[nfitz]

Ontario's highway numbering has been disjointed since the municipal downloads of the Harris era. While it would be ideal to see a return to a logical, streamlined network, it's highly unlikely to be on Doug Ford's radar.

I'm not sure why numbering keeps coming up.

But what they could have/should have done when the 1990s downloading started was just do what they do in the UK. There the A and B roads (A40, B4112, etc.) simply have common signage, no matter which level of government maintains them.

I think the ship has sailed though - after 30 years and very few if any media reports of people failing to get from A to B. Bad GPS data seems to get more media coverage.

 

[lenaitch]

Ontario's highway numbering has been disjointed since the municipal downloads of the Harris era. While it would be ideal to see a return to a logical, streamlined network, it's highly unlikely to be on Doug Ford's radar.

I'm not sure I would call the numbering system "streamlined" before Harris, but he certain did cause a lot of disjointedness (?sp?). Carving out bits and pieces of highways was a mistake; although I'm sure they didn't care, so long as the upload vs download balance sheet - balanced.

 

[Westey]

you realize that the actual 420 in Niagara Falls has an 80 limit too, right?

The two 420's could join together.

 

[Steve X]

Ontario's highway numbering has been disjointed since the municipal downloads of the Harris era. While it would be ideal to see a return to a logical, streamlined network, it's highly unlikely to be on Doug Ford's radar.

The highway numbering was designed for the 1920s-1950s when people used rural highways and followed them when they read it off a provincial highway map. By the 60s-70s, 400 series highways have taken away most of the highway traffic. Most highways were downgraded as they held little significance. These days, GPS has taken over printed maps, making continuous highways across the province very pointless. Like what's the point of calling Highway 6 north and 6 south on the radio. 6 south from the 401 is actually 6 north from the 403. 6 north from the 401, 6 south from the 401/6 north from the 403 and 6 south from the 403 are THREE distinctive highways now. Might as well give them 3 different numbers instead.

 

[lenaitch]

The highway numbering was designed for the 1920s-1950s when people used rural highways and followed them when they read it off a provincial highway map. By the 60s-70s, 400 series highways have taken away most of the highway traffic. Most highways were downgraded as they held little significance. These days, GPS has taken over printed maps, making continuous highways across the province very pointless. Like what's the point of calling Highway 6 north and 6 south on the radio. 6 south from the 401 is actually 6 north from the 403. 6 north from the 401, 6 south from the 401/6 north from the 403 and 6 south from the 403 are THREE distinctive highways now. Might as well give them 3 different numbers instead.

While you make some good points, I will argue that the Harris government downloaded "most" of our provincial highway system. Roughly 5000km out of over 20000km isn't 'most'.

 

[Transportfan]

I think the same logic applies to the RHVP and LINC, where a lot of traffic travels through the transition between the two highways and the highways might as well be named as a single through route. Especially now, with it looking unlikely the LINC will ever be extended further east.

The RHV and LINC were actually originally intended to be collectively the Red Hill Creek Expressway.

 

[Northern Light]

Just got this: