In your extensive travels have you noticed (what seemed to me, on trip from Australia last year) the “variable” (!!) design quality of freeway intersections in Canada? A lot of it is very good - sweeping interchanges, no sharp bends, plenty of overlapping “run up” time to increase speed whilst still on the on-ramp and merge with the freeway you’re joining. But not always !!… follow the sign to turn onto the freeway, find the link road is a dusty potholed after-thought, a sudden sharp bend, and you’re dumped right onto the freeway with no run-up time (the on-ramp disappears near immediately, you’re thrown straight into freeway speed traffic) …better slam your foot down or get a truck up your rear… A quick googlemaps reminded me of the precise “what the…” locations, for some excitement on your next trip - Calgary, WB on highway 16 (think it’s aka TransCanada) turning NB onto Crowsfoot Trail connector (woke me up in a hurry heading the airport for an early flight!) - Vancouver, SB on Capilano Rd (presumably a common tourist route, when leaving the suspension bridge area) turning WB onto TransCanada in West Vancouver (sharp gravelly bend slows you right down, then suddenly realise you’ve got 20m max of on-ramp to get to 100kmh and swerve left into near certain mayhem! …) - Victoria, WB on TransCanada , take the back way into Langford by coming off at Macallum and.. ….holy hell, got 50m at most (less if traffic queuing at the lights on the off ramp, obscured by a bend ) to slam on the brakes before blow the lights and barrel into the Shell on the other side!! Struck me that maybe the Province or Feds (does Ottawa pay for TransCanada?) built the freeway but the links onto / off them (to the local roads) are a matter for the City…and no one asked the City nicely? Other than that, some great roads - the whole Revelstoke to Banff route through the BC / AB mountains is a testament to Canadian determination!
The lack of consistency in the highway network in Canada is definitely tied to the fact that the highways are maintained by the individual provinces (without a consistent design guide across the country - eg. signage varies a lot more per province than it does in the USA) and quality can differ dramatically per jurisdiction. Highway 1 in Vancouver is a great example as between Horseshoe Bay and the Port Mann Bridge, the highway switches designs (and safety standards) between the 1960s - 2020s abruptly at multiple points. Having been to 9 of the 10 provinces, I've definitely seen the very stark differences in highway infrastructure and maintenance, but there are many impressive areas as well
There is nothing like the American MUCTD in Canada, every province is responsible for highway design standards or lack thereof. And there isn't ongoing federal funding for highways either, though the feds often cost-share on large projects it's still on a piecemeal basis. And a lot of provinces would rather spend capital dollars on new highways rather than upgrading older ones. Ontario has it's own design standards for 400 series highways and actually has spent a lot of money upgrading the design standards on them to the point where only a handful of sections on the system that are truly substandard in a dangerous way (the elevated 417 in Ottawa and highway 69/401 cloverleaf in Belleville are examples). But none of this has any bearing in other provinces or even roads not maintained by the province. You can immediately see the difference when you drive on a municipal expressway like the DVP in Toronto or the Lincoln Alexander in Hamilton.
@ most of our Canadian travels (driving around Van Isle, Lower BC mainland, Bow Valley into Calgary…we also went to Montreal but didn’t get a car there) were fine - it was clear Canadians expect fast open roads (speed limits once out of town, optional?) and mostly get it. Just a few spots that caught our attention… in a hurry! And notable how, in the cities, drivers were overwhelmingly courteous - no horns, no barging in (ok, I’ve not been to Toronto..!) My daughter (lives in small town AB) had to explain the 4-stop junctions thing - no signed priority, just stop, wait your turn. I’d seen the same thing before, in Botswana…. another country which highly values being honourable and polite. Maybe only works in such countries?! Doubt it’d work here in Australia…where he who has the biggest Landcruiser wins!
Love the vids come to poland habibi🔥🔥🔥😍😍😍🇮🇩🇮🇩🇮🇩🇸🇲🇸🇲🐐👀👴🏻
Not bad at all for January 1st!!
3:38 tell me you're in Alberta without telling me you're in Alberta 😂
Come back to Regina please
In your extensive travels have you noticed (what seemed to me, on trip from Australia last year) the “variable” (!!) design quality of freeway intersections in Canada?
A lot of it is very good - sweeping interchanges, no sharp bends, plenty of overlapping “run up” time to increase speed whilst still on the on-ramp and merge with the freeway you’re joining. But not always !!… follow the sign to turn onto the freeway, find the link road is a dusty potholed after-thought, a sudden sharp bend, and you’re dumped right onto the freeway with no run-up time (the on-ramp disappears near immediately, you’re thrown straight into freeway speed traffic) …better slam your foot down or get a truck up your rear…
A quick googlemaps reminded me of the precise “what the…” locations, for some excitement on your next trip
- Calgary, WB on highway 16 (think it’s aka TransCanada) turning NB onto Crowsfoot Trail connector (woke me up in a hurry heading the airport for an early flight!)
- Vancouver, SB on Capilano Rd (presumably a common tourist route, when leaving the suspension bridge area) turning WB onto TransCanada in West Vancouver (sharp gravelly bend slows you right down, then suddenly realise you’ve got 20m max of on-ramp to get to 100kmh and swerve left into near certain mayhem! …)
- Victoria, WB on TransCanada , take the back way into Langford by coming off at Macallum and.. ….holy hell, got 50m at most (less if traffic queuing at the lights on the off ramp, obscured by a bend ) to slam on the brakes before blow the lights and barrel into the Shell on the other side!!
Struck me that maybe the Province or Feds (does Ottawa pay for TransCanada?) built the freeway but the links onto / off them (to the local roads) are a matter for the City…and no one asked the City nicely?
Other than that, some great roads - the whole Revelstoke to Banff route through the BC / AB mountains is a testament to Canadian determination!
The lack of consistency in the highway network in Canada is definitely tied to the fact that the highways are maintained by the individual provinces (without a consistent design guide across the country - eg. signage varies a lot more per province than it does in the USA) and quality can differ dramatically per jurisdiction. Highway 1 in Vancouver is a great example as between Horseshoe Bay and the Port Mann Bridge, the highway switches designs (and safety standards) between the 1960s - 2020s abruptly at multiple points. Having been to 9 of the 10 provinces, I've definitely seen the very stark differences in highway infrastructure and maintenance, but there are many impressive areas as well
There is nothing like the American MUCTD in Canada, every province is responsible for highway design standards or lack thereof. And there isn't ongoing federal funding for highways either, though the feds often cost-share on large projects it's still on a piecemeal basis. And a lot of provinces would rather spend capital dollars on new highways rather than upgrading older ones.
Ontario has it's own design standards for 400 series highways and actually has spent a lot of money upgrading the design standards on them to the point where only a handful of sections on the system that are truly substandard in a dangerous way (the elevated 417 in Ottawa and highway 69/401 cloverleaf in Belleville are examples). But none of this has any bearing in other provinces or even roads not maintained by the province. You can immediately see the difference when you drive on a municipal expressway like the DVP in Toronto or the Lincoln Alexander in Hamilton.
@ most of our Canadian travels (driving around Van Isle, Lower BC mainland, Bow Valley into Calgary…we also went to Montreal but didn’t get a car there) were fine - it was clear Canadians expect fast open roads (speed limits once out of town, optional?) and mostly get it. Just a few spots that caught our attention… in a hurry!
And notable how, in the cities, drivers were overwhelmingly courteous - no horns, no barging in (ok, I’ve not been to Toronto..!)
My daughter (lives in small town AB) had to explain the 4-stop junctions thing - no signed priority, just stop, wait your turn. I’d seen the same thing before, in Botswana…. another country which highly values being honourable and polite. Maybe only works in such countries?! Doubt it’d work here in Australia…where he who has the biggest Landcruiser wins!