think they would answer they are doing so by finishing the A-85 between RDL and NB.

Also 2, many Canadians still don't have a passport and would not likely get one just to drive to and from the Maritimes. I forgot about mine and it just recently expired so if I was going there today I'd be driving through Canada regardless of the existence of the Maine route.

The highway through Maine is plausible given that it's a private project being pushed by some major companies (one can only assume Irving is pushing in NB to have it completed). It's up to the Legislature in Maine to give them the green light.

Many Canadians do make the drive to and from the Maritimes and I imagine that the prospect of saving hours off of one-way trips would be incentive enough to get a passport, considering the price of one to be similar to the amount of gas one would be saving one-way.

First and foremost this highway is designed for and with industry in mind. The tourist and public traffic is just an additional bonus as far as they're concerned.

[go_leafs_go02]

Re the 407/403/QEW SimCity interchange.

You cannot get to/from QEW Toronto from highway 407.

[eemy]

Nor can you get onto the 407 from QEW/403 coming from Toronto.

[haljackey]

Originally Posted by go_leafs_go02

Re the 407/403/QEW SimCity interchange.

You cannot get to/from QEW Toronto from highway 407.

Originally Posted by jeremy_haak

Nor can you get onto the 407 from QEW/403 coming from Toronto.

Yup, I fixed that in my design, wanted to make it full access

Originally Posted by haljackey

Ontario's "Freeman" Interchange in Burlington, recreated and expanded in SimCity 4.

[eemy]

Much better!

What software do you use to do that in SimCity? I'm pretty sure I have SimCity 4 floating around somewhere.

[RammerDino]

Which has more importance? The amount of highways a city has, (e.g. London) or the amount of congestion a highway has in a city? (e.g. Calgary)

[haljackey]

Originally Posted by jeremy_haak

Much better!

What software do you use to do that in SimCity? I'm pretty sure I have SimCity 4 floating around somewhere.

Downloads like the Network Addon Mod (NAM) and the Real Highway (RHW) plugin allowed me to make this creation. You can find more info about them here: http://community.simtropolis.com/topic/25419-faqs-and-download-links-for-nam-rhw-and-nwm/

[SignalHillHiker]

Originally Posted by RammerDino

Which has more importance? The amount of highways a city has, (e.g. London) or the amount of congestion a highway has in a city? (e.g. Calgary)

I struggle with the word importance in this context.

I think it's definitely worse to have insufficient, congested highways. Assuming your examples are true, I'd imagine London would be famous for its highways, while Calgary would be infamous for its highways.

[shreddog]

Originally Posted by SignalHillHiker

I'd imagine London would be famous for its highways, while Calgary would be infamous for its highways.

???? If you're talking about London Ont, how would it be famous for its highways?? And as for Calgary, how is it infamous for its highways??

It has very few true freeways (2 and 201) and total freeway "mileage" in the CMA is less than Ottawa. As for traffic, while certainly there, no where near the worse in Canada IMHO.

[JHikka]

NB Government announced that they're still willing to twin Highway 11 between Shediac and Bouctouche as well as between Glenwood and Miramichi. Although this doesn't mean a whole lot in the scope of the Canada forum it's relatively important for those that live in the area, as it is something that the local MLA has been campaigning on for over a decade.

[sonysnob]

New pic of Hwy 404 construction north of Toronto

[eemy]

Originally Posted by shreddog

???? If you're talking about London Ont, how would it be famous for its highways?? And as for Calgary, how is it infamous for its highways??

It has very few true freeways (2 and 201) and total freeway "mileage" in the CMA is less than Ottawa. As for traffic, while certainly there, no where near the worse in Canada IMHO.

I think SignalHillHiker was just trying to make sense of what RammerDino said. I'm still not entirely clear what they meant to be honest.

With regard to Ottawa and Calgary, once again, a whole lot of nuance is lost in statistics. How much of Ottawa's expressways are urban versus rural? Do you count the parkway system in Ottawa as expressways since they are often functionally similar? What about the high-capacity arterials in Calgary that are also functionally similar to an expressway? Ottawa and Calgary are both cities with multiple shades of grey between a regular arterial road and a full-fledged expressway which makes comparisons rather difficult. The difference in scope of the individual municipal boundaries only complicates matters.

[shreddog]

Originally Posted by jeremy_haak

I think SignalHillHiker was just trying to make sense of what RammerDino said. I'm still not entirely clear what they meant to be honest.

With regard to Ottawa and Calgary, once again, a whole lot of nuance is lost in statistics. How much of Ottawa's expressways are urban versus rural? Do you count the parkway system in Ottawa as expressways since they are often functionally similar? What about the high-capacity arterials in Calgary that are also functionally similar to an expressway? Ottawa and Calgary are both cities with multiple shades of grey between a regular arterial road and a full-fledged expressway which makes comparisons rather difficult. The difference in scope of the individual municipal boundaries only complicates matters.

All valid points. When looking exclusively at "400" style freeways: Ottawa has roughly 200 kms within its CMA - 416, 417, 17, 5, 50 - and true, much of it is in the rural aspects of the CMA - both the 416 and the 50 spent most of their CMA time in rural aspects and Calgary has roughly 100 kms - 2 and 201 with most of the 201 in rural areas.

And as you indicated, going to the next level of roadways - Glenmore/Crowchild, River Parkway, Hunt Club, St Raymond - it gets very grey.

Now all that said, Calgary has an undeserved reputation for being freeway crazy, when the truth is that it's most comparable twin in Canada has a more developed high speed road network.

[Tone]

Originally Posted by GregHickman

NB Government announced that they're still willing to twin Highway 11 between Shediac and Bouctouche as well as between Glenwood and Miramichi. Although this doesn't mean a whole lot in the scope of the Canada forum it's relatively important for those that live in the area, as it is something that the local MLA has been campaigning on for over a decade.

Well, its nice to hear for those like me who like to go to Halifax in the summer. That would reduce the RVing around!

[MTLskyline]

Originally Posted by GregHickman

NB Government announced that they're still willing to twin Highway 11 between Shediac and Bouctouche as well as between Glenwood and Miramichi. Although this doesn't mean a whole lot in the scope of the Canada forum it's relatively important for those that live in the area, as it is something that the local MLA has been campaigning on for over a decade.

That's good news. Before the Fredericton-Moncton highway was twinned, I used to take the treacherous route from Plaster Rock to Renous to Miramichi and then down on Route 11 to Moncton. That was as tedious as hell.

Weird that they don't twin the part in between Bouctouche and Glenwood though.

[ssiguy]

London is horrific city to try to get around. For a city of just 380,000 it's traffic is absolutely legendary. It's bad enough London has no freeways but very few roads actually traverse the whole city. This combined with the Thames that meanders thru the city and having railroad tracks all over the damn place means you constantly having to cross a bridge. London has no city roads that are 6 lanes and the lights are very poorly coordinated.

London is a stellar example of how not to plan a road system. The only good thing about it is that London escaped the carnage of the 1950s/60s/70s urban freeway boom and so all it's downtown neighbourhoods and parklands are intact unlike many other cities suchas Kitchener.

[sa230e]

Originally Posted by sonysnob

New pic of Hwy 404 construction north of Toronto

Interesting aesthetics on those bridges. Aside from the stamped concrete stone texture, it looks like they're shaped a lot like the original arched bridges from the 50s that were ubiquitous on the 400 series highways.

[eemy]

Did any neighbourhoods get destroyed by the Conestoga Pkwy or Hwy 8? Our downtowns are certainly all intact.

[JHikka]

Originally Posted by MTLskyline

Weird that they don't twin the part in between Bouctouche and Glenwood though.

Two reasons:
1)There's not enough traffic to warrant it. The report said there was only 6,000 vehicles/day (i'm not 100% sure on these numbers, someone can correct me) whereas the general requirement for twinning is 10,000. I'm personally ok with them stopping in Bouctouche as that's where a lot of the southern traffic goes to, or at least most only drive to Shediac/Cocagne/Bouctouche. Richibucto is really stuck in the middle on this one.

2)There's not enough money to build it . The PCs have said that if there's a day where there's enough money they would consider twinning the entire highway from Shediac-Miramichi. However, the government does own all of the land required for twinning the length of Route 11. They've said they'll add passing lanes between Bouctouche-Glenwood for now rather than full twinning.

Also, you used to drive Route 108? You must have had a deathwish.