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LOL. And here I always just thought it was beautiful and an exciting challenge. If you think it's dangerous driving it in BC then I guess I would be bored stiff driving all of the rest of it east of the Rockies.
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Nope, I'm one of those rare persons who is NEVER bored. My wife says, "He's the only person interested in watchig rain Falling". LOL. On a more serious note, I have seen too many fatal crashes on the Trans Canada and more of them between Calgary and Van than anywhere else.
Nope, I'm one of those rare persons who is NEVER bored. My wife says, "He's the only person interested in watchig rain Falling". LOL. On a more serious note, I have seen too many fatal crashes on the Trans Canada and more of them between Calgary and Van than anywhere else.
I was just pulling your leg. But you're right, there have been a lot of fatal crashes between Calgary and Vancouver. Also, for anyone driving the Trans Canada in BC for the very first time I would recommend against driving at night on the stretch through the Fraser Canyon from Cache Creek to Hope. It is beautiful (and challenging) in the day time but driving it in the dark you have to drive cautiously and be super alert, it can have seasoned canyon drivers tensed up and gritting their teeth even when there's no rain or snow. It's especially important to watch for rock fall on that stretch of road.
I read on Wikipedia that there's no national highway system in Canada like the U.S. has, that highway construction is the responsibility of the individual provinces. Do some provinces have better highways than others? Does it take longer to build roads in Canada because of the weather? How would you compare Canadian highways to American highways?
I read on Wikipedia that there's no national highway system in Canada like the U.S. has, that highway construction is the responsibility of the individual provinces. Do some provinces have better highways than others? Does it take longer to build roads in Canada because of the weather? How would you compare Canadian highways to American highways?
Canada is one of the only countries in the world where the highest level of government (federal in our case) does not have a concerted national highway program.
Highways are a provincial responsibility here, although the feds do contribute financing to highway projects. This is done on a case-by-case basis by cutting individual deals with the provinces for projects rather than as part of a larger cross-Canada plan as I said.
The quality of Canadian roads is quite variable. Generally they seem to be better in the west than in the east, but once again this varies also.
Quebec used to have some of the worst roads but has gone on a refurbishment binge (partly in response to a fatal overpass collapse) in the past few years and things have improved quite a bit here. Especially on the major highways.
Ontario used to have excellent highways but then they ran into money problems and they had only so much cash to go around. So they downloaded a lot of their highways to local governments, and kept only the MAJOR-MAJOR ones under provincial authority. The end result was that the main highways in Ontario that are maintained by the province are in excellent shape, but the locally-maintained ones are often less-than-stellar.
The main difference with the U.S. I find is that Canada has a lot of gaps in the network. Especially when travelling across the country. In the States, there seems to be a larger plan that results in a highway being built over the entire required distance once and for all. In Canada, you can have 500 km of freeway, then two lanes for 100 km, then 200 km of freeway, then a super-2 for 50 km, then more freeway, etc.
The Trans Canada Highway seems to work very well here for me. Then again, I have nothing to compare it to because I've never seen the highways in the U.S. But it is quite functional and it's never really overcrowded.
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But it is quite functional and it's never really overcrowded.
