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Today I went to Vancouver and the highway 99 has 2-3 lanes and traffic lights. I was driving 1 hour (only 20 miles distance) to reach Vancouver. When I passed the US border I needed only 1 hour and 30 minutes on I-5 for 90 miles distance to get to Seattle. I don't know why Vancouver and Canada don't have good highways. How about Toronto and Montreal?
Last edited by Botev1912; 01-18-2008 at 02:43 AM..
Seven lanes in each direction and there are plenty of times when it doesn't move too fast.
Maybe it's not the size of the highway, but rather the amount of traffic?
Highway 99 from Richmond (and from even further north) to the border has 2-3 lanes the entire way and is usually a lot less congested than a lot of the I-5 as you get closer to Seattle. (That is, unless you hit the "counter flow" at the Massey tunnel during rush hour).
If you hit the tunnel during the time of the counter flow, well, there's not too much you can do about it, since there is construction currently going on on the other route, the 91. *shrug* Such happens in bigger cities from time to time.
#1. You can't judge an entire country's highway system based on one city.
#2. Google Maps is your friend.
#3. Vancouver's highway system is a unique situation, explained from my response on that Canada vs. USA post:
"It sounds like you only lived in Vancouver, which is fair enough, but your portrayal is accurate for Vancouver, but doesn't represent what you'd expect across Canada as a whole.
The highway infrastructure in Vancouver, or lack thereof, for example, is a product of a city-wide vote in the 1970's in which the locals voted *against* having a freeway because it would mean the destruction of neighborhoods. To this day, freeways within city limits are seen as a bad thing among Vancouver city planners, and this trend is actually catching on in other cities across North America because they see how vibrant the city remains when freeways aren't dissecting it up. Vancouver has also implemented a plan to densify as opposed to sprawl out, and freeways are catalysts for urban sprawl. As they say, "build them, and they will come". It's a totally different mentality to think of freeways as a bad thing, but that's the way it is in Vancouver.
Toronto or Montreal, on the other hand, is freeway heaven."
Most of Toronto's freeways were built in the outer, suburban portions of the city, there were proposals to construct several inner-city freeways, but they too were opposed and defeated by local citizens who didn't want to see entire neighbourhoods destroyed. The only freeway that runs through downtown Toronto is the Gardiner Expressway which runs along the city's lakefront, it connects to the Don Valley Parkway east of the downtown core.
On Vancouver - The city is going to run into problems due to the lack of a freeway network. They do have one or two freeway-like roads, but they do not connect the proper areas. People talk about how dense Vancouver is, but what they dont tell you is that this is mostly medium density. There are far more high-rises in places like Toronto then there are in Vancouver because the transportation network has no where to put all of these people. Vancouver is doing some serious work on their Transit network, that will help for sure, but without an improvement to their roads and highway network, the city is due to run into some problems. I think they are banking on Transit become more "sexy" and more people using it in the future; If they are right about this, then they will need far more then the current "Heavy LRT" network that exists, or the "Light Subway" that they are building.
On Toronto - Anyone who thinks that Toronto has a good freeway network is kidding themselves. Sure we have the 401 (pictured above) but it runs across the city, and not anywhere near the downtown. With the exception of the three highways that head south from the 401 (only 1 of them actually reaches downtown) people tend to head east or west on the 401, then down a crowded arterial to their destination. Toronto is missing one or two highways and this causes problems. Both the Allen and Black Creek just 'end' all of a sudden at Eglinton, which causes massive traffic backups south of here as people try to get into the downtown. The DVP and Gardiner (which might be De Jure separate highways, but are De Facto a single route) get far too crowded during rush hour. What's frightening, is that the DVP is filling more and more with morning traffic headed northbound as businesses leave the city for the suburbs where not only is the tax burden lower, but the transportation network far more efficient.
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It's a totally different mentality to think of freeways as a bad thing, but that's the way it is in Vancouver.
