Depends where you start from/end. When I talked to people in Waterloo who did regularly drive back/forth to Western, none took 401. Some took 7 and took the short-cut through Punkydoodles Corners - both seem faster than going down to 401 - and that's before even starting to consider the congestion on 7, 85, and 7/8 in Kitchener and Waterloo.
http://www.google.ca/maps/dir/43.47...799b!2m2!1d-81.2737336!2d43.0095971!3e0?hl=en
That route doesn't really use Highway 7 at all to get to London, aside from a bit of the co-signed section with Highway 8, which would still remain a Provincial highway under my proposal. West of New Hamburg, it uses almost exclusively County roads, aside from the last bit using Highway 4.
So not really sure what point you're trying to make here, other than helping make my case that Highway 7 west of Stratford is redundant as a Provincial highway.
I've never known Highway 15 to enter Ottawa, it always terminated at Highway 7 in Carlton Place when I used to drive it; I've heard it was cosigned once upon a time, but that was with Highway 7, and it's not been downloaded.
Highway 15 used to connect all the way to Highway 17, until the travel patterns changed and 7 became busier (this was a long time ago, so I have no personal knowledge of this, only records). At first it was co-signed, as you mention, with 7 from Carleton Place to Ottawa (or more appropriately West Carleton, at the time), and then was cut back to Carleton Place. Most nortbound traffic on Highway 15 entering Carleton Place turns right and continues along 7 towards the 417 though. So while not still officially co-signed, it still very much functions as such.
As far as I know, the only piece of 15 to be downloaded is south of the 401 - which I guess would have happened in two stages, as they did build the Barriefield bypass - in the 1970s if I recall.
As such, I really don't know what you are referring to here.
What I was referring to was trying to draw a comparison between Highway 15 between Ottawa and Kingston (assuming the small stretch of Highway 7 into that route) and taking 416 + 401. There are similarities between this and Highway 7 vs 8+401 from Kitchener to London, but I was trying to highlight the fact that 15 passes through more towns along the way.
But as pointed out above, alternative routes aren't faster. And I'm sure you've driven Highway 7 from Kitchener to New Hamburg - it's very busy, why would you download it. And also from New Hamburg to Stratford - the province has been talking about 4-laning this for years it's so busy.
But that section is also signed as Highway 8. The branching only occurs in Stratford, so under my proposal that section would still be a provincial highway, and would become part of 477 when it was 4-laned. In my mind, Highway 8 still serves much more of an important intercity travel role. The section from Cambridge to Hamilton really has no 400-series bypass yet, and neither does the section from Stratford to Goderich (and won't for a very long time).
It's really only the section of Highway 7 from Stratford to Highway 4 that I'm talking about downloading here. West of 4, it already has been downloaded, and east of Stratford, it's concurrent with Highway 8, which would remain a Provincial highway.
If it's going to be that short, might as well just use existing numbers. If one must renumber, I'd think you'd number 6 from the 403 to 85 as one number, and the Conestoga from Wilmot to Woolwich township border as a second number - but seems totally unnecessary in my mind (other than simplifying the current mess).
Not really sure what you're referencing here, and where Highway 6 came into this. The section I'm talking about is from Kitchener westward.
