[Transportfan]

You're right that in urban areas most regional road numbers don't seem to serve much purpose. But they're more important in rural areas.

But what's odd is that small towns within predominantly rural counties don't have numbered roads in them. For example, when Highway 92 was downloaded to Simcoe County, the new county road terminated at the Wasaga Beach town limits rather that continuing through it to Hwy. 26 like the former highway did. I wonder why heavily-urbanized regions all have upper tier numbered roads in cities, while towns in counties don't?

Mississauga though, is unusual among cities in RM's in that many arterials are city-maintained.

 

[lenaitch]

But what's odd is that small towns within predominantly rural counties don't have numbered roads in them. For example, when Highway 92 was downloaded to Simcoe County, the new county road terminated at the Wasaga Beach town limits rather that continuing through it to Hwy. 26 like the former highway did. I wonder why heavily-urbanized regions all have upper tier numbered roads in cities, while towns in counties don't?

Mississauga though, is unusual among cities in RM's in that many arterials are city-maintained.

I think it is probably rather inconsistent, and when the province downloaded they probably didn't care which level of local government a road got downloaded to; that was probably left to internal negotiations within each municipality. I suspect that it may at least partially depend on ability of a lower tier municipality to maintain it to a certain standard, given its tax base, as well as the role to road plays in local traffic patterns. On the other hand of your example, County Rd. 93 continues all the way through Midland.

 

[BurlOak]

I think it is probably rather inconsistent, and when the province downloaded they probably didn't care which level of local government a road got downloaded to; that was probably left to internal negotiations within each municipality. I suspect that it may at least partially depend on ability of a lower tier municipality to maintain it to a certain standard, given its tax base, as well as the role to road plays in local traffic patterns. On the other hand of your example, County Rd. 93 continues all the way through Midland.

Somewhere near Northumerland or Prince Edward County, a bridge was downloaded along with some money to do a rehab. The county then turned around and downloaded it to the township - but kept the money to themselves.

 

[Johnny Au]

Given that Highway 407's eastern terminus will be at Highway 35/115 just north of Kirby, it would be interesting to develop that hamlet, given its proximity to the Ganaraska wind turbines.

It would be interesting to make Kirby and Orono become completely wind-powered, while serving commuters between Toronto and Peterborough.

 

[nfitz]

Somewhere near Northumerland or Prince Edward County, a bridge was downloaded along with some money to do a rehab. The county then turned around and downloaded it to the township - but kept the money to themselves.

Can't be Prince Edward County - unless this was decades ago. The PCs merged all the townships, town, and Prince Edward County into a single tier municipality in the 1990s.

Northumberland though still has three townships.

 

[ShonTron]

Hastings County (which borders Northumberland and Prince Edward) downloaded its county roads to the municipalities, including several former highways, like 2, 14, and 33. Sometimes you'll see a flowerpot-county road-style sign, like "2" (former Highway 2) but there's no "Hastings County" text on it.

 

[mrmadoc]

Does anybody know what happened to the Norwood bypass planned by the MTO on highway 7? Or the HWY 115 extension/Peterborough bypass to HWY 28 and CR 29? I remember hearing about these projects back around 2010 but can't find anything recent.

 

[Woodbridge_Heights]

My question is why counties/regional municipalities even have numbered roads?

In Peel Region, I don't think anyone knows the regional road #s as they are not easy to find and they're not on the street signs.

I've noticed in Waterloo regions they actually have the regional road numbers on the street signs, but do people there use the numbers?

Many communities wanted to keep the number in their road name as much as possible (see Peel regional road #107) to avoid disruption. You could get a proposal like Vaughan's Avenue 7 idea.

Also we have duplication in street names as well not just numbers (King, and Queen, John st exist in virtually every town.). Heck, Weston, now a part of the City of Toronto, has a King st as well as there being a King st through downtown Toronto.

I guess the trouble is that there exists the possibility for there to be a Ontario Highway #x, a Regional road #x, etc, etc. So what I would suggest is that Ontario Highways use #'s 1 to 199, Regional Rds use #'s 200 to 399, Freeways use #400 to 499, and secondary/tertiary Ontario highways use #'s 500 to 699.

 

[lenaitch]

Many communities wanted to keep the number in their road name as much as possible (see Peel regional road #107) to avoid disruption. You could get a proposal like Vaughan's Avenue 7 idea.

Also we have duplication in street names as well not just numbers (King, and Queen, John st exist in virtually every town.). Heck, Weston, now a part of the City of Toronto, has a King st as well as there being a King st through downtown Toronto.

I guess the trouble is that there exists the possibility for there to be a Ontario Highway #x, a Regional road #x, etc, etc. So what I would suggest is that Ontario Highways use #'s 1 to 199, Regional Rds use #'s 200 to 399, Freeways use #400 to 499, and secondary/tertiary Ontario highways use #'s 500 to 699.

It would be a level of cooperation and coordination not seen before in Ontario, and likely spawn an entire new department in the Ministry. It also doesn't take into account numbered concession roads and sideroads that are often repeated in every township. Besides, I thought everybody these days just looked/listened to their GPS, regardless of where it takes them.

GPS fail lands delivery driver in six feet of mud

A failed delivery attempt in Windham left one driver in a muddy mess on Saturday.

kitchener.ctvnews.ca

 

[crs1026]

Besides, I thought everybody these days just looked/listened to their GPS, regardless of where it takes them.

Bought a GPS when I was overseas last year. The voice's pronunciation of foreign road and towns by name was pretty hard to decypher or match with signage.

Then we took a ferry to a different country with an even more difficult language, and the GPS gave up altogether.... no town or street names, just gave the road number. Much easier.

- Paul

 

[gweed123]

Does anybody know what happened to the Norwood bypass planned by the MTO on highway 7? Or the HWY 115 extension/Peterborough bypass to HWY 28 and CR 29? I remember hearing about these projects back around 2010 but can't find anything recent.

Good question. Also waiting to see if the extension of the 400-series Highway 7 to Perth makes it into any kind of plan. That stretch is needed too.

 

[44 North]

Does anybody know what happened to the Norwood bypass planned by the MTO on highway 7? Or the HWY 115 extension/Peterborough bypass to HWY 28 and CR 29? I remember hearing about these projects back around 2010 but can't find anything recent.

Maybe they ran the numbers and deemed in not necessary, on account of lower cottage country traffic now and going forward. Just a guess on my part, but seems like fewer are opting to own rural properties. And with that less need for rural bypasses.

 

[MisterF]

Right now Google Maps tells me that that to get to Ottawa, I should take the 407 to the 115 and 7. If I tell it to avoid toll roads, the route is 401/37/7. Both routes are significantly shorter than the 401 and 416. I feel like any more widenings of Highway 7 will tip the scales and start routing nearly all traffic on that route, making it more congested. So any expansion is going to mean the whole route will have to be widened. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing as we could probably use some redundancy in the highway system between Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal.

First priority should be HFR though, which I'd like to see the province contribute to.

 

[innsertnamehere]

I imagine the next big highway project to happen in this part of the province will be upgrading Highway 35 south of Lindsay into a RIRO. Lindsay has become quite the fast growing community in the last few years and I imagine that AADT on 35 is starting to pick up significantly, especially now with the opening of the 407. I know I'll be driving on it more as a way up to cottage country to avoid the 400.

Even then, I imagine its still a decade+ out.